MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla.—The SEC spring meetings begin here Tuesday May 27 at the Sandestin Hilton with much of the discussion centered on the College Football Playoff format for 2026 and whether the conference will move towards a nine-game schedule that season.
Commissioner Greg Sankey, speaking on the eve of the meetings, said expanding the playoff from 12 to 16 teams “has more traction in my league than I would have anticipated. Sixteen has become more central in the conversation.”
The SEC got three teams—Georgia football, Texas and Tennessee in the field last season—while 9-3 teams Alabama and Ole Miss were left out.
Indiana at 11-1 and SMU at 11-2 got in as at large teams but their strength of schedule were called into question.
“It’s clear that not losing becomes in many ways more important than beating the University of Georgia which two of our teams that were left out did,” Sankey said referring to Alabama and Ole Miss.
Of course, Ole Miss also lost to Kentucky at home and Alabama also lost to Vanderbilt and Oklahoma.
Sankey has referenced Nebraska pulling out a series with Tennessee while citing the CFP selection process.
“If we’re going to just incentivize wins, playing fewer winning teams can get you to more wins,” Sankey said. “I don’t think that’s great for football.”
A leading 16-team playoff model would give the SEC and Big Ten four automatic spots in the CFP.
There’s also discussion about SEC play-in games on championship weekend.
“We’re not committed to any particular format,” Sankey said. “We’re interested.”
Sankey would like to preserve marquee nonconference matchups already on the books and has told that to the 16 SEC athletic directors.
“We’ve had discussions with our ADs who are thinking about maybe I shouldn’t play this game, ‘Don’t walk away at this…
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Publish date : 2025-05-27 00:38:00
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