SEC commish Greg Sankey opens up on nine game conference schedule talks from all directors meet

The SEC is one of two of college football's premier conferences. The league could be conforming to the Big Ten's way of scheduling shortly, as SEC commissioner Greg Sankey explained where his grouping stands on the matter Monday. Of course, roads to the all-important College Football Playoff were considered.

Sankey spoke to Paul Finebaum on the latter's radio show.

"Monday, Tuesday was SEC Athletics Directors only. ... We did talk about football scheduling," Sankey said. "I don't think it's a secret that we have to figure out '26. Much of the discussion is about should we play eight or nine games. That does transition into an analysis of the College Football Playoff, looking at what happened the first year of a 12-team playoff."

Sankey let it be known that this year's schedules are all but set in stone.

"Well, the decision of our schedule relates to the '26 season," Sankey said. "So we resolved '25. That's an eight-game schedule. I've said repeatedly we wanted to actually go three years of a 16-team, eight-game, kind of single division, if you will, under a single format for our scheduling and the expansion of the College Football Playoff.

"So this was the first opportunity for our head coaches and our athletics directors to gather in a room, just look back, and talk about what happened."

Why does the balance of the conference schedule matter to the SEC?

Everything circles back to the College Football Playoff for every major conference in the sport.

"Trying to understand how the selection committee for the CFP made decisions are really important," Sankey said. "One of the issues in the room for athletics directors is, what seemed to matter most is the number to the right — the number of losses. How do we understand what that means for our schedule moving forward?

"I'm one who said I really think we 'ought to be trying to move towards a nine-game conference schedule. I think that can be positive for a lot of reasons."

Sankey listed interest in conference matchups but added that the eyes those clashes draw might not be worth the loss of postseason opportunities down the line. Even so, he reiterated that being able to process how the College Football Playoff committee goes about its decision-making.

A scheduling partnership between the SEC and Big Ten has been brought up before, something the two power conferences have tied in with their desire to have automatic bids into the College Football Playoff.

ESPN's Heather Dinich has previously said switching to a nine-game league slate isn't something the Sankey's league has been very compelled to do.

"Some Big Ten athletic directors could push back on any agreement if the SEC doesn't move to nine games, because the Big Ten already plays nine league opponents," Dinich wrote last September.

It seems Sankey and the conference are changing their tune.