ATLANTA Behind the main podium on the center stage of SEC media days, Greg Sankey gives the media masses before him a reminder of all of the uncertainties facing college athletics.
There are growing pains with the industrys new revenue-sharing concept, the latest of which puts the entire enterprise in a murky situation. The NCAAs governance model is undergoing change, too. The future structure of bowl games is a bit unknown and so too are NCAA eligibility standards that are under attack in court from players themselves.
Theres a lot going on, Sankey espoused from the stage.
But perhaps the most noteworthy of those items, certainly the one drawing the most attention from football fans, is a little thing called the College Football Playoff.
Though Sankey didnt reveal much groundbreaking or new about the future of the playoff the format starting next year remains unclear his time spent on the issue is a good reminder of how important and divisive the subject is.
Heres the gist: The CFPs original 12-year contract with ESPN ends after this season, and a new six-year extension struck with the network last spring begins in 2026 with, what was believed to be, a new, potentially expanded playoff. An important note to this is that the SEC and Big Ten hold authority over a future format and must agree on a model before it moves forward, according to CFP director Rich Clark the result of a memorandum signed by the 10 FBS conferences and Notre Dame last year.
Heres the problem: The SEC and Big Ten, thought at first to be aligned behind a format with multi-automatic qualifiers for a single conference, is not aligned after all. And its unclear if they will get aligned before Dec. 1 the date ESPN executives gave to CFP leaders as a deadline for any decisions for the 2026 playoff.
As Sankey noted in his comments here Monday the kickoff to the four-day SEC media days extravaganza in downtown Atlanta there is a real possibility that the playoff remains, at least for next year, at its current 12-team format and not the 14- or 16-team model thats been discussed. That can stay if we dont agree, Sankey said.
But why dont they agree?
Well, many thought they were close to agreeing on whats been deemed a 4-4-2-2-1 format that grants twice as many automatic qualifiers to the SEC and Big Ten (4 each) as the ACC and Big 12 (2 each). Though many of its athletic directors supported the Big Tens multi-AQ model, SEC coaches spoke against it enough in May during the leagues spring meetings that the focus, at least for the SEC, shifted toward a format with a bigger at-large pool, such as whats termed a 5+11 format: five automatic qualifiers for conference champions, plus 11 at-large selections.
Big Ten administrators have noted gripes with this format, including the fact that the SEC plays one fewer conference game (eight) than its own league (nine) a potential advantage in playoff selection for a postseason with a big at-large pool.
Is the simple solution the SEC moving to nine conference games, both leagues then agreeing on a 5+11 model and then everyone going about their business? Perhaps.
But enough SEC coaches and administrators are against a move to nine conference games without a change to the criteria that the CFP selection committee uses to make its at-large picks.
And many of them believe that the SECs eight-game conference schedule is just as tough or more difficult than the Big Tens nine-game conference schedule something Sankey even suggested from the podium Monday. Every SEC team plays a ninth game against a power conference team a conference requirement that, Sankey noted, not everyone else has (the Big Ten does not have that requirement).
Round and round, this goes. Where it ends, no one seems to know.
CFP officials are in the midst of making adjustments to the selection criteria used by the committee. Here in Atlanta, more specifics were revealed on those two changes.
For one, CFP staff proposed to commissioners an adjustment to the committees strength-of-schedule ranking that gives more weight to games played, for instance, against the top 30-40 programs in the country.
Secondly, a new data point, strength of record, has been created, Sankey said, that grants more weight to good wins and doesnt penalize programs as much for losses against ranked or top teams.
If we’re talking about win-loss records, they’re not all the same, based upon what conference you’re in and who you play, LSU coach Brian Kelly said. Whats the selection process going to be? That will generate the answer to the other questions how many teams (in the playoff) and what your conference schedule looks like.
Are these changes enough to convince SEC officials to move to a ninth conference game? Its uncertain, but that decision likely needs to be made for 2026 by the time this football season kicks off. Its why many believe the league continues to lean toward remaining at eight SEC games and, thus, the playoff may remain at 12.
Much more work is needed, Sankey said of the criteria changes. We have to see the homework, but the direction of the discussion is viewed positively with the need for timely decision making.
And what of the Big Ten? The league holds its football media days next week in Las Vegas, as well as meetings among their athletic directors where, surely, the playoff discussion will be a topic.
Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti, meanwhile, has remained mostly quiet during this summer of playoff drama. He did record a 30-minute interview with Foxs Joel Klatt last month where Petitti re-emphasized his support for the 4-4-2-2-1 as a way to eliminate the subjectivity of the selection committee, incentivize more top-25 non-conference matchups among the power leagues and hold play-in style conference games at the years end.
We are not asking to be handed anything, Petitti told Klatt. Thats a reference toward those who claim that the 4-4-2-2-1 format unfairly preordains qualifying spots. We want to play tough play-in games. We want to create incentive for schools to schedule (tougher) non-conference games. I think fans want to see more of these non-conference games earlier in the season. Everybody is pointing to Texas-Ohio State (this year). We want more of that.
Last week from Big 12 media days in the Dallas suburb of Frisco, commissioner Brett Yormark publicly doubled down on his support for the 5+11 model and suggested that the Big Tens proposal is a professionalized concept that would negatively impact college athletics.
We continue to believe the 5+11 model is the right playoff format, Yormark said. We want to earn it on the field. We do not need a professional model. We are not the NFL. We are college football and we must act like it.
Yormark says ACC commissioner Jim Phillips agrees with him as well and that he plans to publicly join him in the argument during ACC media days next week in Charlotte.
Meanwhile, back here in Atlanta, the CFPs future format and the SECs future conference football schedule lingers over this four-day event as it has for years now.
It seems again the SEC holds the proverbial cards on the future of the CFP. Sankey gestures towards Yormarks comments last week on doubling down.
Thats part of the gambling the experience, he said. You always want to have a good hand to play. I think we have the best hand.