While it won’t happen anytime soon, several years from now the Auburn Tigers and the rest of the SEC might shift to a 10-game conference schedule for the regular season, alongside preseason matchups against Group of Six teams. That group now includes the revived Pac-12 which features two original Pac-12 programs along with the Sun Belt, American Athletic Conference, Conference USA, Mountain West, and the MAC.
According to USA Today’s Matt Hayes, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey would remain firm in his opposition to expanding the College Football Playoff to 24 teams. Hayes argues that such an expansion would be the initial move toward consolidating the sport into a single entity, which would undermine the SEC’s media rights particularly its dominant deal with ESPN.
Hayes explains: “The SEC can and you’d better believe it will take its ball and play a 10-game conference schedule with a couple of preseason games against any Group of Six school that wants to earn a few million dollars per game.” He adds, “Don’t kid yourself those G6 teams will line up for those nonconference paydays. The SEC would then hold its own eight-team playoff to crown a conference champion. And if the other nine conferences want their champion to face the SEC champion for a national title, that’s a road the SEC is willing to travel for the right price.”
Cody Campbell is actively trying to consolidate college football, and Greg Sankey must resist that effort. The 2024 season was meant to usher in a golden era for the SEC with the arrival of Oklahoma and Texas, and that era needs to be extended as long as possible. One tradition in the sport must be preserved: we’re truly nearing the end of the simulation if even conferences disappear in this dystopian future.
Campbell, the man behind Texas Tech’s rise to national relevance including the program’s first top-seven finish in the AP Poll wants to reshape the sport so that a title-less Texas Tech can crown itself a champion today. He also aims to lead the charge in “Saving College Sports” through lobbying efforts with the Trump administration.
Sankey needs to stop that push and maintain the sport’s current structure. Because an all-SEC schedule with only G6 or FCS nonconference games, capped by an eight-team playoff, is not a desirable future. Even if traditional nonconference games against power teams become rare, Sankey owes it to the sport to preserve matchups like the upcoming Auburn Notre Dame home-and-home series for future generations.
