Greg Sankey, SEC remain a firewall to a 24-team College Football Playoff
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MIRAMAR BEACH, FL – The human firewall to a 24-team College Football Playoff remains a shield the Big Ten can’t penetrate.
If Greg Sankey feels lonely on his hill of resistance to 24, he’s not showing it.
“It doesn’t bother me,” to be the lone holdout, the SEC’s commissioner said.
The B1G wants 24. So do the ACC and Big 12.
Well, they’re not getting 24 anytime soon.
Not if Sankey has anything to say about it. (And, trust me, he has plenty to say about it.)
A 24-team playoff won’t be getting the SEC’s sign-off this week, Sankey said, when the conference’s spring meetings unfold here at a rain-soaked beachfront resort in the Florida Panhandle.
“I do not anticipate any decisions on the College Football Playoff, just so we’re clear,” Sankey said during a news conference on the eve of the SEC’s spring meetings, where coaches, athletic directors and university chancellors and presidents will gather.
“We’ll spend time looking at a range of possibilities,” Sankey said.
Three of the four power conferences have aligned behind 24 teams. The playoff cannot expand without the SEC’s approval.
SEC headquarters favors a 16-team playoff, but there are some fissures within the ranks. Certain SEC coaches support 24, and so does at least one SEC athletic director, Tennessee’s Danny White. Coaches get a voice. They don’t get a vote.
Sankey didn’t outright say he’d refuse to get on board with 24, but he clearly harbors serious reservations.
“Four to 12 was monumental (growth), but I think it was justifiable. You want to be careful about how far you go,” he said.
Later, he was asked whether there was any concern that a 24-team playoff would water down the postseason too much.
“It is (a concern) for me,” Sankey said.
As to the idea of potentially lengthening college football’s playoff, Sankey said “football is not an eight-week tournament sport.”
That’s a shot across the bow of a 24-team playoff, which would expand an already lengthy playoff to five rounds.
Sankey also reaffirmed his support for continuing to play the SEC Championship Game.
Ideas for a 24-team playoff generally include getting rid of conference championships.
“Pretty committed” to playing a conference championship game, Sankey said, adding that the game is under contract.
Pretty committed, too, to resisting 24.
Big Ten says it wants either 12 or 24. Will SEC bite at 24?
Up in Big Ten land, commissioner Tony Petitti sounds pretty committed to resisting 16.
Petitti says the Big Ten will consider only two options: Either double the playoff’s size and go to 24, or stay at 12. The status quo works for the Big Ten, winners of three straight national championships.
Petitti said his membership didn’t even discuss 16 at his conference’s meetings last week.
“I was surprised by that,” Sankey said, noting the Big Ten supported a 16-team proposal this time last year.
The SEC exited the Florida Panhandle last year favoring a different 16-team proposal. The two super conferences never aligned on an expansion format. Within a few months, the Big Ten had moved on from 16 to 24.
The Big Ten pulled in support from the Big 12 and ACC for 24 teams.
Three out of four won’t result in expansion.
The playoff cannot expand without the SEC and Big Ten coming to terms.
“We’ll spend time hearing and learning without making a decision at this point, because we have time,” Sankey said. There’s a Dec. 1 deadline to expand the playoff for the 2027 season.
CFP negotiations a test of Greg Sankey’s power
Sankey has been called the most powerful figure in college sports. These playoff negotiations will test his clout and his influence within a landscape where the Big Ten keeps growing stronger — and richer.
Even as some SEC coaches demand expansion, that’s just noise. It’s much more important for Sankey that he keep the SEC’s presidents and chancellors aligned behind him, if he’s to keep up this firewall.
Georgia president Jere Morehead, an influential voice among the SEC’s presidents and chancellors, told The Athletic a 24-team playoff would be “a mistake.” Morehead added he thinks the SEC’s university brass will follow Sankey’s guidance.
That guidance appears unchanged: Don’t sign on to 24.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 24‑team College Football Playoff has one problem: Greg Sankey
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