His state-of-the-league address, an annual commencement for the SEC Football Media Days, contained the requisite gristle — an acknowledgement of conference attendance figures, sprawling viewership, and championships won over the recent academic year.
Then, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey cut into the meatier issues Monday morning. Among them: the ongoing deliberations of whether his league should move from an eight- to nine-game conference football schedule.
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It was on this seemingly perpetual topic in which Sankey, who has struck a defiant tone with reporters recently on college football’s more pressing issues, got particularly scrappy in defense of the status quo.
“It is absolutely, fully, 100% correct that in the SEC we play eight conference games while some others play nine conference games,” Sankey said Monday morning from a podium at the College Football Hall of Fame in downtown Atlanta.
“It’s also correct that last season, all 16 members of the Southeastern Conference played at least nine games against what you would label ‘power opponents.’ We had several that played 10 of their 12 games against ‘power’ opponents. Some conferences have that, some don’t. The same will be true this year.
“I don’t believe there’s anyone looking to swap their conference schedule and its opponents with the opponents played by Southeastern Conference teams and our conference schedule, be it eight or nine.”
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Still, the possibility of a move to a nine-game slate remains as Sankey and his peers seek a better grasp of how the College Football Playoff evaluates strength of schedule — and even strength of record — in its rankings. The CFP is expected to present its final version of new, refined metrics involving strength of schedule in mid-August, when its 13-person selection committee convenes in Colorado Springs.
Sankey, who watched three of his three-loss teams — Alabama, Ole Miss and South Carolina — miss the 12-team playoff in 2024, said Monday a decision on an eight- or nine-game slate “won’t linger terribly much longer.”
Other topics addressed by Sankey:
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The House settlement, allowing schools to directly pay its athletes (which went into effect July 1): “I thought it appropriate to use a bit of a metaphor for running a marathon. … That doesn’t mean you feel great in the first two miles, nor does it mean, transitioning that metaphor, that everything works perfectly in the first two weeks of settlement implementation. There’s been plenty of naysayers in the last 14 days, but the settlement went into effect July 1, and we’re here July 14 while working through historic and transformational change.”
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The future of the playoff (and whether it will expand beyond 12 teams): “I think the recent modifications by the College Football Playoff to adjust the seeding to be consistent with the selection committee’s rankings is entirely appropriate, given the adjustments in conference membership that have happened nationally since the 12-team concept was first introduced in June 2021. We think growth beyond 12 can be positive and should be pursued. There’s also a belief that the process for selecting teams to participate in the College Football Playoff can be updated and improved itself.”
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Student-athlete eligibility (specifically, athletes receiving more than five years of eligibility via waivers, lawsuits, etc.): “As the world changes across college sports, we have to hold on to some values that are at the center of what we do on our academic campuses. We need to invite young people into higher education with a goal of moving them from adolescence to adulthood. We need to require unapologetically a person to make meaningful progress towards a degree. And if they don’t make that meaningful progress, then simply understand they won’t be able to participate in the athletics experience.”
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The SCORE Act (a bill introduced in the House last week to help regulate college sports, including pre-emption of state laws that regulate name, image, likeness payments): “We want a future where we have national standards, where we’re able to play national championships on an equitable basis, and support healthy economic opportunities for student-athletes. … That’s an important moment. I view what’s happening in college athletics as a non-partisan issue, but using the typical nomenclature, to have members of both of our major political parties willing to step out and introduce the SCORE Act is a positive step.”
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The state of college athletics in general: “Let me be clear: From my perspective, college athletics is not broken, it is under stress. It is strained. And the answers we seek are tied into the complexities that have been referenced over time.”
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