Greg Sankey on the SEC's role in College Football Playoff expansion: 'We have the best hand to play'

Naturally, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey faced numerous questions about College Football Playoff expansion on Monday at the 2025 SEC Kickoff. Sankey made it clear that he’s confident in the SEC’s position in expansion discussions.

“Doubling down was one of phrases used (by Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark),” Sankey said, per On3’s Brett McMurphy. “That’s part of the gambling experience. You want to have a good hand to play. We (the SEC) have the best hand to play. We’ll continue to debate whether expansion above 12 is appropriate.”

With the most revenue, and typically the best teams, the SEC and Big Ten are the two most powerful conferences in college football. During this ever-changing era of college football, they’ve often teamed up to ensure the sport trends in the direction they want.

It appears that Sankey will be taking a similar approach to CFP expansion. The SEC commissioner further emphasized that there is no guarantee the CFP will expand if he doesn’t find it beneficial to the conference.

“We have a 12-team Playoff with five conference champions that can stay if we can’t agree,” Sankey said. “Ultimately if there isn’t, there’s a level of authority granted to the Big Ten and SEC together. It’s not like you just show up and pound your fist and something happens — I hope that type of narrative can be reduced.

“… I think there’s this notion that there has to be some magic moment, and something has to happen with expansion and it has to be forced. You’re given authority. You want to be responsible using that authority.”

Sankey was also a longtime proponent of keeping the CFP at just four teams. While he believes that the 12-team CFP was a success this past season, he also noted that it can still be improved.

In May, Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger reported that the SEC and Big Ten were pushing for a 16-team CFP format. However, the two conferences reportedly wanted the 16-team format to follow a “4-4-2-2-1” model.

In this scenario, the SEC and Big Ten would each receive four automatic bids, the ACC and Big 12 would each receive two and the highest-ranked Group of Six team would receive one. The three other teams in the format would be at-large selections.

At the time, Dellenger reported that the ACC and Big 12 fought back against the proposal and lobbied for a “4-4-3-3-1” playoff model. Perhaps Greg Sankey’s message on Monday was a warning to other commissioners, reminding them that there could be no change at all.