2025 SEC Media Days: Greg Sankey cagey on CFP expansion, nine-game schedule as changes 'strain' college sports

"Let me be clear -- college athletics is not broken, but it is strained," SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said during his opening address to kick off the conference's media days in Atlanta Monday morning.

As the college sports landscape undergoes rapid changes, Sankey explained his main goal has not changed as he tries to put his conference in the best position to succeed amid the arrival of revenue sharing and expected changes to the College Football Playoff format.

"The settlement went into effect July 1 and it's July 14 while working through historic and transformed change," Sankey said Monday from Atlanta. "In the middle of anything significant, it will get messy. That doesn't mean you leave or in a marathon, it doesn't mean you step off the course. The burden of making a new system work is certainly on commissioners and conference offices, but the responsibility is shared with our campuses and campus leaders."

Sankey said conversations with university presidents this spring included the potential of the Power Four forming a committee to explore its role in the future of college athletics. The committee, Sankey cited, would include multiple presidents from each league and the commissioners for each league.

On College Football Playoff expansion

Sankey was complimentary of the playoff's straight-seeding model adopted ahead of the 2025 season. Under the new seeding process, the top four teams in the selection committee's final rankings get a first-round pass to the quarterfinals.

Last season, the four highest-ranked conference champions earned that distinction regardless of where those teams were slotted by the selection committee. He also advocated for expansion of the field in the future.

"We think growth beyond 12 can be positive and should be pursued," Sankey said.

Sankey said the SEC "has the best hand to play" in the expansion debate and that his league will continue hold steady with its opinion on how future brackets should look relating to automatic bids and other details.

On future SEC scheduling

Sankey did not reveal if his conference is moving to nine games in 2026, which has been a hot-button topic for several years.

"It's absolutely, fully and 100% correct that we play eight conference games, while others play nine conference games," Sankey said. "It's also correct that last season, all 16 (of our) members played at least nine games against, what you would label, power opponents. I don't believe there's anyone looking to swap their conference schedule and their opponents with our conference schedule.

"I handed out a bunch of stats that created a stir in Destin (at SEC spring meetings) that showed there's a rigor here that is unique."

Sankey said his team is continuing to evaluate weather increasing the number of SEC games annually. He's not providing a date to reveal the 2026 football schedule and said decisions are coming soon.

"We have to make decisions (soon), if we're going to nine games," Sankey said. "If we stay at eight, it'll probably be a little bit easier logistically."