Greg Sankey cites ‘progress’ from CFP selection committee as factor behind 9-game SEC schedule
Published:
Greg Sankey said Thursday during an appearance on ESPN that the College Football Playoff selection committee’s willingness to “move a little bit” paved the way for the SEC to finally adopt a 9-game conference schedule.
On Wednesday, the CFP announced that it would be taking a more robust look at strength of schedule metrics and updating its tools to compare unequal records. A day later, the SEC announced it was finally ditching the 8-game schedule for the 2026 season and adding an additional conference game. Many felt the two situations were tied to one another.
When Sankey went on The Paul Finebaum Show to discuss the decision, he intimated that they were.
“The full clarity of how strength of schedule will be honored in the selection process will be important to us,” Sankey said. “We’re in an 8-game schedule this year. We’ll have a second opportunity to see how selection decisions are made.
“The opening few weeks of the college football season, nonconference games, are important. That can’t be understated.”
The SEC has massive games right out of the chute. Texas faces Ohio State on the road. LSU travels to Clemson. Oklahoma hosts Michigan. Mississippi State welcomes the reigning Big 12 champs to Starkville in Week 2. Texas A&M travels to Notre Dame. With an unforgiving conference slate for most of the league’s top contenders, a strong showing in the nonconference will go a long way toward ensuring more than just 3 teams make the CFP this time around.
Sankey categorized the updates to the selection process as “progress” by the CFP selection committee,
“We’re not at perfection,” he stated.
The SEC still favors a 16-team expanded CFP model with “the maximum number of at-large slots.” Sankey said the SEC has not taken positions on “other ideas” that have been recently discussed — like the Big Ten’s floated 28-team CFP model.
But, for now, leaders within the SEC were content enough with where the CFP is headed to add another potential loss to their records.
“A lot of work to be done around format issues if we’re at 12 in the future. But the clarity was a bit of a tipping point,” Sankey said.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
