SEC Spring Meetings are wrapping up in Miramar Beach, Fla., and you know what that means.
There's drama. There's always some drama surrounding these powwows — sometimes real and sometimes manufactured. In this case, the intrigue is real insofar as the CFP format for 2026 must be decided by Dec. 1. Though that's still six months away, the wheels of bureaucracy churn slowly.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey is in a bit of a pickle. The college football world at this stage expects the SEC and the Big 10 (plus Notre Dame if we're being technical) to guide this conversation. The SEC athletic directors, by and large, prefer something that the SEC football coaches do not prefer.
To wit:
ADs seem to prefer a CFP model that yields four automatic qualifiers (AQs) apiece for both the SEC and Big 10. That's fine and all, but doing that and getting everyone on board requires the SEC to go to a nine-game conference schedule. Many ADs say a 9-game slate, which ESPN has said it will pay more money for, would at least help departments get ahead of the looming payouts associated with the House v. NCAA settlement. (John Cohen is particularly mindful of these financial obligations.)
Coaches, at least after their meeting yesterday in Florida, do not appear to be in favor of nine league games. They instead seem to favor a CFP model whereby the five highest-ranked conference champions would get AQs and the next 11 best teams (as determined by RPI) would get at-large bids.
There is growing sentiment that other conferences would not be in favor of a CFP expansion to 16 teams if the SEC doesn't expand to a 9-game schedule. The gravity of this information is debatable because we're all hurtling toward a world where SEC+B10+ND rule the roost with an iron fist. If SEC coaches were in favor of a 9-game schedule, this whole situation would be easier to parse — but they don't favor that. They believe the SEC has proven itself as the nation's best conference and the non-conference slate is crucial to provide some less-taxing competition and, of course, maintaining some non-conference rivalries that mean a lot to fans. South Carolina-Clemson comes to mind. Maybe UGA-Tech as well. Maybe UK-Louisville. You see where I'm going with this.
Anyway, I'm honestly not sure which way this is going to go.
If I had to guess, the ADs will get their way by saying the schools/conferences need the extra revenue to pay players. It's a rational, defensible position. And it enables the CFP to expand to 16 teams. I think fans would like that. I think bean counters would like that. I think the networks would like that.
Still, coaches matter to some degree. How much they matter ultimately may be up to them. How big of a stink will they cause here? And would that stink, if it materializes, be portrayed as tantamount to an anti-NIL stance? They also can portray it as simply wanting the best teams to be in position to snag at-large bids — and not have so many of those bids fall along conference lines.
We're all glad the CFP exists even though Auburn hasn't yet been a factor. Now it's a matter of harnessing CFP's enormous intrigue for the betterment of ...
Design your own ending to that sentence.
There's drama. There's always some drama surrounding these powwows — sometimes real and sometimes manufactured. In this case, the intrigue is real insofar as the CFP format for 2026 must be decided by Dec. 1. Though that's still six months away, the wheels of bureaucracy churn slowly.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey is in a bit of a pickle. The college football world at this stage expects the SEC and the Big 10 (plus Notre Dame if we're being technical) to guide this conversation. The SEC athletic directors, by and large, prefer something that the SEC football coaches do not prefer.
To wit:
ADs seem to prefer a CFP model that yields four automatic qualifiers (AQs) apiece for both the SEC and Big 10. That's fine and all, but doing that and getting everyone on board requires the SEC to go to a nine-game conference schedule. Many ADs say a 9-game slate, which ESPN has said it will pay more money for, would at least help departments get ahead of the looming payouts associated with the House v. NCAA settlement. (John Cohen is particularly mindful of these financial obligations.)
Coaches, at least after their meeting yesterday in Florida, do not appear to be in favor of nine league games. They instead seem to favor a CFP model whereby the five highest-ranked conference champions would get AQs and the next 11 best teams (as determined by RPI) would get at-large bids.
There is growing sentiment that other conferences would not be in favor of a CFP expansion to 16 teams if the SEC doesn't expand to a 9-game schedule. The gravity of this information is debatable because we're all hurtling toward a world where SEC+B10+ND rule the roost with an iron fist. If SEC coaches were in favor of a 9-game schedule, this whole situation would be easier to parse — but they don't favor that. They believe the SEC has proven itself as the nation's best conference and the non-conference slate is crucial to provide some less-taxing competition and, of course, maintaining some non-conference rivalries that mean a lot to fans. South Carolina-Clemson comes to mind. Maybe UGA-Tech as well. Maybe UK-Louisville. You see where I'm going with this.
Anyway, I'm honestly not sure which way this is going to go.
If I had to guess, the ADs will get their way by saying the schools/conferences need the extra revenue to pay players. It's a rational, defensible position. And it enables the CFP to expand to 16 teams. I think fans would like that. I think bean counters would like that. I think the networks would like that.
Still, coaches matter to some degree. How much they matter ultimately may be up to them. How big of a stink will they cause here? And would that stink, if it materializes, be portrayed as tantamount to an anti-NIL stance? They also can portray it as simply wanting the best teams to be in position to snag at-large bids — and not have so many of those bids fall along conference lines.
We're all glad the CFP exists even though Auburn hasn't yet been a factor. Now it's a matter of harnessing CFP's enormous intrigue for the betterment of ...
Design your own ending to that sentence.
