Last week's meeting about expanding the CFB Playoff format made little or no progress. Greg Sankey stands in the way of a 24-team proposal favored by the Big Ten. Actually, the B1G has floated multiple 24-team ideas. None of them is acceptable to SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey.
USA Today Sports' Matt Hayes discussed the perception of Sankey as "the lone warrior, raging against the dying of the light." Hayes explained that Sankey is not 'lone' in his obstinacy. Sankey has at least the majority support of the 16 SEC Presidents and Chancellors. The support might be nearly unanimous.
What the CFB Playoff debate is and is not about
Automatic bids run counter to the claim that the Playoff system is designed to give college football's best teams a vehicle to win a national championship. What has evolved instead is a massive media product so successful that teams not included in any season whine about fairness. What the Playoffs are most about has nothing to do with fairness. What drives Playoff frenzy are prestige and money.
At one point, Greg Sankey lobbied for expanded Playoff formats to have only at-large teams. That is not his current position. Even if no auto-bids were the most sensible solution, Sankey rightly focuses on something more important: the money.
Matt Hayes concludes that Sankey's objection to a 24-team playoff field is all about money distribution: " ... a 24-team playoff is the first big step to the 10 Football Bowl Subdivision conferences consolidating and sharing media rights."
Hayes added, "The SEC will blow up college football ― the whole smash ― before sharing its billions and prime television windows on the biggest network in college sports with everyone else.
A 24-team playoff field would end conference championship games. Sankey's problem is that the SEC Championship Game can provide more revenue than adding first-round playoff games. He is not prepared for SEC football programs to take a financial hit from some early-round playoff games featuring non-marquee teams.
Not belligerently but staunchly, Sankey holds the SEC's trump card. If the Playoffs go to 24 teams, the SEC might opt out. Hayes explains that the SEC could, and likely would, have its own eight-team Playoff. The winner could then face the winner of the 'other' Playoff in a game with a huge financial payoff. Win or lose that annual game, the SEC would come out way ahead. Such a scenario may seem far-fetched. But Greg Sankey is simply doing what he is employed to do: enhancing the value of the SEC.
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