Greg Sankey: College Football Playoff committee focused on expansion, replacing Bill Hancock

The College Football Playoff is preparing to go through major changes after this year. Starting in 2024, the field will feature 12 teams, although the format is a key conversation following the major conference realignment shakeups.

According to SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, though, getting through the expansion is critical to determining the future of the CFP.

During an appearance on The Paul Finebaum Show, Sankey said getting the CFP to 12 teams is atop the list of things to do. Not far behind that is finding a replacement for Bill Hancock, the outgoing Executive Director who announced his pending retirement in 2025. The goal is to have a replacement in place by the time this year’s games start, and the CFP brought in a search firm to help with the process.

As the CFP determines its next steps, Sankey said the conversation starts with those two topics and are the focal points right now.

“Very much focused on the expansion to 12 teams,” Sankey said. “And that has to be priority No. 1 for us. We also have an effort that was launched back in June that will move along quite rapidly to find the next Executive Director for the College Football Playoff. Those two elements of work are time consuming and take a lot of energy and focus. And so, those priorities are real.”

Where things stand with the CFP and its next media rights deal

The CFP still has some time to decide what’s next for its media partner. The current deal with ESPN expires at the end of the 2025 season, and suitors have lined up. Front Office Sports previously reported NBC’s interest in a piece of the deal while Apple and Amazon also held “preliminary discussions” about getting involved.

Sankey said there are a few layers to that discussion, from scheduling to how the bowl games fit into the picture, especially with expansion looming.

“People have speculated about media. What do we do about our media agreements moving forward?” Sankey said. “We’ve had and still have a great relationship with ESPN. But as the Playoff expands, that causes us to have to look in a different way as we come to the conclusion of a set of 12-year contracts, which happened after the ’25 season.

“We have to prepare for, what do our relationships with bowls look like? And what do we look like from a scheduling standpoint, if we have a little bit more flexibility? Those are, really, the key decisions.”

How conference realignment fallout could change the College Football Playoff picture

Under the current 12-team College Football Playoff format, the six highest-ranked conference champions will receive bids along with six at-large teams. Presumably, that would leave room for the current Autonomous 5 leagues and a Group of 5 team.

However, the Pac-12 is now down to just two members after this season. Four teams are heading to the Big Ten, four more left for the Big 12 and two are joining the ACC. That leaves Washington State and Oregon State behind. While there could be a path for the Pac-12 to stay together, the idea of some kind of merger with the Mountain West has been floated, as On3’s Eric Prisbell has reported.

As for how it impacts the CFP, Sankey said that wasn’t a big part of the meetings. While Washington State athletic director Pat Chun made a presentation — for which Sankey wasn’t in attendance — those talks will likely come down the road.

“We didn’t spend a lot of time in our last couple of in-person meetings talking about the particular dynamic with the changes in the Pac-12,” Sankey said. “We know that’s out there. Certainly, there are questions asked. I was at the NCAA council meeting. There have been reports — and I was not in the room when Pat Chun, the Washington State athletic director, kind of shared a perspective from, I think, Washington State and Oregon State. Certainly, respectful of the challenges they face.

“I think the time for more conversation about that will come, but it hasn’t been something that has been central in our meetings of the College Football Playoff management committee in the last 60-90 days because we have so many important, kind of immediate decisions in front of us now.”