Greg Sankey offers ‘no apologies’ for SEC football scheduling challenge

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Greg Sankey isn’t running from the scheduling challenges SEC football teams face in their quest to win the College Football Playoff championship.

But Sankey, on the verge of his 12th year as the SEC commissioner, makes no apologies and does not seem on the verge of any concessions on account of the league’s depth of quality teams and talent.

“It’s hard — every one of our coaches will tell you, whatever the sport is, (and) that’s what you want; you want to challenge yourself as a competitor,” Sankey said while speaking at the APSE Southeast Regional Meeting on Monday at the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.

“So, no apologies for a hard schedule.”

Georgia was the most recent SEC team to win a College Football Playoff after the 2022 season, as Big Ten teams have captured the past three championships.

Sankey cited history when asked by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution about how the rigors of a nine-game schedule, coupled with a league title game, could lead to more player attrition and diminish CFP hopes.

“I think Roy (Kramer) had that back in the day, (that) we’d never win another national championship because of the conference championship game,” Sankey said, referring to former SEC commissioner Roy Kramer’s decision to introduce the league title game in 1992.

Kirby Smart has been among the coaches to discuss the inherent physicality in the league — the SEC set a record with 87 players selected in the most recent NFL draft — and how that plays into a team’s title hopes and scheduling.

“I don’t think we actually know the effect of the nine-game (SEC schedule) will be,” Smart said. “I think it will be very interesting to look back and say, ‘OK, this is when we did it, and what has the fallout been?”

Georgia and Florida State canceled their 2027 and 2028 home-and-home series soon after Smart’s comments, providing some insight into the fallout the Bulldogs’ 11th-year head coach was likely referring to.

Sankey said he believes such games are important, and he’s hopeful SEC teams will continue to schedule them.

“I do think that national games with other conferences or with Notre Dame are really important for a couple of reasons,” Sankey said. “People want to see them, young people want to experience different competition at the highest level.

“I think it also helps the committee, in the selection process, make decisions.”

Sankey said it’s important to “remember some of the benefits” of the nine-game league schedule, with fans getting to see their favorite team play all of the other teams in the league over a four-year window, both home and away.

“I think that’s really good for college football and really good for Southeastern Conference football,” said Sankey, who on June 1 will begin his 12th year as the league’s commissioner.

“I know it’s hard, but there are a lot of rewards for doing hard things, like visibility, salary, support and staffing, and that’s the balance.”

Sankey said he met with the SEC football coaches in February and heard their concerns, and he anticipates more voices and opinions at the SEC spring meetings later this month in Destin, Florida.

“I hear their perspective, I understand their pressures, and they understand my perspective,” Sankey said, noting that the SEC is under contract to play a league championship game (through at least 2031).

“That doesn’t mean we always agree, but we can work forward and make informed decisions.”

Sankey said keeping at least one intersectional game remains a priority, noting Georgia plays Georgia Tech annually, and pointed out that home-and-home series have “pivoted to neutral sites before.”

UGA athletic director Josh Brooks hinted in the school’s release on the home-and-home cancellation that the Bulldogs and Seminoles could work out a neutral site agreement — something that would serve each school from both a fan interest and financial perspective.

Smart and other SEC coaches have recently been vocal about the need to expand the CFP from 12 teams to 16 or 24 teams.

Sankey, like Smart, agrees there could come a point where having too many teams in the CFP diminishes the regular season.

“There is a tipping point (when it comes to meaningful games) in November — at any level of expansion, there will be games that didn’t matter in a smaller number that now matter in a bigger number,” Sankey said.

“But there’s another side to that coin where the next-to-last weekend (regular season), that right now is critically important, might not matter in the same way (if there was a 24-team field).

“If we’re honest, that’s an unknown. We are trying to inform that through research. There are a lot of ideas out there that have to be supported with analysis and information, not speculation.”

Sankey indicated collegiate sports should follow the model set by professional sports when it comes to expanding the playoff field.