Greg Sankey explains the possibility of moving College Football Playoff closer to regular season

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey recently explained his thoughts on the possibility of moving the College Football Playoff closer to the regular season and what it would take to accomplish that.

During a conversation with Joel Klatt, Sankey said that at this point there are a couple of different options being discussed.

“What’s contemplated is two weeks and then about 10 days,” Sankey said. “So, depending on one’s ranking, the break is an open week, and from my position, there’s some health issues when you go through the season, provide that break, and then provide a rotation of games.”

As Sankey explained, there are problems with moving games up. That includes the academic schedule and finding a way to schedule Playoff games around existing events that the CFP wouldn’t want to go head-to-head with.

“Because there are also demands in December on campus that an NFL team will never experience that a young person on a college campus will. Conclusion of the academic semester and then final exams. So, I would generally say I think we have a decent pacing. Where we place those games long term is a bit of a question, because you have factors of conference championship games, Army–Navy, NFL playoff games — I should say the NFL regular season, which has been extended — then the playoff games. How do you fit around those pieces? So, I think there’s work to be done there. I agree in that sense,” Sankey said.

“And then on the kind of space issue, one of the interesting pieces of what we’re dealing with right now is wanting to respect genuinely the student-athlete voice, and that’s a point of influence that we have to consider. Now, I’m interested in the voice of the young person who is a scholarship football student-athlete, who is recruited, who plays. To make those decisions, we need those voices. Not their advisors, not the people around them, not the swimmer to talk about the football season or the baseball player or the golfer who’s playing in college, we need to hear from high-level football players.”

Sankey went on to explain that consulting with players is nothing new, pointing to the pandemic.

“You want to know the group that made one of the most important contributions during Covid to our decision making was our football student athlete leadership group who met that definition, some of whom are in the NFL now…I’ll be swabbed every day if I can play on Saturday. I mean, that’s a pretty clear guiding principle that you weren’t hearing through the summer of ’20 in the New York Times or the Washington Post, but that’s the voice I wanted…when we’ve talked about the Playoff, I’ve asked about adding games, which isn’t universal but at a high-level, there’s a potential for adding an additional game in the future, and the feedback from our leadership council is it’s not the number of games, it’s what happens over the full year,” Sankey said.

“Out of season, spring, offseason, summer workouts, preseason, and then back to in-season. So, how do we think deeply from that perspective? So, if we go back to the calendar structure in the season, downtime, how do we keep young people engaged in a healthy way? Because I do think, to your point, when you’re busier, you’re more effective. There’s an inflection point when you’re too busy, you do need a break. We all need open weeks now and then.”

At the end of the day, it’s clear that the athletes will be involved in this conversation.

“But our student-athletes are going to have to be a part of that. We’ve kind of pivoted to the old advisory council. All the sports contribute and make their observations, but we have to bring in that voice as well.”

Greg Sankey on his ideal for the future of the College Football Playoff

Greg Sankey may not like to admit that he’s one of the most influential people in college sports. However, it’s clear that when he speaks, people listen. That includes when he explains his thoughts on the ideal future of the College Football Playoff, which is set to expand to 12 teams in 2024.

“I’ll go back to the evaluation of the model that was directed by the presidents focused on ’26, so thank you for reading that press release with intent, and then if possible expand early. So a lot of work and a lot of attention on the early expansion, and rightfully so, we need to be thinking about ’26 because that’s tomorrow in our work,” Sankey said.

“What I would like to see is the ability to have some cleanliness to the conclusion of the current set of agreements. And that’s with the broadcaster, with the bowl games, with the other entities attached so that we can then make decisions in the marketplace fully. I think that’s really really healthy for the game of college football, so that’s big picture.”