Greg Sankey looks back on ‘alliance’ between conferences, impact on CFP talks

Two years ago, just days before the start of the 2021 college football season, the Pac-12, ACC and Big 12 announced an alliance that was historic at the time but laughable in hindsight. The SEC had just announced the future additions of Texas and Oklahoma, while the Big Ten lurked quietly in the shadows, ready to snatch up the L.A.-based schools next summer. A new wave of conference realignment scared the remaining power conferences into merging for an alliance — with the thought that they wouldn’t compete with each other in realignment.

Well, that was all a bunch of nonsense — because roughly 700 days later, the Pac-12 has been completely pillaged by the Big Ten and Big 12 and could even see some teams leave for the ACC. Meanwhile, some current ACC teams are actively seeking for a way out that league. In review, the alliance was brief and virtually useless. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey still doesn’t understand why it existed, he explained on the Paul Finebaum Show the other day.

“I go back to probably early August ’21 — and there was an alliance formed and announced, and a zoom press conference, and then quickly went into meetings and everything stopped,” said Sankey. “I think, looking back, that was really unfortunate and unnecessary, and there wasn’t a great deal of clarity around the why.“

Harsh words from the SEC leader on the alliance some of his fellow conference commissioners formed out of panic two Augusts ago. However, he thinks part of that had to do with the College Football Playoff expansion — and that’s a topic he has always been interested in, since some parts of the country have failed to put teams in the playoff.

“The presidents reengaged last year — I think you and I had a conversation in August about renewed potential for the CFP format to be considered and expanded. One of the reasons I gave, as commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, is… even here in the SEC, we wanted college football to be strong nationally, and we’ve not seen a west-of-the-Rockies participant in the playoff since, I believe, 2016. So the expansion was about making sure we brought in western football.”

Now, west coast football will definitely be integrated into the larger college football landscape a little bit more, since two of the four remaining power conferences (Big Ten, Big 12) have schools in the pacific time zone, including several former Pac-12 schools for each of them. And those are leagues that have consistently put their programs in the College Football Playoff.

With those changed could mean changes to the CFP format once again. But Greg Sankey says such discussions have not taken place yet.

“Well, now what’s happened is western football has come into other conferences,” Sankey added. “Circumstances have changed and it’s wise for us to take a step back and reconsider what the format might look like. We’ve not met on that, I’ve not had any meaningful conversations.”