Greg Sankey makes case for SEC to receive CFP bid regardless of champion

Saturday’s SEC Championship doesn’t just have a conference title on the line. It will also have big-time College Football Playoff implications with Georgia and Alabama in the top 10 of the latest rankings.

A Bulldogs victory would guarantee the SEC gets a berth in the CFP. But a win for the one-loss Crimson Tide would make for an interesting discussion ahead of Sunday’s final rankings reveal. It’s worth wondering if that would mean the SEC would be out of the top four for the first time in the College Football Playoff’s 10-year history.

Commissioner Greg Sankey, during an appearance on The Paul Finebaum Show, said he could predict the league will be in the CFP. But he said the selection committee has to look at more than just one week’s worth of games. He also argued that should help the SEC’s case to have a team in the field.

“You would expect me to say — as the SEC commissioner on the SEC Network — that clearly, an SEC team will be a part of those four,” Sankey said. “And I think, big picture, the selection committee has a responsibility. They don’t look at just one week. It’s the full body of work.

“We have two teams with an additional game — by the way, the highest-level game that’s being played. And the game that, when you look at the percentages from all of these analytics, is predicted to be the closest from a competitive standpoint. I think that’s an indication of both teams’ meritful consideration, and depending on who wins, could create a level of chaos or perhaps it could be straightforward. But that’s why we play the games.”

Greg Sankey: 2023 SEC Championship has the ‘it just means more’ feel

This isn’t the first time two of the CFP’s top teams have met in the SEC Championship. In 2018, it was No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 4 Georgia, and it was No. 1 LSU and No. 4 Georgia in 2019. The most recent occurrence was in 2021 with No. 1 Georgia and No. 3 Alabama squaring off.

Sankey said the fact that all eyes will be on Atlanta shows the SEC’s place in the college football landscape. Add in the league’s success in the CFP over the years, and he argued it’s clear it should have some representation in the top four regardless of Saturday’s winner.

“I think the intensity and the level of interest in what happens in Atlanta is a reflection of who we are, it’s a reflection of 1 vs. 8,” Sankey said. “We’ve had 1-2. We’ve had 1-3. I don’t know if we’ve had 1-8. We were 1 and double-digits last year. This one has that, ‘It just means more’ feel and it’s gonna lead to an opportunity.

“You look at our postseason success, in the CFP, I think we’ve lost three total games in nine years — a semifinal game in ’14, two to Clemson. The only other time SEC teams have lost in the entire College Football Playoff is to each other. What that indicates is to the regular season, there’s something different here from a competitive level standpoint. And that will be honored when selection comes.”