SEC commissioner Greg Sankey is now in favor of a nine-game conference schedule moving forward.
However, Sankey has one caveat: An expanded conference schedule should not impact the SEC teams’ chances in the College Football Playoff. The conference, which has 16 members, has debated expanding to an additional conference game in years past, especially with the addition of Texas and Oklahoma from the Big 12 last year.
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The merits of an eight vs nine-game schedule became a topic of debate after the former Big 12 bluebloods joined the SEC, with legacy matchups being a point of contention. Ultimately, the conference decided to keep the eight-game format for the time being while doing away with the conference’s divisions, but it did not close the door on a nine-game schedule in the future.
While Sankey has privately voiced support for a nine-game conference schedule behind the scenes, according to The Athletic, he confirmed on an appearance on the Paul Finebaum Show on the SEC Network on Monday that how the conference performs in getting to the College Football Playoff harmed progress to already expanding to nine games. The SEC had three teams out of 12 reach the first CFP last season due to the committee prioritizing losses.
“One of the issues in the room for our athletics directors is what seemed to matter most, is the number to the right, the number of losses. And how do we understand what that means for our schedule moving forward?” Sankey said. “I’m one who said I really think we ought to be trying to move towards a nine-game conference schedule. I think that can be positive for a lot of reasons. You watch the interest around conference games.
“But not if that causes us to lose opportunities.”
Sankey…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/article/sec-commissioner-greg-sankey-favor-014849419.html
Author : The Tennessean
Publish date : 2025-03-04 01:48:00
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