BIRMINGHAM, Ala. \u2014 Greg Sankey isn\u2019t running from the scheduling challenges SEC football teams face in their quest to win the College Football Playoff championship.<\/p>\n
But Sankey, on the verge of his 12th year as the SEC commissioner, makes no apologies and does not seem on the verge of any concessions on account of the league\u2019s depth of quality teams and talent.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard \u2014 every one of our coaches will tell you, whatever the sport is, (and) that\u2019s what you want; you want to challenge yourself as a competitor,\u201d Sankey said while speaking at the APSE Southeast Regional Meeting on Monday at the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo, no apologies for a hard schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Georgia was the most recent SEC team to win a College Football Playoff after the 2022 season, as Big Ten teams have captured the past three championships.<\/p>\n
Sankey cited history when asked by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution about how the rigors of a nine-game schedule, coupled with a league title game, could lead to more player attrition and diminish CFP hopes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Roy (Kramer) had that back in the day, (that) we\u2019d never win another national championship because of the conference championship game,\u201d Sankey said, referring to former SEC commissioner Roy Kramer\u2019s decision to introduce the league title game in 1992.<\/p>\n
Kirby Smart has been among the coaches to discuss the inherent physicality in the league \u2014 the SEC set a record with 87 players selected in the most recent NFL draft \u2014 and how that plays into a team\u2019s title hopes and scheduling.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think we actually know the effect of the nine-game (SEC schedule) will be,\u201d Smart said. \u201cI think it will be very interesting to look back and say, \u2018OK, this is when we did it, and what has the fallout been?\u201d<\/p>\n
Georgia and Florida State canceled their 2027 and 2028 home-and-home series soon after Smart\u2019s comments, providing some insight into the fallout the Bulldogs\u2019 11th-year head coach was likely referring to.<\/p>\n
Sankey said he believes such games are important, and he\u2019s hopeful SEC teams will continue to schedule them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do think that national games with other conferences or with Notre Dame are really important for a couple of reasons,\u201d Sankey said. \u201cPeople want to see them, young people want to experience different competition at the highest level.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it also helps the committee, in the selection process, make decisions.<\/p>\n
Sankey said it\u2019s important to \u201cremember some of the benefits\u201d of the nine-game league schedule, with fans getting to see their favorite team play all of the other teams in the league over a four-year window, both home and away.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s really good for college football and really good for Southeastern Conference football,\u201d said Sankey, who on June 1 will begin his 12th year as the league\u2019s commissioner.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI know it\u2019s hard, but there are a lot of rewards for doing hard things, like visibility, salary, support and staffing, and that\u2019s the balance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sankey said he met with the SEC football coaches in February and heard their concerns, and he anticipates more voices and opinions at the SEC spring meetings later this month in Destin, Florida.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hear their perspective, I understand their pressures, and they understand my perspective,\u201d Sankey said, noting that the SEC is under contract to play a league championship game (through at least 2031).<\/p>\n
\u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean we always agree, but we can work forward and make informed decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sankey said keeping at least one intersectional game remains a priority, noting Georgia plays Georgia Tech annually, and pointed out that home-and-home series have \u201cpivoted to neutral sites before.\u201d<\/p>\n
UGA athletic director Josh Brooks hinted in the school\u2019s release on the home-and-home cancellation that the Bulldogs and Seminoles could work out a neutral site agreement \u2014 something that would serve each school from both a fan interest and financial perspective.<\/p>\n
Smart and other SEC coaches have recently been vocal about the need to expand the CFP from 12 teams to 16 or 24 teams. <\/p>\n
Sankey, like Smart, agrees there could come a point where having too many teams in the CFP diminishes the regular season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a tipping point (when it comes to meaningful games) in November \u2014 at any level of expansion, there will be games that didn\u2019t matter in a smaller number that now matter in a bigger number,\u201d Sankey said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut there\u2019s another side to that coin where the next-to-last weekend (regular season), that right now is critically important, might not matter in the same way (if there was a 24-team field).<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we\u2019re honest, that\u2019s an unknown. We are trying to inform that through research. There are a lot of ideas out there that have to be supported with analysis and information, not speculation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sankey indicated collegiate sports should follow the model set by professional sports when it comes to expanding the playoff field.<\/p>\n
\u201cIncremental adjustment, that\u2019s the tradition in professional sports leagues, growth, all of which are supported by information,\u201d Sankey said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got some time to develop it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The SEC and Big Ten have until Dec. 1 to agree on a playoff model to support the playoff field growing to 16 or 24 teams beginning with the 2027 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BIRMINGHAM, Ala. \u2014 Greg Sankey isn\u2019t running from the scheduling challenges SEC football teams face in their quest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[1607,2662,399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":["post-648129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-college-football","tag-college-sports","tag-football","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}