Greg Sankey took the podium Monday morning in Atlanta to open SEC football media days and shared his views of an immensely complicated, deeply interconnected landscape.
Every word resonated.
What happens in the SEC — what is said, what is proposed and opposed, what is approved and rejected — most definitely does not stay in the SEC. It impacts the entirety of the Football Bowl Subdivision food chain, from Ohio State to Kennesaw State.
And sure enough, Sankey offered a plethora of relevant comments during his opening remarks and the subsequent question-and-answer session with assembled reporters.
Sankey reiterated his support for expanding the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments, explaining that “nothing else in college basketball is static, so tournament expansion is worth exploring.”
He addressed the latest piece of Congressional legislation designed to assist college sports — the SCORE Act, which has bipartisan support in the House and includes antitrust protection — and he advised patience with the new revenue-sharing model and crackdown on fake NIL.
He noted that all SEC football teams play at least nine games against Power Four opponents and suggested no team in the Big Ten, ACC or Big 12 would be “looking to swap” its schedule for an SEC lineup.
But Sankey’s most telling comment was reserved for the future of the College Football Playoff.
Actually, Sankey offered four comments of significance:
1. Control over the CFP format (starting in the 2026 season) has been discussed frequently in recent months, often with little clarity. Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark suggested last week that governance is shared by the Big 12, ACC, Big Ten and SEC.
But Sankey referenced a memorandum of understanding signed by all FBS conferences in 2024 that “very clearly grants” decision-making power to the SEC and Big Ten.
“Ultimately,” he added, “we have to use that authority with great wisdom … It’s not like you just show up and pound your fist and something happens.”
2. Sankey repeated his preference for the so-called 5+11 format, proposed by the Big 12 and ACC, that would provide automatic bids to the five highest-ranked conference champions and create 11 berths for at-large selections.
The Big Ten favors a somewhat radical 4-4-2-2-1 model with 13 automatic bids and three at-large teams. Four automatic spots would be reserved for the SEC and Big Ten, two for the ACC and Big 12 and one for the top-ranked champion from the other conferences. (Notre Dame would have a special pathway to claim one of the three at-large berths.)
Sankey acknowledged that the SEC has a “different view” of the optimal format from the Big Ten but said he spoke with Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti four times last week.
3. Sankey indicated the SEC will “continue to evaluate” its schedule model for 2026 and beyond — specifically, whether it will stick with eight conference games or move to the nine-game format used by the Big Ten and Big 12.
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It’s a vital piece to the playoff puzzle.
The Big Ten believes there’s an inherent advantage to playing fewer conference games and won’t agree to the 5+11 format, which is heavy on at-large selections, unless the SEC moves to a nine-game schedule.
(The at-large model would confer enormous influence to a selection committee that has lost the trust of many key stakeholders.)
4. Sankey also alluded to Yormark’s recent comments at Big 12 media days that he was “doubling down” on his support for the 5+11 model, which he believes is best for college football.
“Doubling down was one of the phrases used last week,” Sankey noted. “That’s part of the gambling experience, as I understand it. You want a good hand to play. We have the best hand.”
How confident is Sankey in the SEC’s “hand”? He would be perfectly content with a CFP format in which every bid was of the at-large variety.
“I’ve always been a fan of, ‘There are no (automatics)’” he said. “I could take the top 14, the top 16.”
Such a drastic shift would require ripping up the memorandum of understanding signed by the FBS conferences last year and is therefore extremely unlikely.
But the comment illustrates the stark differences in approach to the CFP issue between the two men, Sankey and Petitti, ultimately responsible for finding a palatable resolution.
And if they can’t meet in the middle?
“We have a 12-team playoff with five conference champions,” Sankey noted of the current postseason structure. “That can stay if we can’t agree.”
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