SEC commissioner Greg Sankey was disappointed to see the recent cancellations of a pair of out-of-conference series between teams in his conference. It was reported last that Nebraska had pulled out of a nonconference home-and-home with Tennessee, disappointing many fans who were looking forward to the battle between two stories programs.
Similarly, Wake Forest canceled a home-and-home with Ole Miss that was set to begin ahead of the 2025 season. Sankey joined The Paul Finebaum Show on Monday, where he explained that he doesn’t blame the athletic directors for either the Cornhuskers or Demon Deacons.
Instead, he noted the potential role that the College Football Playoff committee has in leading those decisions from the school.
“I saw a series that was disappointing from my perspective when Nebraska announced it wasn’t going to play a contracted series with the University of Tennessee,” Sankey said. “I think that would have been great for college football. Early in the season, we saw Wake Forest like two or three days before the first game of a two-game series with Ole Miss cancel that.
“This is not to point the finger at Nebraska’s athletic director, who I have a good relationship with, but he said ‘I talked to CFP selection committee members and they said they didn’t think not playing that game would hurt Nebraska’s opportunity for the CFP.’ I think we have to cope with that reality. That’s not great for college football.”
The SEC had three teams make the CFP this past season, which was the second-most of any conference. However, Sankey also pointed out that the league had three teams with three losses that did not make the cut, but were ranked ahead of several two-loss teams from other conferences.
That likely had something to do with the strength of schedule that SEC teams had relative to the rest of the country from playing a tough conference slate. But for other leagues, one would think that making up the difference with their nonconference games would be a way to differentiate.
“We had a set of three-loss teams not in the playoff,” he said. “Now, as I recall, we had three-loss teams from the SEC ahead of some two-loss teams from significant conferences. So I will note there was a recognition on the part of the selection on the strength of our league. We also had three teams selected to participate. And the meaning week to week to week throughout the season was real.
“In fact, I would argue we experienced, collectively, the most exciting November that we could have experienced. Now how do we make November and December even more interesting to people? I think that’s something we should be speaking of. It does have an impact on our own decision-making.”
But the apparrent message from the CFP was that it wouldn’t make enough of a difference to risk losing that game. Still, it’s disappointing that it will take away from the enjoyment that fans would have gotten out of watching those games.
To Greg Sankey’s point, it makes college football less interesting from the viewers’ perspective to take away potential matchups like Nebraska and Tennessee. For that reason, he hopes a solution will be reached that can incentivize teams to make their schedules more challenging.
“I’d like to see us play more of these high-profile games both within the conference and outside the conference,” he said. “But we have to recognize the CFP selection process is an important governing decision-making factor that contributes to the eventual outcomes, whether its nonconference games or whether it’s the number of games played within conferences. Some have made decisions within their TV negotiations to expand from eight to nine. We’ve not made that at this point. It’s part of what’s on the agenda for the months ahead.”
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