Greg Sankey calls out other conferences for sudden call to action on College Football Playoff expansion
If SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has learned anything from the College Football Playoff expansion discussions, it’s that implementing change takes time.
After being in the works for the past year, it was finally reported Friday that the Board of Managers unanimously voted to expand the Playoff from four teams to 12. The change is not officially set to take place until the 2026 season, though reports have indicated it could happen as soon as 2024.
But Sankey doesn’t see it happening that quickly.
“History is a bit of a guide,” the SEC commissioner said Monday on the Paul Finebaum Show. “We couldn’t make a decision for a year on the exact same format that was approved Friday. So as you walk through issues, we’ll see. I’m not surprised we didn’t act last September or November.
“I did expect the ability for us to work through and collaborate to solve problems. That didn’t take place. So any of my caution and care in overpredicting change is I thought we’d have a direction then. We didn’t. We have more of a direction now, but some of those same lingering issues will be in front of us.”
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Greg Sankey pointed to conference realignment as a potential reason for the recent motivation to come to a decision on Playoff expansion. When it was announced last offseason that Oklahoma and Texas would join the SEC by 2025, many college football leaders cited that as the reason for pause.
Sankey believes that UCLA and USC joining the Big Ten this offseason has allowed other conference leaders to come to grips with the current landscape and is at least partially responsible for the change in tune.
“Now, you can see the motivations and interests have changed,” he said. “Last year after our announced additions of Oklahoma and Texas, one can expect that there was a little bit of a reaction to that that slowed things. Now that others are directly impacted or involved not named the Southeastern Conference, perhaps that’s one of the reasons that things sped up. That might create some motivations for earlier adjustments.”
More on College Football Playoff expansion
According to ESPN’s Heather Dinich, the model will feature the six highest-ranked conference champions followed by the six highest-ranked teams after them. With this foundational decision made, the next thing on the board’s docket is a meeting next week in Dallas.
The committee, consisting of the 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick, will discuss a handful of topics. That list includes revenue distribution in the expanded playoff, the Rose Bowl, and automatic qualifiers.
“This could be – could be – a historic decision that changes college football’s postseason as soon as 2024,” Dinich said. “Sources indicate that not even people in the room know which way this is going to play out. There are several possibilities that have been mentioned. One is that they agree on a 12-team (playoff) that begins in the 2026 season.
“Remember, this contract goes through 2025. If it happens before 2026, these presidents and chancellors must be unanimous on the format. If it’s not unanimous, they could change it more easily for 2026. Then there’s a sense that they can work backwards and say can we do this for 2024? 2025? There are several options that are on the table. They might not even vote. The question is can they agree on the format, and if so, when?”
On3’s Sam Gillenwater contributed to this report.