BleedGopher
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 11, 2008
- Messages
- 60,765
- Reaction score
- 16,158
- Points
- 113
per Pete Thamel:
With all respect to the rapt attention that will be paid to the verbal donnybrook between Alabama's Nick Saban and Texas A&M's Jimbo Fisher, there are more pressing matters that will unfold when SEC officials meet in Destin, Fla., for their annual meetings next week.
With the SEC poised to expand to 16 teams when Oklahoma and Texas join the league in 2025, the way the league plots its future may also reverberate deeply through the future of college football and the entire collegiate landscape.
Sounds dramatic, right? Well, the SEC has delivered plenty of drama in the last calendar year -- on and off the field. And the way the SEC constructs its future will be felt by all leagues, as any SEC scheduling decision must take into consideration what the College Football Playoff will look like. And that's where things get interesting, as no one knows what that will look like after 2025.
One variable that shouldn't be underestimated is that SEC commissioner Greg Sankey is still mad about the way the College Football Playoff expansion talks collapsed earlier this year. He's been openly vocal about his displeasure, and that's going to guide league decision making. There's been a general erosion of trust on the collegiate commissioner landscape since the chaotic COVID-19-addled summer of 2020.
"Whatever collegiality existed among those five commissioners appears to be gone," said a veteran collegiate official. "Sankey's in such a catbird seat right now."
The notion of the playoff expanding to 12 teams during the current contract was officially dashed in February, meaning a four-team playoff through the 2025 season. From there, uncertainty has increased about formats.
One idea certain to be discussed by SEC officials in Destin is the notion of the SEC creating, running and profiting from its own intra-SEC postseason. The most obvious model is an eight-team one, but there are others that will be discussed.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey stressed that no seismic change is imminent. But he did mention that an SEC-only playoff, in a variety of forms, was among the nearly 40 different models that SEC officials discussed at their fall meetings.
"As we think as a conference," he told ESPN on Monday, "it's vitally important we think about the range of possibilities."
Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin echoed that notion to ESPN: "We have an incredibly strong league, one that will be even stronger once Oklahoma and Texas join. The focus should be on how we as a league use that strength to further position the SEC as we face new realities. Commissioner Sankey has encouraged our athletic directors to think creatively, and an SEC-only playoff is a different idea that we should absolutely consider an option."
What would that look like? We'll explore more later. But could we see an eight-team tournament that eventually faces the winner of some other group -- The Alliance? The Big Ten? The rest of the leagues playing in a different postseason? Or, perhaps they all get mad at the SEC and don't play their winner. We're in a world of hypotheticals on hypotheticals.
"We need to engage in blue-sky thinking, which is you detach from reality," Sankey told ESPN. "What are the full range of possibilities?"
www.espn.com
Go Gophers!!
With all respect to the rapt attention that will be paid to the verbal donnybrook between Alabama's Nick Saban and Texas A&M's Jimbo Fisher, there are more pressing matters that will unfold when SEC officials meet in Destin, Fla., for their annual meetings next week.
With the SEC poised to expand to 16 teams when Oklahoma and Texas join the league in 2025, the way the league plots its future may also reverberate deeply through the future of college football and the entire collegiate landscape.
Sounds dramatic, right? Well, the SEC has delivered plenty of drama in the last calendar year -- on and off the field. And the way the SEC constructs its future will be felt by all leagues, as any SEC scheduling decision must take into consideration what the College Football Playoff will look like. And that's where things get interesting, as no one knows what that will look like after 2025.
One variable that shouldn't be underestimated is that SEC commissioner Greg Sankey is still mad about the way the College Football Playoff expansion talks collapsed earlier this year. He's been openly vocal about his displeasure, and that's going to guide league decision making. There's been a general erosion of trust on the collegiate commissioner landscape since the chaotic COVID-19-addled summer of 2020.
"Whatever collegiality existed among those five commissioners appears to be gone," said a veteran collegiate official. "Sankey's in such a catbird seat right now."
The notion of the playoff expanding to 12 teams during the current contract was officially dashed in February, meaning a four-team playoff through the 2025 season. From there, uncertainty has increased about formats.
One idea certain to be discussed by SEC officials in Destin is the notion of the SEC creating, running and profiting from its own intra-SEC postseason. The most obvious model is an eight-team one, but there are others that will be discussed.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey stressed that no seismic change is imminent. But he did mention that an SEC-only playoff, in a variety of forms, was among the nearly 40 different models that SEC officials discussed at their fall meetings.
"As we think as a conference," he told ESPN on Monday, "it's vitally important we think about the range of possibilities."
Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin echoed that notion to ESPN: "We have an incredibly strong league, one that will be even stronger once Oklahoma and Texas join. The focus should be on how we as a league use that strength to further position the SEC as we face new realities. Commissioner Sankey has encouraged our athletic directors to think creatively, and an SEC-only playoff is a different idea that we should absolutely consider an option."
What would that look like? We'll explore more later. But could we see an eight-team tournament that eventually faces the winner of some other group -- The Alliance? The Big Ten? The rest of the leagues playing in a different postseason? Or, perhaps they all get mad at the SEC and don't play their winner. We're in a world of hypotheticals on hypotheticals.
"We need to engage in blue-sky thinking, which is you detach from reality," Sankey told ESPN. "What are the full range of possibilities?"
Could the SEC stage its own football playoff? It's all on the table at spring meetings
Would the SEC think about really shaking up the college football landscape with its own playoff? Greg Sankey addresses that and more ahead of the league's spring meetings next week.
www.espn.com
Go Gophers!!
