Greg Sankey reacts to CFP rankings backlash, SEC positions: 'Are you watching the football games?'

Within seconds of Tuesday night’s release of the College Football Playoff’s penultimate Top 25 ranking, where a three-loss Alabama edged out a two-loss Miami for what is effectively the final at-large bid in the 12-team field, many took to social media to express their disgust.

“Things never change,” CBS Sports analyst Danny Kanell wrote on X/Twitter. “Brands over merit.”

The implication, of course, was that the Crimson Tide’s nationally-recognized brand – built by its decades-long dominion over college football under now-former head coach Nick Saban – had ultimately swayed the 13-member CFP selection committee to pick Alabama at No. 11 over the 12th-ranked Hurricanes, which dropped six spots from the prior week’s rankings after a Week 14 loss to Syracuse.

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey countered that backlash, and any narrative about the Playoff committee’s perceived “SEC bias,” by pointing to what has happened on the field this season.

“I think the reaction to the rankings about brands, I’d ask people on the outside that are commenting about brands: Are you watching the football games?” Sankey told Paul Finebaum on Friday afternoon’s The Paul Finebaum Show on-site in Atlanta. “I know the committee is. The committee engages in really in-depth analysis. You may disagree. (But), I could make the case we have two other teams (No. 13 Ole Miss and No. 14 South Carolina) that merit the kind of consideration even compared to some others who are outside our conference, but the committee makes that decision and we’ve entrusted them with that.”

CFP committee chairman Warde Manuel, the Michigan athletic director, explained the group’s decision-making process Tuesday night, citing Alabama’s 3-1 record against current Top 25 teams (Miami is 0-1 by the same metric), and its 6-1 mark vs. teams with a .500 or better winning percentage (the ‘Canes are 4-2).

“The amount of outside noise on X and opining and kind of going back and forth is an interesting development, I think that’s culturally what’s happening. But the committee’s going to go in and shut itself off and make some decisions, and those are going to be hard decisions,” Sankey said. “Yet I think this isn’t about our brand, I think this is about our football. This is about what happens on the field.

“And again, this isn’t about two losses vs. three losses. … The criteria has other specific issues and being undefeated or having one less loss than another team, that’s actually not in the criteria. And I think that has to be understood much more than this brand commentary.”

Paul Finebaum reacts to CFP committee taking Alabama over Miami

Like many across the college football world, Paul Finebaum watched Tuesday night’s release of the College Football Playoff’s penultimate Top 25 ranking with great anticipation.

And the SEC Network host wasn’t disappointed.

The 13-member College Football Playoff committee ignited another round of furious debate over what is expected to be the final at-large bid in its 12-team field when it ranked Alabama (9-3) at 11, one spot ahead of No. 12 Miami (10-2), sending fans of both the ACC and SEC into a frenzy.

To no one’s surprise, Finebaum agreed with the committee’s decision.

“I believe it was (the right choice), and I think (CFP committee chairman) Warde Manuel laid it out that Alabama’s resume is better against quality teams,” Finebaum said Wednesday morning on ESPN’s Get Up. “I’m sure people across the country, especially in South Florida, are screaming about that right now. But ultimately Miami did themselves in at the very end.”