Greg Sankey gets testy with reporter comparing College Football Playoff auto bids to NCAA Tournament

The future of the College Football Playoff has rapidly become a point of contention among leaders and fans alike in college football. Those tensions seemed to boil over briefly in a recent press conference for SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey.

One format that’s being looked into would include automatic bids to the Playoff. That’s something a reporter asked Sankey about, leading to a testy exchange on Monday.

Under the format being discussed with automatic qualifiers, the SEC and Big Ten would automatically get four teams in each season. That’s something the reporter compared to the NCAA Tournament. In the reporter’s example, had AQs been set up in the NCAA Tournament a decade ago, the ACC would have the most, though they haven’t deserved that recently. So, why should there be a long-term commitment to certain conferences getting a certain number? Greg Sankey quickly shot back, saying, “Is that an editorial or a question?”

Expansion of the College Football Playoff has been widely debated. That includes both if it’s necessary and, if it is necessary, how to expand. So, the reporter pushed back at Sankey, emphasizing that there are concerns about the idea of automatic qualifiers.

“That’s been asked by critics, reporters, everybody out there,” the reporter said. “Lots at stake right now.”

Under the format that’s widely been discussed, 16 teams would make the Playoff. The SEC and Big Ten would get four AQs each. The Big 12 and ACC would get two. After that, the Group of Six would have one AQ. After that, the remaining spots would be at-large bids, which could potentially go to any conference and Notre Dame.

“Well, I don’t know what you’re asking…Wait. Stop,” Sankey pushed back. “What’s the question?”

At this point, the reporter clarified the question. That would be whether setting out on a format with a certain number of AQs going to certain conferences is fair when there could be a shift in what conferences are best.

“Your question assumes like one variable when I just walked through there are other variables [to which the reporter pushed back]. Well, I let you ask your question,” Sankey snapped. “So, you can decide if you want me to answer the question or not. So, there’s one variable you asked about, right? Which is if you do this. I began by saying we’re not committed at this point to something. We’re interested.”

Greg Sankey calls out critics of SEC, Big Ten’s automatic qualifier proposal

There are certainly plenty of critics of the idea of automatic qualifiers in the College Football Playoff. Greg Sankey has heard them, but he feels confident in his position regardless.

“There’s critics all over the place. So if you actually go back and do the research, that kind of format could cost us positions depending on the number of teams. I don’t see the critics actually digging in to understand that reality. I don’t see the critics actually analyzing like I’ve just described, how schedules are evaluated so the critics can run to the microphones and share their opinions. We’re trying to find a format to determine whatever number it is. It’s the best teams in college football,” Sankey said.

“And I think where we are right now is we have used a political process inside a room to come to decisions about football. We should be using football information to come to football decisions [and] have to be unanimous. We provide a model, and then we sit on our hands for a year and a half, two years, as opposed to looking at the depth of issues I’m describing about the game and the concerns about the regular season, scheduling being impacted by what we have right now.”