Right now, nothing in college football feels settled. The College Football Playoff format keeps shifting, the transfer portal is more active than ever, and NIL has pushed some athletic departments to cut sports just to keep up with football roster spending. But amid all the chaos, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has drawn at least one firm line in the sand.
The biggest debate centers on the future size of the CFP. The field currently stands at 12 teams, but the committee is actively considering a jump to 24 after a strong push from the Big Ten. Sankey isn’t sold. He wants more data before even considering a 24‑team bracket, though he has shown some openness to a six‑game model, especially now that the SEC has moved to a nine‑game conference schedule.
To Sankey, expanding to 24 teams risks cheapening the very thing that makes college football special: the weight of every single Saturday. The sport’s appeal has always been tied to its razor‑thin margin for error. Every week feels like a playoff. A 24‑team field risks turning the regular season into something closer to college basketball, where the postseason overshadows everything else.
And while expansion may be framed as “fairness,” fans see the obvious. It’s a money grab. Conferences want more teams in the dance, more inventory, more revenue. Sankey may be willing to entertain some of those conversations, but that’s not where he’s taken his strongest stance.
His firmest line came on scheduling.
Speaking to reporters at the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame (APSE) Southeast Regional meeting, Sankey was asked why the SEC refuses to play regular games on days other than Saturday. His answer was blunt.
”For everybody that thinks we just grab money, we could grab money just by putting games on different nights of the week.”
In other words, the SEC isn’t budging. Expansion? Maybe. Format tweaks? Possibly. But weekday football? Not happening.
For all the uncertainty swirling around the sport, Sankey made one thing clear: some traditions still matter, and the SEC isn’t trading Saturdays for a bigger check.
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This article originally appeared on Aggies Wire: Greg Sankey holds line on Saturday SEC games and CFP expansion
