Greg Sankey fires back at Big 12, ACC while addressing College Football Playoff future

Reports that the ACC and Big 12 Conference have “significantly less say in what’s going to end up happening,” in College Football Playoff meetings made headlines earlier this month. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has since responded to the two conference’s joint effort to have more of a say at the table.

“I don’t need lectures from others about the good of the game … or coordinating press releases about the good of the game,” Sankey said. “You can issue your press statement, but I’m actually looking for ideas to move us forward.”

This is the fallout from a 16-team College Football Playoff proposal that would award the SEC and Big Ten double the amount of automatic qualifiers compared to the Big 12 and ACC. Representatives from both the Big 12 Conference and ACC have been vocally opposed to the idea of this, with NC State football coach Dave Doeran saying that the ACC deserves three AQs minimum.

This proposed format would allot the SEC and Big Ten conferences four automatic qualifiers, while the ACC and Big 12 would be given two each. The other automatic bid would go to the highest-ranked Group of Six conference champion with three at-large spots up for grabs.

“I remain steadfast about fairness in the system and access,” ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said, via Yahoo Sports. “Out of respect from my colleagues, I want to hold off on commenting about AQs and specific models.”

Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark declined to comment on the format at the time. Though, it’s clear that leaders within the conference want more than two automatic qualifiers among their ranks.

ACC leaders such as Miami head coach Mario Cristobal, North Carolina AD Bubba Cunningham and SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee have all been outspoken on their perspective of what they feel is a lopsided proposal. Regardless, no change this drastic will be able to take place until 2026 at the earliest.

The College Football Playoff is still set to receive a bit of a makeover in 2025, however, as it is expected to move into a straight seeding format. This allowed the top four-ranked teams in the final CFP rankings earn a first-round bye, rather than the four highest-ranked conference champions. In the new seeding format, the five highest-ranked conference champions will still receive automatic bids into the playoffs, but are no longer guaranteed a first-round bye.