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Greg Sankey focused on national view of expanded CFP: ‘We want CFB to be strong nationally’
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College football will change once more following the new additions of the College Football Playoff format. Initially set at 4 teams in 2014, the Playoff is set to expand to 12 teams following the 2025 season.
In a recent interview with ESPN, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said that one of the biggest goals moving forward for the new playoff format would be to help the sport expand outside of regional conversations.
“My view is how do you bring more people into November, including in our league,” Sankey said. “Our league would be fine, even at 16 teams with a four-team playoff. At 14, we’ve taken half the field a couple of times. Nobody else has done that. When we go to 16 and add Texas and Oklahoma, we’re not going to have less opportunity by adding those two. We’re going to have more.
“But we’ve excluded the West Coast and everything west of the Rockies for all but two years. We want college football to be strong nationally, and I think that’s the responsibility we all have.”
The SEC and B1G are 2 conferences expected to thrive under the new formatting. Both conferences are expanding its door with the additions of Oklahoma at Texas in the SEC, plus USC and UCLA in the B1G.
Since the start of the CFP, the SEC has dominated all aspects of the postseason. Despite having just 3 teams represented over the last 8 seasons, the league is the only conference to be represented each year. Of the 8 winners, the SEC has claimed the title 5 times.
Sankey is hopeful with the new formatting, the Playoff will continue to expand out west. The Pac-12 has only been represented in the CFP twice, once with Oregon in 2014 and once with Washington in 2017.
“The beauty of going to 12 is you could have as many as 40 teams with a chance to get into the Playoff entering November,” Sankey said.
Cole Thompson is a freelance writer for Saturday Tradition who has covered college football and the NFL for multiple websites. Thompson is currently based in Houston, Texas, and also can be heard daily on SportsMap National Radio's 'Just Sayin It' from 3am-6am.