Greg Sankey explains why SEC is not in favor of at-large only College Football Playoff field

High-level SEC administrators and coaches have once again descended on Destin, Fla., for the league’s annual SEC Spring Meetings, where the topic du jour this week is unquestionably the conference’s agreed-upon stance on the future of the expanded College Football Playoff.

The CFP committee has already announced it will move to a straight-seeding model as opposed to awarding conference champions with first-round byes beginning with this upcoming season. Now the next step is determining how the Playoff will look in 2026 and beyond.

There are several new format proposals that have emerged in recent months, including the controversial 16-team “4-4-2-2-1” proposal that would give the Big Ten and SEC four automatic bids apiece, while the ACC and Big 12 are awarded two bids apiece with either Notre Dame or the highest-ranked Group of Six program also earning a bid with three at-large bids. The Big Ten already backed the “4-4-2-2-1” proposal at their recent Spring meetings, while the SEC could be primed to do the same this week. Unsurprisingly, the ACC and Big 12 are understandably against such a slanted option.

Another potential 16-team proposal would grant automatic bids to the five highest-ranked conference champions (Power Four winners plus highest-ranked Group of Six) with 11 at-large bids. But while that might also tend to favor the Big Ten and SEC, it would also squash the proposed end-of-season play-in games that both leagues are leaning into.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey explained the league’s opposition to the heavy at-large proposal, citing the interest that conference play-in games could create with more SEC teams potentially in the mix.

“In our own room, I’ve had athletic directors tell me directly that we’ve given too much away to arrive at these political compromises. That we moved teams from outside the 12 in, and we’ve spoken about that before. How many of those compromises does it take?” Sankey said Monday evening from the Sandestin Hilton. “… I think the word ‘hope’ is at the center too. How do you bring people into the conversation late in the season that’s changing environments. So the idea of could you have play-in type games continues to populate itself before you’re in the CFP selection. That’s about building interest and giving hope. Whether that’s the ultimate destination, we’ll see. But, to your question, … why do people think about it, even if it costs us something? You could have more teams perhaps involved late in the season through that model.”

Greg Sankey fires back at Big 12, ACC while addressing College Football Playoff future

Reports that the ACC and Big 12 Conference have “significantly less say in what’s going to end up happening,” in College Football Playoff meetings made headlines earlier this month. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has since responded to the two conference’s joint effort to have more of a say at the table.

“I don’t need lectures from others about the good of the game … or coordinating press releases about the good of the game,” Sankey said. “You can issue your press statement, but I’m actually looking for ideas to move us forward.”

This is the fallout from a 16-team College Football Playoff proposal that would award the SEC and Big Ten double the amount of automatic qualifiers compared to the Big 12 and ACC. Representatives from both the Big 12 Conference and ACC have been vocally opposed to the idea of this, with NC State football coach Dave Doeran saying that the ACC deserves three AQs minimum.

— On3’s Barkley Truax contributed to this report.