Greg Sankey admits College Football Playoff selection process is impacting SEC schedule length

The SEC Spring Meetings are underway in Florida and the conference has quickly made it clear that they’re looking for change in the College Football Playoff moving forward. That includes both the size and format of the Playoff as well as how teams are selected. SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey even shared that the selection process could impact the length of their conference schedule.

Since the SEC added Texas and Oklahoma, expanding to 16 teams, there’s been debate about how long the conference schedule should be, eight or nine games. However, it’s now become clear that the CFP selection process itself is informing the debate for several member schools.

“I think the CFP selection process has become a much bigger deal,” Greg Sankey said. “And, again, if you go back… I said CFP selection. We’re gonna go through this 16-team, eight-game, first time. We have schools that think about bowl games, primarily, in that, but the question is about the selection process, not criticism of the committee. But criteria and process are meaningful.”

One thing that has clearly come out is frustration with the CFP Selection Committee, particularly following a season when many within the SEC have made it clear they feel Alabama should have been allowed in as an at-large. Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer shared his frustration over being left out while Greg Sankey shared he thinks it calls for deeper analysis.

“You’ve seen some say we should go back to the old way of the BCS,” Sankey said. “But is there some kind of in between of human and machine that can — we’ve got analytics.”

In essence, if the selection committee isn’t valuing Strength of Schedule to the same degree the SEC believes that they should, then adding a ninth conference game isn’t beneficial. Another difficult game then would become another chance for a loss.

“You can’t just run down a College Football Playoff selection idea without thinking about, ‘Well if we play eight or nine games, what are the impacts?’” Sankey said. “So that’s the depth of analysis. We also look at, and we’ll go through this tomorrow, whether people want to agree with it or not, that’s up to them, we can go through the analytics and who the rigor of our schedule is different than anyone else’s, period.”

The challenge is making sure that the regular season doesn’t lose value as the postseason becomes larger. That includes retaining traditional rivalries, making sure SEC teams consistently play one another, while also scheduling intriguing non-conference games. However, to the point Sankey was looking to make, that it can be disincentivized by the selection process.

“One of the things we learned is, you’re not gonna divorce your regular-season schedule from College Football Playoff selection,” Sankey said. “In fact, I think there’s more of a feeling that regular-season scheduling is governed by College Football Playoff selection.”

It’s unclear if the SEC is going to expand to a nine-game conference schedule or not. Regardless, Sankey also recently shared that they’re going to have a way to protect two rivalries per team. That won’t cover every big game, but it does help with one of the major concerns that fans have with an eight-game schedule.