SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey details why he's in favor of 12-team playoff

The College Football Playoff is moving to 12 teams for the 2024 season — a move that SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey believes is good for the sport.

Sankey explained why he is in favor of a 12-team playoff during ESPN College GameDay Saturday morning.

“Look at the opportunity for a program like Missouri to access the national championship bracket. I think that’s enormously important,” Sankey said. “I’d love to see Lane Kiffin in Columbus, Ohio in a couple of weeks. …  Penn State–Texas. I mean look at that. You’d have four SEC teams in the opening round based on next year’s configuration. And one waiting to see what happens. And then look how it plays out – that’s excitement for college football.”

As things stand, Georgia, Michigan, Washington and Florida State would receive a bye in the first round. And there would be plenty of intriguing matchups in the first round and beyond.

Some are concerned that expanding the College Football Playoff will lessen the excitement of the college football regular season. However, Sankey doesn’t see that as a concern.

“What you miss [this year] is all of the teams that went through November hoping to access that 12-team [playoff]. I think that’s part of what’s missed,” Sankey said. “When you went from 2 to 4, you affected the regular season. And there’s all of this talk about, ‘Well, it’s going to change the regular season.’ But when I’ve talked to football players in our league and in others, you want the opportunity to play for the national championship, especially when you get to the end of the season and things are going well.”

Even with the playoff expanding, Sankey also believes it’s important to continue conference championship games. Some have argued that conference championship games are pointless moving forward, because teams are going to be in the playoff regardless of the result.

But as Sankey pointed out, the current top four consists of four potential conference champions who could have a first-round bye in the playoff.

“Go to those quarterfinals – that’s part of the answer. So those are conference champions [getting byes] and part of the debate [has been] where do conference champions fit in this mix? It’s very clearly defined, you have to determine a conference champion,” Sankey said. “Do you wanna do that on paper, or do you wanna do that at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta with the greatest fans in college football?”