SEC commissioner acknowledges need for adjustments to playoff format amid realignment

With the Pac-12 on the brink of dissolving, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey thinks the College Football Playoff should reconsider the format of the pending 12-team playoff set to debut in 2024.

Five programs (Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon, Utah, Washington) announced plans to depart the Pac-12 after the 2023 season, following Colorado, UCLA and USC out the door.

Sankey said the decision to expand the field to 12 teams was a way to get more West Coast teams involved in the playoff. 

"Even here in the SEC, we wanted to see college football strong nationally. And we have not seen a west-of-the-Rockies participant in the playoff since, I believe, 2016." he said, via The Athletic.

"So the expansion was about making sure we brought in western football, Sankey continued. "Well, now what’s happened is western football has come into other conferences. The net of that is circumstances have changed, and I think it’s wise for us to take a step back and reconsider what the format might look like given these changing circumstances.”

The current format provides automatic berths to the top six conference champions and six at-large bids. The idea was an automatic bid for each of the Power 5 champions and one for the highest ranked Group of 5 champion.

But with the Pac-12's most successful programs leaving, it's no longer a viable Power 5 conference and it's future is very much in doubt. As a result, the committee will need to decide what to do regarding automatic bids. Should a second Group of 5 champion get the automatic invite? Or should the opening be used to add another at-large team to the party?

For the CFP, it makes sense to open up an avenue for more big-time college football programs to qualify. As we saw when Cincinnati crashed the playoff in 2021, it can be more fun to see a Cinderella make a playoff appearance in theory than in reality. The Alabama Crimson Tide easily beat the Bearcats in a 27-6 snooze fest.

Instead of risking two mismatches in the playoff, removing one automatic berth in exchange for an extra at-large bid would mean better games, thus more people tuning in to watch.

Sankey also introduced the possibility for the playoff to allow teams with an at-large bid to receive a bye if they finish in the top four. Under the expanded playoff rules, only conference champions can finish in the top four and receive a first-round bye.

The ACC and Big 12 might balk at that last suggestion, as the Big Ten and SEC are the likeliest conferences to have multiple teams finish in the top four of the CFP rankings.

But Sankey will likely find less resistance to the notion of expanding the number of at-large bids as the major conferences add members.

Eliminating the sixth automatic bid would greatly hurt teams in conferences such as the American, Mountain West and Sun Belt who will vie for one automatic berth. But college football executives hardly care about the little guy. It's only a matter of time before CFP officials rewrite the rules to benefit the big fish.