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MOUNTAIN BROOK, Ala. — The possibility of a 24-team College Football Playoff is gaining traction, and SEC commissioner Greg Sankey's comments at SEC Tipoff, the league's basketball media day, suggest the conference is warming to the idea.
"I think I've always communicated that we've never said no that that won't happen that won't be a point of support," Sankey said when asked about his stance on the expanded format. He referenced his previous media day visit in Tampa in July, where he outlined considerations such as media interest, game locations, and the impact on the regular season, noting that those judgments still need to be made. "But we've worked through and continue to consider and work through those issues," Sankey added. "I think there's an openness to playoff expansion on our part, I certainly think there's an openness."
Behind the scenes, television networks, particularly ESPN, are submitting proposals and working through the logistics of a playoff that would feature 23 games. The NCAA has already taken a step by announcing that the season will start a week earlier beginning in 2027. Sankey is not ready to commit until a final decision is reached, but he acknowledged that progress is being made. "Attitudes change over time, and perspectives change, and so we'll see where that leads us from a final decision standpoint," he said. "But going through and trying to remember metrics and analytics and predictives that may have come from that is probably incredibly boring, I'd be mostly wrong, but I think, in general, we have achieved some of the progress we'd expect on scheduling commitments."
If the playoff expands to 24 teams, the structure of the regular season would undergo a fundamental shift, and the measure of success for top programs like Alabama would change dramatically. The Crimson Tide currently expects to make the 12-team playoff every year, and doing so equates to a successful season. While national championship aspirations remain, simply reaching the playoff is akin to a 10-win season, upholding the standard of an elite team. But with 24 teams, the picture becomes murkier. It's hard to envision Kalen DeBoer's program, which has not fallen out of the AP Top 25 since 2007, ever missing a 24-team playoff. That would necessitate a new benchmark: Does Alabama need a first-round bye as a top-eight team? Must the Crimson Tide win one, two, or three playoff games to maintain its standing among college football's elite?
This decade, multiple three-loss teams have appeared in the top 24 of the post-conference championship AP Poll each year, and eight four-loss teams have made the cut since 2020. Not only is the margin for error larger, but the level of competition is significantly lower. Last year, as the No. 9 seed, Alabama played Oklahoma in an electric road playoff game between two teams that legitimately believed they could win the title. In a 24-team projection based on the polls, the Crimson Tide would have hosted North Texas. In 2024, Syracuse. That is a stark contrast to the current landscape.
These conversations are still months away from becoming reality, but it's difficult to imagine a world where they don't. The SEC is at the forefront of college football, and Sankey has made his position clear. "We'll see if we can finalize those across the nation," Sankey said. "Go from there, and make some final decisions probably sooner rather than later, in my expectation."
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Theodore Fernandez is BamaCentral's baseball beat reporter and a co-host of The Joe Gaither Show. He also works as a weekend sports anchor at WVUA 23 News in Tuscaloosa and serves as one of the station's lead high school sports reporters. Fernandez is a news media student at The University of Alabama and is pursuing a master's degree in sports management.