Update on where SEC stands on College Football Playoff expansion

Where do things stand in the College Football Playoff expansion process, from the SEC's point of view?

College Football Playoff expansion - or the lack thereof - has been a frequent conversation starter, and stopper, for much of the last year.

A 12-team expanded format was introduced as an option by a working group that included SEC commissioner Greg Sankey.

That proposal included a plan to have six automatic qualifiers for the six highest-ranked conference champions and six at-large bids for the highest-ranking teams left.

But after Texas and Oklahoma confirmed a future move to the SEC, the other conferences got cold feet, the vote failed, and the whole process stopped cold.

An 8 team CFP seems unlikely

Some have suggested an eight-team format in order to reach a compromise and expand the College Football Playoff in part, but Sankey isn't interested.

"No, I'm not going to come back to that. I'm against that," Sankey said definitively at the opening of SEC Media Days.

"I walked into one of the first meetings when we were looking at the format and said, 'If we want to expand to eight teams for the Playoff with no automatic bids, I'll have that conversation.' 

"But moving to an eight-team playoff and granting what were going to be six automatic bids, reducing at-large access, is unwise."

What's next for College Football Playoff expansion?

At the same time, Sankey acknowledged he may have to get more flexible if expansion is to happen at all in the future.

"I had, as commissioner, moved people forward to the point we were supportive as a league," he said. 

"If we're going to go back to square one, we're going to take a step back from the model introduced and rethink the approach, number of teams, whether there should be any guarantee for conference champions at all. 

"Just earn your way in. There's something that's healthy competitively about that and creates expectations and support around programs. Where will we go? We'll see. 

"We've had one initial conversation in late June. I walked into that meeting not very optimistic about the ability to talk through issues. I walked out much more positive about the path forward than when I walked in."

Sankey remains convinced that the College Football Playoff expansion project he was involved in appears to be the right way forward.

"The pressure was there to have conference access with some guarantee," he said. 

"So the 12-team, six at-large, which increases the at-large access, and six conference qualifiers, not automatic qualifiers, but the guarantee that the six best conference champions was a really good balancing outcome."

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