His state-of-the-league address, an annual commencement for the SEC Football Media Days, contained the requisite gristle — an acknowledgement of conference attendance figures, sprawling viewership, and championships won over the recent academic year.
Then, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey cut into the meatier issues Monday morning. Among them: the ongoing deliberations of whether his league should move from an eight- to nine-game conference football schedule.
It was on this seemingly perpetual topic in which Sankey, who has struck a defiant tone with reporters recently on college football’s more pressing issues, got particularly scrappy in defense of the status quo.
“It is absolutely, fully, 100% correct that in the SEC we play eight conference games while some others play nine conference games,” Sankey said Monday morning from a podium at the College Football Hall of Fame in downtown Atlanta.
“It’s also correct that last season, all 16 members of the Southeastern Conference played at least nine games against what you would label ‘power opponents.’ We had several that played 10 of their 12 games against ‘power’ opponents. Some conferences have that, some don’t. The same will be true this year.
“I don’t believe there’s anyone looking to swap their conference schedule and its opponents with the opponents played by Southeastern Conference teams and our conference schedule, be it eight or nine.”
Still, the possibility of a move to a nine-game slate remains as Sankey and his peers seek a better grasp of how the College Football Playoff evaluates strength of schedule — and even strength of record — in its rankings. The CFP is expected to present its final version of new, refined metrics involving strength of schedule in mid-August, when its 13-person selection committee convenes in Colorado…
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Publish date : 2025-07-14 16:07:00
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