Greg Sankey cites CFP selection criteria change as factor in SEC’s move to 9-game conference schedule

Thursday’s edition of The Paul Finebaum Show featured an appearance from SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, who explained the reasoning behind the decision made earlier in the day to enforce a nine-game conference schedule for the conference, starting in 2026.

On Wednesday, the CFP selection committee announced that there would be “enhancements to the tools that the selection committee uses to assess schedule strength.” This, of course, comes after complaints of teams like Indiana and SMU getting into the 2024 CFP with a substantially weaker strength of schedule than programs like Alabama and South Carolina, who were left out of the CFP.

Just one day later, the SEC made it official that teams within the conference would now be playing nine conference games, six of which changing from year to year, and three coming from annual repeat opponents. Additionally, each SEC team will be required to play at least one team from the ACC, Big Ten, or Big 12, or Notre Dame in non-conference play.

It’s easy to see the correlation between the decision from the CFP selection committee to heighten the importance of strength of schedule and the SEC making these scheduling changes. And Greg Sankey largely confirmed as much during his conversation with Finebaum to discuss the reasoning behind the scheduling change.

“There are multiple chickens and plenty of eggs,” said Sankey. “So, is it the chicken or is it the egg? Do you decide the (CFP) format and then trigger Your schedule off of the format? Do you decide the criteria and then follow with the schedule? Or do you take a step knowing there is a bit of uncertainty in whatever you do? So Paul, the announcement of the strength of schedule adjustment, I think a healthier metric being used to inform decision making, that’s an element that weighed in favor of the nine-game conference schedule being implemented.”

“I don’t consider that number, that metric, that information, being the finish line. I think the discussion around strength of record, so not only how rigorous of a schedule you play, but how you perform against that schedule, that is important to us as well. What I think we have to acknowledge is the CFP processes say, ‘don’t lose.’ I don’t think that’s healthy for college football. The ability to take the step to say that it is more than just don’t lose, it’s about playing high-quality opponents, that being honored, that’s some of the work that needs to progress. We have made some progress, but we haven’t reached that perfection stage.”

“What I think we have to acknowledge is the CFP processes say ‘don’t lose.’ I don’t think that’s healthy for CFB.”

– @SEC Commissioner @GregSankey talking Collge Football Playoff and selection criteria. pic.twitter.com/BrckcsKiYZ

— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) August 21, 2025

There are some other obvious factors that were seemingly in play in the SEC’s decision to implement a similar nine-game schedule to the Big Ten and Big 12. Notably, ESPN has indicated they are willing to increase rights payments to the SEC if the ninth conference game is added.

But clearly, the SEC seems to believe that the CFP selection committee’s adjustment moving forward will indeed favor stronger conferences with stronger schedules. So regardless of what the future holds for the format of the CFP, which is still in question as talks of expansion continue to loom, the SEC is fully committed to setting themselves up to have as much representation in the CFP as possible for years to come.