LAS VEGAS – Greg Sankey is against hasty changes to the current College Football Playoff format and selection process.
Just look what happens, he says. Watch the matches unfold, he claims. And then maybe consider changes.
However, in an interview with Yahoo Sports on Tuesday, the SEC commissioner acknowledged that the 12-team format — one he helped create in 2020-21 — was intended for a world with five somewhat evenly matched power conferences and not the current landscape of four. unequal power relations.
The most recent conference realignment strengthened the Big Ten and SEC as it adopted previous brands from the Pac-12 (USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington) and Big 12 (Oklahoma and Texas).
“We’re seeing the stress points that we knew would be there, but I actually think they’re just as volatile or even more volatile than we thought,” he said from the Bellagio Casino and Resort in Las Vegas, where he is hosting the National Football Foundation’s will attend the meeting. annual awards dinner on Tuesday evening. “Now we have a very different (conference) dynamic. So what happens?”
On Tuesday, in his first public comments since unveiling the CFP bracket on Sunday, Sankey declined to comment or offered only limited thoughts on potential changes to both the format and the selection process. But the talks are expected to begin next month when CFP leaders – conference commissioners and school presidents – gather at the site of the national championship game in Atlanta for their annual meetings.
Asked for his thoughts on this year’s selections and the future of the selection committee, he gave a one-sentence answer: “I need to understand their decision-making much better than I have now,” he said.
He provided no explanation for his answer and declined to ask follow-up questions.
However, Sankey confirmed that changes could be made to the CFP once next year’s play-offs take place. But most or all of these changes are expected to require unanimity among the 10 FBS conferences, as the leagues remain bound by a previous agreement that expires after the 2025 postseason. The leagues agreed to a six-year extension in the spring through 2031, which does not require unanimity but does include agreed-upon guarantees for any future format: (1) the automatic inclusion of the five highest-ranked conference champions; (2) protection for independent Notre Dame if the school finishes high enough in the commission’s rankings; (3) a field of 12 or 14 teams.
Everything else is subject to change, however, most notably the future of automatic first-round byes earmarked for conference champions; the number of automatic qualifiers designated per conference; and the selection and placement process of the 13-member committee.
This year’s bracket does not match the committee’s rankings due to the rule that awards only conference champions a first-round bye and the top four seeds in the field. For example, Boise State, No. 9 in the committee’s rankings, is at No. 3 as the third-highest ranked champion, and Arizona State, No. 12, is at No. 4 – each with first-round byes over higher-ranked champions. ranked teams such as No. 5 Texas and No. 6 Penn State.
It sets up one of the tougher paths for No. 1 seed Oregon, which meets the winner of the Nos. 8-9 seed matchup between Ohio State and Tennessee, two teams ranked No. 6-7 but seeded lower due to the bye rule in the first round.
When asked about that rule, Sankey said he will “wait to answer that” until a later time.
Big Ten and SEC officials, as well as other highly placed college athletics sources, believe leaders will reexamine the first-round bye rule, potentially bringing the field in line with the rankings. If that were to happen this year, the top four seeds would be No. 1 Oregon, No. 2 Georgia, No. 3 Texas and No. 4 Penn State. For example, in the 8-9 game, Boise State would play Indiana, instead of Ohio State-Tennessee.
There is one other possible change.
During the spring CFP negotiations, the Big Ten proposed a bracket of 12 or 14 teams, each designating three automatic berths to the SEC and Big Ten, two each to the ACC and Big 12, and one each to the highest ranked Group of Five. champion and one or three major selections. The automatic berths would presumably be based on the conference rankings.
Sankey declined to comment publicly on the proposal, but on Tuesday he discussed the selection process, which has been heavily criticized this year.
“There’s feedback about, ‘Let’s go back to the BCS and let the computers do it,’” Sankey said. “Well, in the BCS era we said, ‘We need people!’”
If computers and humans aren’t the answer to selecting playoff teams, isn’t that left with one last effort: conference standings to determine the field? “I’m not going to comment on that, but you can draw that conclusion,” Sankey said.
The rule allowing five conference champions in the field “crowded out” three of Sankey’s teams and one ACC team, he said. No. No. 11 Alabama, No. 13 Miami, No. 14 Ole Miss and No. 15 South Carolina were omitted. No. 16 Clemson, the fifth-highest ranked conference champion, earned the automatic bid into the field.
“That would be a problem. We have now seen that problem,” Sankey said. “All things are not created equal or formed equal.”
The latest wave of conference realignments brought together some of the biggest brands into two leagues, expanding the power of the SEC and Big Ten and impacting the playoff field. For example, if you were to apply the 12-team format to the previous decade – when the former Pac-12 existed – the Group of Five champion would receive a first-round bye only once, and that example came during the shortened COVID season in 2020.
This year, the ACC champion and Big 12 champion finished behind G5 champion Boise State.
At a Sports Business Journal forum held Tuesday in Las Vegas, CFP Director Rich Clark was asked about possible changes to the CFP.
“We’re going to present options to the commissioners, and they’ll have discussions about that,” he said.
