Last man standing: SEC’s Greg Sankey resists rush toward 24-team CFP expansion

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SANDESTIN — As pressure mounts from nearly every corner of college athletics, Greg Sankey is in no hurry to move.

The deliberate, measured SEC commissioner spent last week’s conference Spring Meetings on Florida’s Panhandle in a familiar position: standing firm while others pushed for change.

Amid College Football Playoff expansion, conference realignment, governance issues that have reached Capitol Hill or the future of the NCAA itself, Sankey has emerged as an influential gatekeeper — and perhaps the last prominent voice urging caution.

The financial forces driving change are real.

Revenue sharing with athletes is stretching budgets. NIL opportunities redirect money toward players rather than athletic departments. Television revenue is increasingly key to balancing the books, leaving schools searching for every possible source of income.

Those realities have intensified the calls to expand the CFP to 24 teams just two years after the format went from four participants to 12.

Expansion talk prominent at SEC meetings

The issue dominated conversations during the three days of Spring Meetings, where conference leaders wrestled with the future of college sports.

Some administrators, led by Georgia’s president, Jere Morehead, even suggested the SEC eventually consider breaking away unless the NCAA cannot better address tampering, eligibility disputes and enforcement tied to the the House settlement.

“That is a really draconian step,” said Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin. “I don’t think you can make up your own rules and still compete against others who are following different rules.”

When meetings concluded Thursday, all options remained on the table.

But the most pressure-packed issue facing Sankey remains playoff expansion, with a Dec. 1 deadline approaching if changes are to be made to the CFP format.

As the most powerful figure in college athletics, Sankey is resisting public opinion and growing sentiment within his own conference to expand.

The Big Ten, ACC, Big 12 and Group of Six leagues continue to advocate for a 24-team playoff. Sankey favors growing to 16, if expansion happens at all.

“We’ve not stated opposition to 24,” he said. “We’ve stated support of 16.”

His distinction matters.

Many SEC athletic directors and coaches have warmed to the idea of a 24-team field. More playoff access would create additional opportunities for revenue and help justify the considerable investment schools continue making in football.

“We’ve got to think of the unintended consequences when we make decisions to move in whatever direction we decide to go,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. “But I think change is inevitable.”

More info before rush to change

This sense of inevitability has left Sankey publicly at odds with longtime colleagues and friends in his own league. Yet he continues to ask questions many others seem eager to move past.

Sankey wants more information before committing to a larger playoff field — and to learn more before expecting ESPN to significantly increase its investment in a postseason package. The network is already paying roughly $1.3 billion annually through the 2031-32 season.

Not everyone believes Sankey’s caution is misplaced.

Texas A&M athletic director Trev Alberts echoed some of his commissioner’s concerns. A former All-American at Nebraska, Alberts wants to better understand the effects of expanding to 12 teams before growing again just two years after increasing from the four-team model in place since 2014.

“I remember back, ‘Oh gosh, are we going to devalue the regular season by going to 12?’” Alberts recalled. “We have some data that shows we didn’t. The regular season was still protected. But, man, we haven’t done that very long, and so sprinting to something else without a little bit more data, without understanding … we have to be deliberative and be careful, because you can’t go back.”

Concerns include player health, scheduling

Reservations extend beyond playoff math.

An expanded postseason would create challenges involving scheduling, conflicts with the NFL calendar, Early Signing Day, transfer portal timing and player health.

It also could signal the end of the SEC Championship.

Played annually since 1992, the title game has become a popular and valuable asset, generating upwards of $100 million in revenue. Eliminating the game would intensify the pressure for playoff expansion to offset those losses.

SEC schools with vast athletic departments — Florida and Georgia each sponsor 21 sports, for example — bank on football revenue to fund other programs.

“I’m really more worried about the financial burden that we’re under right now of paying for all of the athletic department,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “When you take that revenue stream out, can we make it work? Is it sustainable to do without it, would be my biggest concern.”

ESPN has not definitively indicated an appetite to increase its college football inventory. If negotiations stall, the SEC could ultimately let Fox in the henhouse.

Such a move would further strengthen the Big Ten’s position.

The conference already distributes more money to its members. Big Ten schools averaged $76.1 million in conference revenue during the 2024-25 fiscal year, with Ohio State receiving more than $91 million.

The SEC handed out $72.4 million per institution and the league office, though 2024 newcomers Texas and Oklahoma received reduced shares during their transition year.

Big Ten’s trophy case filling up

At the same time, the Big Ten is winning where it matters most.

The conference has produced the past three national champions and seized momentum after two decades of SEC dominance. From 2006 to 2022, SEC schools produced 13 national champions. Ohio State’s 2014 title represented the Big Ten’s lone championship.

The balance of power recently has shifted.

The SEC has not played for a national championship during the past three seasons. The conference is 0-4 in head-to-head CFP meetings against the Big Ten in that stretch. Meanwhile, the Big Ten owns a 15-4 CFB record against non-Big Ten foes, while the SEC is just 3-7.

Still, Sankey rejects the notion the SEC has lost its place atop the sport.

The 61-year-old from New York noted the SEC’s 37 games on ABC and ESPN averaged 7.3 million viewers last season. The league also had a CFP-high five teams in the 2025 field.

“If you look at the entirety of our league, we are by far the most competitive, the strongest football league — by far,” Sankey said. “But you’re going to lose games when it’s close and competitive like that. So why have they surpassed us? It’s an oddball, it’s bounced a couple times the wrong way.”

He cited Alabama’s overtime loss to eventual national champion Michigan in the 2023 playoff and Ole Miss’ last-second defeat against Miami as razor-thin outcomes determining perceptions.

“Those are small margins between winning and losing,” he said. “We prevailed by those small margins a number of times.”

As college football races toward another round of transformative change, Sankey remains unmoved by the momentum around him. Expansion appears inevitable, while change is essential.

For now, Sankey is unfazed and unflinchingly confident in the SEC’s current position — and its future.

“I can assure you that everyone in this league is trying to figure out how to come up on the top end,” he said.

Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com

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