The SEC’s playing hardball, folks. Just two weeks after college football officials gathered in New Orleans to hash out potential changes to future College Football Playoff formats, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey is essentially drawing a line in the sand.
During a Monday conversation with Paul Finebaum on SEC Network, Sankey voiced ongoing reservations about adding a ninth conference game to the SEC schedule. While every other Power Four conference already plays nine league games, the SEC has stubbornly stuck with eight — a difference that’s becoming increasingly significant when measured against their chief rival, the Big Ten.
Sankey pointed directly to the CFP Selection Committee’s apparent fixation on win-loss records in 2024, which left cash cow Alabama (9-3) watching the inaugural 12-team playoff from home.
“One of the issues in the room for our athletics directors is what seemed to matter most is the number to the right: the number of losses,” Sankey told Finebaum. “How do we understand what that means for our schedule moving forward?”
Commissioner @GregSankey says he's still in favor of moving to a 9-game SEC football schedule "…but not at the expense of opportunity." pic.twitter.com/Gbq0jneiTe
— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) March 3, 2025
Sankey’s Not-So-Subtle Message to the CFP Committee
While Sankey tried positioning himself as someone who favors a nine-game conference schedule, he immediately undercut that stance with what sounds an awful lot like a threat regarding the SEC’s playoff participation.
“I’m one who said I really think we ought to be trying to move towards a nine-game conference schedule. I think that can be positive for a lot of reasons. You watch the interest around conference games,” he said before dropping the hammer: “But not if that causes us to lose opportunities.”
Lose opportunities?
The commissioner’s acting like the SEC deserves playoff spots based on reputation alone. Let’s not forget the Big Ten — which already plays nine conference games — and SEC have practically cornered the market on the CFP starting in 2026, when expansion to at least 14 teams is expected with eight spots exclusively reserved for these two conferences.
Nobody’s questioning that the SEC and Big Ten play better football than other conferences. But the math is simple — if your team doesn’t have a better record than nine other teams (excluding conference champions), they don’t belong in the playoff. This is especially true when your conference’s scheduling strategy includes padding records with November cupcake games against FCS opponents.
Take Alabama’s 52-7 demolition of Mercer on November 16. Strip away that guaranteed win, and the Crimson Tide actually went 8-3 in games that mattered. That ninth victory would’ve meant something if it had come against another SEC opponent — but it didn’t. And that’s simply not playoff worthy.
What we’re seeing here is pure power politics. Sankey’s flexing the SEC’s muscle, hoping the CFP and other conferences will bend to his will rather than risk dismantling the only legitimate method for crowning a national champion in college football.
