Since the summer, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey has pushed for there to be a 2020 college football season, even though the COVID-19 pandemic had an impact on the sports world for most of the year. Some conferences, such as the SEC, still began a season in September, although a bit later than expected.

Others didn’t start that early. The Big Ten and Pac-12 initially weren’t going to have seasons, then changed their minds and started campaigns in October and November, respectively. That didn’t give those schools as much time to play as many games, so they didn’t.

Ohio State, which is set to face Alabama in Monday night’s College Football Playoff National Championship Game, had played only five games before taking on Northwestern in the Big Ten Championship Game. The Buckeyes have now played seven games, coming off a Sugar Bowl victory over Clemson on New Year’s Day.

Still, it caused debate over whether Ohio State should have even been in the CFP, considering it played fewer games than Alabama, Clemson and Notre Dame, the other three teams in the Playoff. And recently, Sankey shared his thoughts on the matter with Sports Illustrated’s Ross Dellenger.

“We saw people not play games and access the College Football Playoff,” Sankey said, per Dellenger. “… I’m disappointed that not all FBS stuck together. I regret that. But I’m not the one who walked away, we’re not the ones who walked away. We all should have been more connected. The SEC didn’t walk away.”

Although the FBS conferences didn’t all start at the same time or play the same amount of games, the 2020 season was still able to take place. And in the end, four top teams reached the CFP, with either Alabama or Ohio State soon about to become the national champions.