Greg Sankey says SEC being left out of CFP isn't 'real world' - ESPN

ATLANTA — As No. 1 Georgia prepares to play No. 8 Alabama in Saturday's SEC championship game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said the thought of his league being left out of the four-team College Football Playoff isn't the «real world.»

Some analysts have argued that if Alabama upsets Georgia on Saturday, both teams could be left out of the CFP, depending on what happens in other conference championship games.

Sankey, in an interview on ESPN's «College GameDay» on Saturday, said a case could be made that both the Bulldogs and Crimson Tide deserve to be in the CFP.

«That's not the real world of college football,» Sankey said. «Let's go back to like Sesame Street so we're really basic — one of these things is not like the other, and that's the Southeastern Conference.

»We have five of the top 15 [in the CFP selection committee rankings], so a third, and our teams are playing everyone in the conference.… The reality is there has been no one that's experienced the success in the postseason in the College Football Playoff that we have. So when you put us up actually against the teams, rather than in the committee rooms, we stand alone. And we stand alone this year, regardless of today's outcome."

Two-time defending national champion Georgia, which has won 29 consecutive games, would undoubtedly secure a spot in the CFP and probably be the No. 1 seed for the second straight year if it beats the Crimson Tide. But if Alabama wins, the Bulldogs might drop out of the top four altogether, depending on what happens in Saturday's other conference title games.

No. 3 Washington probably punched its CFP ticket by wrapping up a 13-0 season with a 34-31 victory against No. 5 Oregon in Friday night's Pac-12