SEC commissioner Greg Sankey says league well positioned for CFP expansion

MIRAMAR BEACH — With momentum shifting toward the SEC sticking with an eight-game conference schedule beyond 2023, questions remain as to how that would impact the conference’s ability to earn at-large qualifiers when the College Football Playoff expands to 12 teams in 2024.

Those concerns were raised by both Florida coach Billy Napier and Auburn coach Hugh Freeze on Tuesday.

 SEC commissioner Greg Sankey’s message? Relax.

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Sankey said Tuesday that the conference will be well-positioned to earn at-large CFP bids whether it plays an eight- or nine-game league schedule going forward. With Texas and Oklahoma joining the league, the SEC will expand to 16 teams in 2024, the same year as the CFP's expansion.

“For us, with an eight- or nine-game schedule, we will still carry forward with multiple teams being under full consideration,” Sankey said. “You look at the way last year ended, it shows the strength of the conference, a wonderfully close (Georgia) game with Ohio State, it shows a lot of teams can compete at that level.

“We had teams 5 (Alabama) and 6 (Tennessee), and I don’t think either one of those schedules is simply going to exclude people. I actually am one who views we can build upon our strength.”

As the fifth and sixth ranked teams in the final CFP rankings, Alabama and Tennessee would have qualified under the CFP’s new 12-team format, which includes six automatic bids (the Power 5 conference champions and the best team among the Group of 6) and six at-large berths.

Sankey has served on CFP selection committees and was instrumental in getting the postseason event to expand from 4 to 12 teams.

If the league stays at eight games, schools could compensate strength of schedule by playing more Power 5 non-conference games. The ACC is the only other current Power 5 conference that plays an eight-game league schedule. The Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac 12 all play nine conference games.

“If you are going to step out of the comfort zone of eight (games). maybe this is the time to do it, since (the CFP) is going to 12” Arkansas coach Sam Pittman said. “Right now, our league is winning national championships in college football so part of you wants to keep it like it’s been. But part of you, for the fans and all that, having the three permanent rivals (in a nine-game schedule), I think that would be cool.”

Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin said Monday there's still arguments on both sides in the eight versus nine game conference schedule debate.

"I’ve advocated for nine," Stricklin said. "I feel like eventually that’s where we need to be. The timing of OU and Texas joining sooner than what we anticipated. When we were here a year ago, they were coming in ’25.

"The fact that that’s been sped up, and we’re 12 months, 15 months out, and we don’t have a decision, and we all have non-conference contracts for the fall of ’24 makes me think that nine might not be feasible for the first year. But I don’t know – we saw in ’20 (during the COVID pandemic) we can change things really quickly when it’s imperative. But it would be challenging to do so at this point.”