The College Football Playoff was founded and remains controlled by the commissioners of the Power 5 conferences. For those looking to move the 4-team format to eight, the thinking went that the old guard (emphasis on old) in the form of Mike Slive, Jim Delany and John Swofford would eventually move on, and their younger predecessors would see how much money could be made by expanding the playoff, and then expand the playoff.
Slive, of course, retired in 2015 (he passed away in 2018), Delany will step down next year, and Swofford is 70. After the ACC Network gets up and running later this year, perhaps he’ll step down, allowing three of the five big chairs -- and, let’s be honest, the three biggest of the five big chairs -- will have changed hands from the Playoff’s 2012 creation to negotiations for the second contract. (The current contract expires after the 2025 season.)
One problem, though: one of those predecessors likes the Playoff as is.
Speaking at an APSE event in Birmingham on Monday, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey affirmed his support for the 4-team format.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey on if he favors expanding the College Football Playoff:
— Seth Emerson (@SethWEmerson) April 22, 2019
"No. I think four works. ... We will be attentive to conversations. But fundamentally that's my statement."
SEC commish Greg Sankey wants the College Football Playoff to stay at four teams. "Four works. It has worked, does work and will continue to work."
— Brandon Marcello (@bmarcello) April 22, 2019
The SEC is the least incentivized of the Power 5 conferences to change the status quo, because the status quo works for them. Along with the ACC, the SEC is the only conference to go 5-for-5 in placing teams in the field, and really the SEC is 6-for-5 given that Georgia and Alabama reached the Playoff in 2017, the only season to date in which one conference has occupied the four coveted spots.
The counter to this point is that it was the LSU vs. Alabama championship game that was the straw that killed the BCS’s back.
However, the counter to that counter was that Slive was on board to kill the BCS and berth the CFP. Never before in college football’s history of evolving postseason formats has change been brought against the SEC’s wishes, and that’s unlikely to change... now or in 2025.