Greg Sankey debates SEC’s strength of schedule in College Football Playoff conversation

Five spots will be automatically handed out in this year’s College Football Playoff, leaving the committee with seven decisions to make. A ton of metrics will be used to decide who should be included in the 12-team tournament, with strength of schedule surely being an important one. It’s an area SEC commissioner Greg Sankey is quite confident in.

Sankey used Georgia as an example, saying Kirby Smart‘s team could finish with three losses and still be one of the best teams in the country. Already dropping one to Alabama was tough but Georgia still faces Ole Miss and Texas on the road plus Tennessee in Athens. Three other rivalry games are sprinkled in there too, beginning with Auburn on Saturday.

Point being — it’s a tough schedule for the Bulldogs and despite having multiple losses, Sankey believes they theoretically should be compared to a one or two-loss non-SEC team.

“At 9-3, they could be a top four or five team,” Sankey said. “The question is — how will people examine those numbers vs. another team that could be 11-1 and 10-2? I’ve raised that issue. I do think we’ve benefitted from strength of schedule.”

Georgia will also play 10 power conference games after opening the season against Clemson and ending with Georgia Tech. Multiple others will face nine due to nonconference rivalry games while Florida has 11 due to in-state matchups against Miami, Florida State, and UCF.

Sankey does admit not every schedule in the SEC this season was created equally. It’s a new system for the conference after adding Texas and Oklahoma, moving away from the divisions, and putting all 16 teams into one pool.

But having previous success in the CFP is something Sankey wants to give the SEC the benefit of the doubt.

“When we put the new format together with single division, I would look at somebody’s schedule and say ‘Wow, that’s a really tough schedule.’ Then look at somebody else’s and say ‘That’s a really, really difficult schedule by comparison.’ … I think we’ve earned respect over time and a lot of football to be played.”