SEC commissioner Greg Sankey reacts to CFP expansion collapse

The College Football Playoff committee made one thing clear on Friday: Expansion isn’t coming anytime soon. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey responded with some poignant quotes to Sports Illustrated.

SI’s Ross Dellenger tweeted a thread of quotes from Sankey, who’s one of the more prominent voices in college football. He’d previously voiced his support for a 12-team format, but told Dellenger Friday’s announcement could change that position.

“For all the clamor about wanting to think about student athletes, there are a 1,000 students athletes each year on eight teams who could have participated in the playoff,” Sankey told Dellenger. “On the other hand, we (the SEC), didn’t need more teams.”

However, Sankey added some of the people who voted against expansion this time around were in favor of it three years ago. That was something he said stood out from the latest round of talks.

“If that isn’t the definition of mixed signals, I don’t know what the definition might be,” he said.

Greg Sankey: ‘Part of collaboration is we have to give, adjust [and] be willing to step out’

Dellenger asked Sankey if he felt the negotiations were a failure, and he spoke from his position in the SEC — a league that had two of the four teams in this year’s CFP, and they both made the national championship.

“I’ve got five teams in eight years that have won championships — three different teams in the last three years,” Sankey said. “So we’re fine. Why would I call ‘failure’ about something that we are exceedingly good at achieving at a high level?”

However, he blasted the process of getting to this point in announcing a four-team format through at least 2025.

“If we can’t make the decision now around a format that was widely acclaimed as innovative and creative and met a wide variety of needs, we’re all going to have to go back and rethink that,” Sankey said. “The outcome hasn’t been a healthy representation of decision making.”

The CFP committee met virtually Thursday to talk further about potential expansion. Sankey addressed that call and, again, didn’t give a glowing review.

“Part of collaboration is we have to give, adjust [and] be willing to step out,” he said. “The (presidents) provided a clear message: ‘This is important – get back together & get it done.’ Yet, when we gathered, there was no alteration of position. And so here we are”

Lastly, Sankey added the 14 SEC schools weren’t unanimous in their decisions about CFP expansion. He said that’s not a big deal, though.

“We don’t need that,” Sankey said. “Others do. We have to rethink formats. A wholesale evaluation of our position.”