But he doesn’t love the ramifications that a loss in a conference title tilt could mean for his team, especially as the expansion of the 12-team College Football Playoff seems inevitable.

“I’ve been fortunate to win a couple of SEC titles at my previous spot, and it’s a special moment,” Sarkisian told reporters Tuesday, referencing his time as an assistant when Alabama won the 2016 and 2019 SEC title games. “You guys know I’m a big college football fan. The history of the SEC championship game, the great players, the great teams that have been in that game; the idea that we might be moving away from that is a little disappointing, but I understand it, too. I’ve got to be a realist with this; if we continue to grow from a playoff perspective — 16, 20, 24, wherever this thing goes —  it might not be the best thing to do.”

The debate over conference title games in the SEC and other three power conferences has been on a steady simmer ever since the CFP expanded to 12 games for the 2024 season, and it’s heated up this offseason. Earlier this week, Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne said the SEC’s title game that began in 1992 with Alabama’s 28-21 win over Florida  should end, especially since a loss can knock a team out of the CFP.

“I think the ship has sailed. It’s run its course,” Byrne said in a recent interview with USA Today. “It’s a great event (and) I don’t like the idea of it going away, but I think it’s reality with an expanded playoff.”

No current SEC coach has enjoyed more success at the SEC title game than Georgia’s Kirby Smart. He has won three SEC championships over the past nine years, including a 22-19 overtime victory over Sarkisian and the Longhorns in 2024. But Smart says the scheduling demands of the current CFP playoff make conference title games awkward, and CFP expansion could make them almost impossible.

“Where we are right now with 12 teams, I don’t necessarily agree that it needs to quit being played,” he told On3 earlier this week. “But if it gets to 16 or 24 and we’ve got to move the end of the season up and we’ve got to get everything done by the second week of January, then I’d say it probably has to go.”

That’s an argument Sarkisian’s boss has already made. Chris Del Conte, the Texas athletic director, said in February during his annual town-hall presentation  that the conference-championship weekend takes up valuable scheduling time without offering many benefits to the participating teams.

“Why have a conference championship game? Let’s start the playoffs that week, right?” Del Conte said. “Start the playoffs that week, and let’s play every single week, and the semifinals are played on New Year’s Day — which is college football — and the national championship a week later. That’s what I’d like to see, but I’m one vote. But this is where we need to get to.”

Sarkisian doesn’t argue the logic even if he would lament the loss of what was once one of the season’s biggest games before the creation and expansion of the CFP.

“I trust the people that are making decisions for us that are going to put our teams and our staffs and our universities in the best position to highlight our teams,” Sarkisian said. “But on the same token, I want to hold on to it too, because, man, it’s a special game.”