SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey to ‘Rethink’ CFP Expansion

The CFP format will stay at four teams for the next four years

Following the College Football Playoff news Friday stating that there will be no Playoff expansion and that the CFP is sticking to the four-team format for the next four years, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey spoke with Sports Illustrated’s Ross Dellenger.

Sankey said the SEC is going to “rethink” its stance on the expansion now. Sankey also reiterated how the 14 members of the SEC board have not been unanimous in their opinion on a 12-team format.

“For all the clamor about wanting to think about student athletes, there are a 1,000 students athletes each year on eight teams who could have participated in the playoff,“ Sankey said. ”On the other hand, we (the SEC), didn’t need more.” 

He later reiterated, “We don’t need that. Others do. We have to rethink formats. A wholesale evaluation of our position.”

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey tells @SINow that the league now has to “rethink” its position on CFP expansion.

Does that mean his conference might no longer support a 12-team playoff?

“It could, yeah,” he says.

— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) February 18, 2022

In regards to future meetings about deciding the 2026–27 College Football Playoff format, which is when the current contract is up, Sankey said they need to continue reevaluating the details. 

“If we can’t make the decision now around a format that was widely acclaimed as innovative and creative and met a wide variety of needs, we’re all going to have to go back and rethink that,“ Sankey said. ”The outcome hasn’t been a healthy representation of decision making.”

However, Sankey doesn’t think it has been a failure on the committee’s part.

“I’ve got five teams in 8 years that have won championships - three different teams in the last 3 years. So we’re fine,” Sankey said. “Why would I call ‘failure’ about something that we are exceedingly good at achieving at a high level?”