Greg Sankey believes Texas is one of seven SEC teams worthy of a College Football Playoff spot

Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey spoke Thursday ahead of the SEC Championship Game scheduled for Saturday between Georgia and Alabama. One of the questions he fielded was about the Texas Longhorns’ standing in the race for a spot in the College Football Playoff.

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Q. Along those lines, from a Texas perspective, you probably have heard a lot of dialogue coming from Austin this week when they’ve talked about their strength of schedule, head-to-head wins they have playing in a conference as tough as the SEC, but still being on the outside looking in. I want to get your thoughts on Texas relating to the committee. They seem to be confused as to how things are being ranked. Maybe even to another degree Vanderbilt, as well.

“As we start providing our information to the committee, obviously you begin with the thought that we have 16 teams that are eligible for selection. That narrows over time.

“When we began in the month of November, one of my observations is plenty of commentary about our schedule. There’s a lot of times, even with this nine-game idea, it becomes half empty. You’re going to have more losses certainly. There is a path for teams with multiple losses to the Playoff. We’ve continually reemphasized that.

“I view that there are seven of our teams at the conclusion of 12-game season over 14 weeks that merit inclusion in the Playoff. We entrust the committee to make those decisions. We make those presentations directly. I think we do a really effective job at sharing the ‘why’ that those seven as it is right now merit inclusion.

“We even go into the top 25. Just off the top of my head, Missouri and Tennessee, because I think it was more recent in my review, Tennessee lost to four ranked teams. You can make an argument that they’re just outside of that group. That’s the kind of rigor that’s present in our schedule.

“That’s what we reinforce over and over across the spectrum of our eligible teams with the understanding that we have entrusted a Selection Committee to make the decisions about the participants.

“This league is unique in its rigor, its expectations, its competitiveness, that scoring margin across the board applies. I think that has to be considered with a different lens perhaps than some others.”

The seven teams Sankey is referencing? No. 3 Georgia, No. 6 Ole Miss, No. 7 Texas A&M, No. 8 Oklahoma, No. 9 Alabama, No. 13 Texas, and No. 14 Vanderbilt.

Sankey wants what’s best for the league and what’s best for the league is as many CFP participants as possible. To advocate for over half the field to be from one league is Sankey doing his job.

Along those lines, Sankey was asked if he is satisfied with the way the CFP Selection Committee chooses and ranks teams.

“I respect that they’ve been assigned that. You used the word ‘satisfied’. When you’re me, you’re never satisfied, right? You’re always trying to figure out I think there should be more. I’ve had different views of outcomes over the years. This is an incredibly strong conference, an incredibly deep conference. We as a staff I think are thorough and effective at providing information through the agreed-upon channels. We respect that we have charged the Selection Committee with making those decisions. We’ll see what happens on Sunday.”

Sankey did say something prescient about the strength of schedule and strength or record metrics the CFP claimed would be included during deliberations this year. He quipped, “I think it’s important for us to understand how those are used to dig in more to the evaluation. I also think more about the metrics that are used, and are those weighted properly. Those are things that can only be learned when decisions are made.”

Texas hasn’t liked the decisions seen so far when the committee, currently chaired by a SEC athletic director in Arkansas’ Hunter Yurachek, has put out rankings that would have Texas out of the CFP.

Sankey, as well as his SEC stakeholders, are in a mode to where they want as many SEC teams in the field as possible. At least Thursday, Sankey saw Texas as one of seven teams that merit inclusion.