Greg Sankey reveals his ideal situation for future College Football Playoff

The stage has been set for the 2024 and 2025 seasons as the College Football Playoff is scheduled to expand from four to 12 teams. This new change is an exciting one as the early debut seasons of the new model come with heaps of interest from fans, but what about the future of the 12-team playoff?

Joel Klatt welcomed SEC commissioner Greg Sankey on the latest ‘Big Noon Conversations’ edition of his show and the two discussed the expanded playoff model. But with a focus on the unscheduled year of 2026, where college football’s decision-makers will be able asses the playoff’s early stages and move forward from there.

“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,” Sankey said. “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.”

As exciting as the new playoff model is, its unprecedented nature presents many impactful factors that all rightfully deserve attention. Some of these factors could present challenges, and in the future following two seasons of the new 12-team playoff, Sankey would like to see those challenges fully ironed out and squared away.

“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,” Sankey explained.

The format is already been slated for the new playoff model, with the top four ranked teams being awarded a first-round bye and the No. 5 – No. 8 ranked teams receiving home-field advantage in their first-round playoff matchups.

On paper, that may seem simple, but the logistics behind the new playoff are plentiful and will likely take some adjusting in the new model’s two-year infancy stage.

“From the standpoint of the whens, I do think we have to look at the calendar, and that’s the discussion we had about the year long calendar. Particularly when you place games and then when those games are played at the end of the season, that then leads into dates, sites, times,” Sankey said. “I do think there has to be some spacing, particularly at that time of the year, because of travel which will be different and that’s both for fans and participants and then recovery and preparation.”

Change is exciting but not easy, and it will certainly be intriguing to not only see how the College Football Playoff model looks in its first two seasons, but beyond once the game’s decision-makers are able to appraise its early stages.