A window is not a decision
Greg Sankey addressed the Monday Morning Quarterback Club in Birmingham earlier and spent part of it lowering the temperature on College Football Playoff expansion. Playoff executives agreed last week to open a 30-day negotiating window with ESPN to explore a 24-team field, and the SEC commissioner wanted it understood that the two things are not the same.
“We’ve participated in that conversation,” Sankey said. “That doesn’t mean expansion will happen. There’s a media negotiation opportunity, which is an important piece of information, and then we’ll have an opportunity, it would appear, later in the fall to make a decision about the future form.”
Conference stakeholders met last month on what he called strategic issues around the postseason. His list of what still needs refining ran to “issues around schedule, issues around what might be the economics, issues around the regular season and having common expectations.”
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The price the SEC has put on 24
The SEC spent much of the last negotiating cycle arguing for 16 teams. Sankey sent a memo to the CFP management committee earlier this month setting out what a 24-team format would have to include before his league would move.
Two conditions carry the weight. The CFP would have to replace the revenue the SEC loses by scrapping its conference championship game, a fixture that has anchored the league calendar since 1992. And every Power Four team would need 10 games against fellow Power Four opponents or Notre Dame to qualify for the playoff.
That second demand is the one with teeth. It rewrites nonconference scheduling across four leagues rather than simply adding bracket lines.
The Big Ten and the SEC hold the deciding votes on format. They have until 1 December to agree if any change is to apply to the 2027 season.
Scheduling as leverage
Sankey pointed straight at the weekend to make his case. Texas beat then-top-ranked Ohio State and Texas A&M knocked off Arizona State, results he used to separate his league’s slate from the rest.
“We look at some of (other teams’) schedules. There are a lot of question marks,” he said.
He declined to discuss the conference’s lawsuit against LSU, which sought to confirm the SEC’s authority to expel the Tigers over their plan to add former NFL players. LSU has dropped the plan and its president called the matter moot, though the suit remains filed and the hearing has been postponed. “I’m happy to talk about football,” Sankey said.
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