Sankey unconcerned by division in SEC over 24-team playoff - ESPN

MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. — At a moment of feisty rhetoric regarding the biggest issues looming over college sports, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey struck a tone of patience and pragmatism on the eve of the league's annual meetings.

Sankey made clear he did not «anticipate any decisions on the College Football Playoff» at the meetings, noting that there's still time ahead of the Dec. 1 deadline. The potential to expand the CFP to 24 teams was a big topic nonetheless.

Though the Big Ten's coaches and athletic directors put up a united front in support of expanding to 24 last week at that league's meetings in California, Sankey acknowledged that his league will not have the same unanimity, a fact that didn't seem to concern him. He's also not concerned that the three other power conference commissioners have come out in favor of doubling the size of the CFP.

«Doesn't bother me,» Sankey said when asked about being the last so-called holdout for expanding to 24. «People tell me that, but I don't know if you pay attention in college sports. Positions seem to change a lot.»

Sankey's modus operandi in big decisions has long been patience, little public revelation and consuming as much information as possible. He referenced the conversations here at meetings last year about the CFP potentially expanding to 16 — with automatic qualifiers — as instructive to how these meetings will go.

«I'm not an opponent of 24 or 28,» Sankey said. «We have to inform the decision-making. I think we did a good job informing our position last year on 16. We'll consider other ideas, certainly, this week and moving forward.»

Sankey acknowledged that there are different factions in his league on the decision to expand to 24 teams and hinted that there could