“It’s challenging when you’re trying to figure out what you can do for football camp on July 30th, when we really don’t have much of a resolution of what that’s going to look like,” Mike Elko of Texas A&M said. He can’t be more right. July’s creeping in and so in uncertainty. At the SEC’s spring meetings in Destin, Florida, the suits are sweating more from playoff politics than the Gulf Coast humidity. And right at the center of this gridiron storm is SEC commissioner Greg Sankey.
Ross Dellenger gave a report of Greg Sankey’s verdict on the SEC’s conundrum in an X post on May 28. “Greg Sankey says the timeframe by which the SEC must decide on moving to nine conference games for 2026 will arrive sooner, he suggests, than the deadline to decide a future CFP format. ‘I’m not sure we can work through our (CFP) obligations,’ by that deadline.” Yeah, the SEC is staring down a playoff scheduling crisis while keeping the CFP future pending.
Greg Sankey says the timeframe by which the SEC must decide on moving to nine conference games for 2026 will arrive sooner, he suggests, than the deadline to decide a future CFP format.
“I’m not sure we can work through our (CFP) obligations,” by that deadline.
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) May 28, 2025
The heart of this dilemma is whether to stick with eight conference games or jump to nine in 2026. On the surface, it’s a numbers game. But if you dig deeper, it’s a chess match tied to the CFP’s next iteration. If the SEC and Big Ten are guaranteed automatic berths in an expanded format, we could be looking at a seismic shift — no more conference championship games, but instead, play-in games before the playoffs.
In another post, Dellenger added, “SEC ADs told @YahooSports that the deadline to decide on the 2026 SEC football schedule – 9 games or 8 – is, at latest, by the start of this coming football season. There is a real chance that the CFP format negotiations extend into the fall.” That’s like trying to call a fourth-down play with two QBs in the huddle and no idea what the defense is showing. The SEC has long cherished its traditions with rivalries like Alabama-Tennessee, Auburn-Georgia, and Texas-Texas A&M. A nine-game schedule keeps those alive. But if the league doesn’t adapt, it may lose more than rivalries, it may lose leverage in how the postseason is decided. And there’s more thunder to this storm.
Greg Sankey fires shot at the Big 12 and ACC
“I don’t need lectures from others about the good of the game… or coordinating press releases about the good of the game,” Greg Sankey bluntly said this week, casting a hard stone towards the Big 12 and ACC. “You can issue your press statement, but I’m actually looking for ideas to move us forward.” This came after rumors swirled that the two leagues were pushing a CFP format that might diminish SEC influence. The Big 12 denied it with VP of communications Clark Williams’ X response — “There was no press release from the Big 12 — let alone a coordinated one with the ACC — regarding straight seeding.”
But Greg Sankey is making his voice heard. This isn’t a negotiation. It’s a reckoning and he wants action. Expansion to 16 teams is on the table and with it, a power grab. Four automatic bids each for the SEC and Big Ten, two each for the Big 12 and ACC, one for Notre Dame or the best of the Group of Five. And the rest three are at large selections. Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin summed it up best saying, “The best system with 16 should be the 16 best. I don’t know exactly how that’s figured out.” And neither does anyone else right now.
The deadline for the decision of the 16-team CFP format will be anytime before November 31st or December 1st, per Sankey’s prior announcement. Whatever happens between that period will reshape the CFP as we know it.
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