Elite opinion inside the SEC appears to be moving away from granting the conference four auto bids in the future College Football Playoff, but it sounds like that’s an idea commissioner Greg Sankey never really liked anyway.
“I’ve been one that said over time, I’d give no allocation… I’d just make it the 12 best teams, and I was clear on that,” Sankey said on The Dan Patrick Show.
“Allocation” is Sankey’s word for automatic qualifiers, and refers to a system that was, until recently, backed by both the SEC and Big Ten.
Under that plan, each conference would receive four auto bids, with the ACC and Big 12 getting two each, one for the Group of Six champion, and three remaining at-large bids.
Naturally, the ACC and Big 12 took exception to that idea, and now it appears the SEC, led by its commissioner, is starting to lean their way, too.
That comes amid revelations that the SEC is moving away from the four auto bid proposal, and endorsing the other option on the table, a so-called “5-11” format that awards places to the five conference champions with 11 at-large bids to be chosen by the selection committee.
“We’ve spent so much time expanding and working through our own little side arguments about teams, and, oh, we can’t do this. We need this. You got to protect this bowl game or that bowl game,” Sankey said.
He added: “We never went back to the essence of decision making, which is how our team selected as everyone relocated over the last four or five years, does the analysis that existed and work for the four-team playoff in 2014 still have the same relevance, and we’re behind that curve in my opinion.”
But while the SEC appears to be moving away from the auto bid proposal, its counterparts in the Big Ten are still siding with the idea.
That stems from concerns inside the Big Ten that the SEC and ACC would artificially benefit in the win-loss column by playing just eight conference games every year and hosting a perceived pushover opponent late in the season, while the Big Ten plays nine league opponents.
But it appears the Big Ten is just about alone in still defending the automatic qualifier proposal, while SEC coaches and the other conferences prefer the 5-11 model.
Mario Cristobal and Pat Narduzzi, head coaches at Miami and Pittsburgh, respectively, both publicly condemned the idea of giving conferences automatic spots in the playoff, insisting that playoff-worthy teams earn a place with their play on the field.
And now it appears the top man in the SEC is siding with them.
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