SEC Commissioner Takes Shot at Other Conferences Over Strength of Schedule

As the college football edition of Selection Sunday nears on Dec. 8, coaches, athletic directors and league administrators are in full lobbying mode.

Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey speaks during SEC Media Day at the Grand Bohemian Hotel in Mountain Brook Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2024. / Gary Cosby Jr.-Tuscaloosa News / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The College Football Playoff selection committee is just weeks away from releasing its final rankings and the first field of the 12-team era. As the football edition of Selection Sunday nears on Dec. 8, coaches, athletic directors and league administrators are in full lobbying mode.

As of this week, No. 3 Texas, No. 7 Alabama, No. 9 Ole Miss and No. 10 Georgia would all make the 12-team field. Tennessee is ranked No. 11, but would be on the outside looking in; No. 14 BYU would jump into the field as the fifth-highest ranked conference champion. The Big Ten would land the same number of programs in the field as the SEC based on the current rankings, with Big 12, ACC, Mountain West each sending conference champions as automatic bids and independent program Notre Dame landing at at-large. Three more SEC programs—No. 15 Texas A&M, No. 18 South Carolina and No. 23 Missouri—are also in the committee's latest rankings, although they're on the outside looking in.

It is no surprise that SEC commissioner Greg Sankey believes that his league should be getting a lion's share of the at-large bids. He took to X on Wednesday to make that clear, sharing a set of aggregated strength of schedule metrics that have six SEC programs up at the top.

Interesting to read analysis from others as they examine “strength of schedule” in college football…it does seem there is a trend to be identified… pic.twitter.com/pXSfxRMxvL

— Greg Sankey (@GregSankey) November 21, 2024

The depth of the SEC is undoubtedly impressive, and the league has a host of teams with multiple losses as a result. Texas leads the way at 9-1, Texas A&M is 8-2 with a 5-1 SEC record and the next four teams are all 8-2 with both losses coming in league play.

Strength of schedule is just one factor, of course. It is hard to see undefeated or one loss Big Ten teams being left out, there four automatic bids outside of the SEC, and Notre Dame is almost guaranteed a bid if they don't slip up down the stretch. Sankey will likely do plenty of politicking over the next few weeks, but without a material change for the other schools in the mix here, it seems unlikely that he gets the five or six SEC teams that he wants in the field.

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