With the SEC meetings underway in Florida, there are already shots being fired with the likely future of the College Football Playoff potentially on the line in the days ahead.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey is incapable of answering how continuing to create a Power 2 with the SEC and Big Ten is good for the future of college football, so he prefers to play the victim card.
Sankey said on Monday from Florida that he didn’t want to be lectured about the good of the game from others. However, his implication that the Big 12 and the ACC were sending out press releases in the wake of the College Football Playoff moving to a straight-seeding model last week were just inaccurate.
Here’s what Big 12 VP of Communications Clark Williams wrote on social media in response to this comment from Sankey.
See, Greg Sankey has no choice here. He can’t justify his plans to try and ruin college football. He can’t speak to what’s in the best interests of the sport as a whole. So he plays the “I don’t need lectures” card. The problem, of course, is that there never was any lecture. No lecture, as he might define it, ever existed. Some may call this, “Fake news”.
And good on the Big 12 for making this important fact check of the SEC’s leader. The sport needs it.
Future College Football Playoff Structure
Now that being said, the Big 12 Conference needs to stick together with the ACC in pushing back against the SEC and Big Ten, especially when it comes to the future of a potential 16-team College Football Playoff.
We know the Big Ten and SEC want four automatic bids for their conferences, with the Big 12 and ACC each receiving two.
However, as Brett McMurphy has reported, the Big Ten and SEC have each been proposed a plan with five automatic bids for the Power 4 champions and one Group of 6, with the remaining 11 filled with at-large bids.
The Big Ten and SEC have not responded to that proposal, as of this column. But it’s important to note that the SEC and Big Ten hold most of the cards here. According to Ross Dellenger from Yahoo Sports, from those who have viewed the memorandum, the agreement grants the Big Ten and SEC control over the College Football Playoff format in 2026 and beyond, but directs them to have “meaningful consultation” and collect “input” from the other conferences and TV partner, ESPN.
It’s war between the college football power conferences. And the Big 12 needs to fight like it’s future depends on it. Because it does.
