TAMPA, Fla. — SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has heard all the talk of college football moving to a 24-team playoff, but he’s not ready for action.
“We’re not necessarily interested in finding the easiest path,” Sankey said during SEC media days Monday. “We are focused on finding the right path for college football.”
The Big Ten, ACC and Big 12 have said more teams is the right way to go, but the SEC vote remains at 16 while Sankey studies how a 24-team field might look.
As the discussion has evolved, two major issues have emerged:
One: Deciding the value of the added playoff inventory relative to maintaining value/ratings in regular-season and conference championship games
Two: Developing a playoff schedule that would optimize game placement and length of season
“Some of those important questions that remain for us is how do we preserve and build the value of the regular season?” Sankey said, explaining why he’s not yet on board with the 24-team concept.
“That is a judgment-based answer that we continue to consider and research.”
The SEC and Big Ten hold control over the CFP format thanks to a memorandum of understanding signed by all 10 FBS conference commissioners and Notre Dame in March 2024.
If an agreement cannot be reached by Dec. 1, the CFP field will remain at 12 teams.
SEC coaches were vocal in their desire to expand the CFP field from 16 to 24 at the league’s spring meetings in Miramar Beach, Florida, earlier this offseason.
“What does Mike Elko want? 40. Then I won’t get fired,” the Texas A&M coach said, speaking tongue in cheek and in third person. “We don’t have to find a number that allows everyone to get in — it’s OK for it to be hard to get into the playoff.
“None of us (coaches) are answering for the good of the sport. We are answering for the good of ourselves.”
Sankey has said he’s open to the 24-team expansion, but the SEC — which is a broadcast partner of ESPN — is contracted to play a league championship game through 2031. A 24-team playoff could lead to the elimination of the highly rated — and financially lucrative — game.
Sankey acknowledged it’s a major question without providing any further speculation or answer.
“The calendar is challenging; there is a line embedded in the current version of the Protect College Sports Act that the football season be fully completed by Jan. 8,” Sankey said.
“If you think through the implications of particularly that date … you have to find places to play the games, (and) you have to think about whether overlap of those games when they’re played is acceptable or not.”
ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, who’s on record supporting a 24-team field, noted the same scheduling challenges with field expansion.
“I have been vocal about the idea that if you have a championship, and you have teams that truly could win a championship, and they’re not invited, which we experienced a few years ago, and others have experienced the last couple years, you don’t have the right format,” Phillips said.
“So, it is about greater access. … I have continued to advocate that we should increase,” he said. “It would absolutely have to alter the regular season, when we start, and the calendar is really compressed. We’d have to deal with that.”
Brett Yormark, the Big 12 commissioner, addressed their financial piece of the puzzle.
“We do need to understand the economics — is there a marketplace to go to 24?” Yormark asked. “We have to understand the scheduling dynamic and what that means and the unintended consequences.”
Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti will address the CFP field issue when the league holds its media days event July 28-30 in Chicago.
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