DESTIN, Fla. — SEC commissioner Greg Sankey stated he talked with the league soccer coaches at size Tuesday concerning the significance of the convention championship sport and a 16-team Faculty Soccer Playoff mannequin that would come with the 5 highest-ranked convention champions and 11 at-large spots.
“They talked about — I am going to name it a 5+11 mannequin — and our personal skill to earn these berths,” Sankey stated on the conclusion of the second day of spring conferences. “… On the teaching stage, the query is, why would not that be superb? Why would not we do this? We talked about 16 with them. So, good dialog — not a vacation spot — however the first time I’ve had the flexibility to go actually in-depth with concepts with them.”
It was a major pivot from the highly-publicized push for computerized qualifiers, notably from the league’s athletic administrators and coaches, and offered an surprising various. Sankey and the opposite FBS commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua want to find out the playoff format for 2026 and past by Dec. 1.
It is a deadline Sankey stated is not splendid for the league’s timing to resolve if it needs to stick with eight convention video games or change to 9.
“I must make a scheduling resolution in 2026,” he stated, declining to provide a particular date.
“So after I specific frustration about delays which can be occurring for selections not made, these manifest themselves each in that room. We did not spend time on the query what is the standards [for selection] appear to be on this new period? We simply form of sat round and it results the timing of different selections. We are able to management our scheduling resolution. We won’t management each different ingredient round this.”
Sankey stated he is constructed some flexibility on the deadline, however added that he believes it may be made unbiased of CFP format and the idea of play-in video games.
“You can also make selections about what you may management then you may have affect over different selections you do not management — you take part in,” he stated. “However the timing shouldn’t be what I might have designed from an optimum standpoint.”
Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin stated he cannot assist a nine-game league schedule with out assured playoff entry for the SEC.
“That is onerous for me,” he stated. “… there’s not a assist that our league competes in the place lower than half of our members aren’t within the postseason apart from one, and it occurs to be the one all of us pay essentially the most consideration to. Final 12 months three of our 16 groups have been within the playoff. I feel that is an issue systemically with the construction of what we’re making an attempt to do.”
Not everybody within the SEC is offered on computerized qualifiers — for anybody. Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin stated that after seeing all the knowledge and analytics about who could be neglected in a number of fashions, he thought “there’s nonetheless flaws in each system.”
He urged a 16-team playoff with the 16 finest groups and no ensures for anybody — together with convention champs.
“The perfect system ought to be 16,” he stated, “and ought to be the 16 finest.”