SEC commissioner Greg Sankey will be among the leaders in college football meeting in Asheville next week to discuss potential changes to the College Football Playoff. This includes expansion, format changes and more.
Changes have already been made to the CFP earlier this offseason, seeing its seeding format shift to a straight-seeding model in 2025. More changes could be on the way.
“We’re at 12,” Sankey said during an appearance on Golic and Golic on Friday on the FanDuel Sports Network. “That was actually one of the other untold stories, is that 12-team format was established for ’26 by what’s called by the President’s Group by the Board of Directors, the College Football Playoff board. And their statement was, ‘Hey, if you can start earlier, go ahead,’ and we did in ’24 with good success.
“So remember, we’ve made an iterative change to just fill the bracket based on the rankings, rather than kind of this maneuvering what happened around conference champions. So that’s an improvement for 2025.”
There has been much speculation over shifting the CFP to a 14 or 16-team model ever since the playoff’s 12-team format was approved. Sankey said this conversation is still “alive” heading into next week’s discussions.
When the SEC Spring Meetings commenced in Florida last month, Sankey sensed that the notion of more opportunities was important to the head football coaches and athletics directors in his conference. More opportunities, whether this comes in a nine-game SEC schedule, conference auto-bids into the CFP, or additional teams in the field, remain to be seen.
However, Sankey said that he can’t predict what the final outcome could be based on his single opinion of the 11 that will be in attendance. There is doubt that a conclusion will be reached, and Sankey expects each leader to bring their own concerns to the table during the meeting.
“One of the issues is to look at the selection process as conference membership has changed, as the bracket has changed, as you have more pressure points on selection issues,” Sankey explained. “The selection process really hasn’t adapted. So, looking at the criteria, how strength of schedule is analyzed, how we populate the committee.
“I think those issues are really important. And I tend more towards, now, based on a lot of in-depth conversations with our membership to like more than 12, but I think 12 is really healthy and I’m going to save my crystal ball for a moment.”
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