Will CFP format change again after consolidation of power leagues? SEC’s Greg Sankey: ‘We have a whole different dynamic’

LAS VEGAS — Greg Sankey is against rash changes to the current College Football Playoff format and selection process.

See what happens, he says. Watch the games unfold, he contends. And then, perhaps, consider alterations.

However, in an interview with Yahoo Sports on Tuesday, the SEC commissioner acknowledges that the 12-team format — one he helped create in 2020-21 — was intended for a world that featured five somewhat equitable power conferences and not the current landscape of four inequitable power leagues.

The most recent conference realignment strengthened the Big Ten and SEC as they absorbed previous brands from the Pac-12 (USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington) and Big 12 (Oklahoma and Texas).

“We’re seeing the stress points that we knew would be there, but I actually think they are as or more volatile than we thought,” he said from the Bellagio Casino and Resort in Las Vegas, where he will attend the National Football Foundation’s annual awards dinner on Tuesday night. “Now we have a whole different [conference] dynamic. So what happens?”

On Tuesday, in his first public comments since the reveal of the CFP bracket on Sunday, Sankey declined to comment, or offered only limited thoughts about potential changes to both the format and selection process. But conversations are expected to start next month when CFP leaders — conference commissioners and school presidents — gather at the site of the national championship game in Atlanta for their annual meetings.

Asked for his thoughts on this year’s selections and the future of the selection committee, he gave a one-sentence answer: “I need to have a much better understanding with their decision making than I have right now,” he said.

He did not expound on his answer and declined follow-up questions.

However, Sankey confirmed that changes to the CFP can be made as soon as next year’s playoff. But most or all of those changes are expected to require unanimity among the 10 FBS conferences, as the leagues remain bound to a previous agreement that expires after the 2025 postseason. The leagues agreed in the spring on a six-year extension through 2031 that does not require unanimity but does include agreed-upon guarantees for any future format: (1) the automatic inclusion of the five highest-ranked conference champions; (2) a protection for independent Notre Dame if the school finishes high enough in the committee’s rankings; (3) a field of 12 or 14 teams.

However, everything else can be changed, most notably the future of the automatic first-round byes designated for conference champions; the number of automatic qualifiers designated per conference; and the selection and seeding process of the 13-member committee.

This year’s bracket does not align with the committee’s rankings because of the rule granting only conference champions a first-round bye and the top four seeds in the field. For example, Boise State, No. 9 in the committee’s rankings, is seeded No. 3 as the third-highest ranked champion, and Arizona State, No. 12, is seeded No. 4 — each with first-round byes over higher-ranked teams, such as No. 5 Texas and No. 6 Penn State.

It sets up one of the more difficult paths for No. 1 seed Oregon, which meets the winner of the Nos. 8-9 seed game between Ohio State and Tennessee, two teams ranked No. 6-7, but seeded lower because of the first-round bye rule.

Asked about that rule, Sankey said he will “wait to answer that” until a later date.

Big Ten and SEC officials, as well as other highly placed sources around college athletics, believe that leaders will re-examine the first-round bye rule, potentially seeding the field in alignment with the rankings. If that happened this year, the top four seeds would be No. 1 Oregon, No. 2 Georgia, No. 3 Texas and No. 4 Penn State. The 8-9 game would feature Boise State-Indiana, instead of Ohio State-Tennessee, for instance.

There is another potential alteration, too.

During CFP negotiations in the spring, the Big Ten proposed a 12- or 14-team bracket that designated three automatic berths each for the SEC and Big Ten, two each for the ACC and Big 12, one for the highest-ranked Group of Five champion and one or three at-large selections. The automatic berths would presumably be based on conference standings.

Such a concept — multiple automatic bids — may come with a reimagining of conference championship weekend. At the very least, officials have discussed a play-in style conference tournament where winners punch their bids into the playoff. For instance, if the Big Ten gets three automatic bids, perhaps their No. 3 and No. 4 seeds meet in a play-in game.

Sankey has declined to publicly comment about the proposal, but on Tuesday he discussed the selection process, which has been heavily criticized this year.

“There is feedback about, ‘Let’s go back to the BCS and let the computers do it,’” said Sankey. “Well, in the BCS era, we said, ‘We need people!’”

If computers and humans are not the solution to selecting playoff teams, doesn’t that leave one last effort — for conference standings to determine the field? “I’m not commenting on that, but you can draw that conclusion,” Sankey said.

The rule permitting five conference champions into the field “displaced” three of Sankey’s teams and one ACC team, he said. No. 11 Alabama, No. 13 Miami, No. 14 Ole Miss and No. 15 South Carolina were left out. No. 16 Clemson, the fifth-highest ranked conference champion, earned the automatic bid into the field.

“That was going to be a problem. We’ve seen that problem now,” Sankey said. “Not all things are created equal or formed equally.”

The latest conference realignment wave consolidated some of the biggest brands into two leagues, swelling the strength of the SEC and Big Ten and impacting the playoff field. For example, if applying the 12-team format to the previous 10 years — when the former Pac-12 existed — only once would a Group of Five champion get a first-round bye and that example came during the shortened COVID season in 2020.

This year, the ACC champion and Big 12 champion finished behind the G5’s Boise State, champion of the Mountain West.

At a Sports Business Journal forum held Tuesday in Las Vegas, CFP executive director Rich Clark was asked about potential changes to the CFP.

“We’re going to present options to the commissioners, and they’re going to have discussions about that,” he said.