SEC Meetings came to a close Thursday with, as is often the case, no action following lots of talk. But the topics kicked around by the league’s athletic directors and coaches weren’t table setters.
More like table flippers.
After four years of fundamental change in college sports, buckle up for at least four more. These issues aren’t easy, simple, or minor. But they’re within months, if not weeks, of resolution. Ranked by importance, here are the four primary topics SEC representatives tried to tackle this week:
1) College Football Playoff format reform
If there wasn’t a horrifically bad idea on the table, the CFP format might not even rank at the top of the list. But because the SEC is showing some receptiveness to the Big Ten’s inane push to establish a fixed number of CFP berths for each conference, this topic is of paramount importance. What the Big Ten wants is four automatic berths for itself, four for the SEC, and as for the rest of college football, in the infamous words of Marie Antoinette, let them eat cake. The alternative to the Big Ten/SEC power play is awarding CFP berths to five conference champions, and fill out the field with 11 at-large berths in a field expanded from 12 teams to 16. Many of those at-large berths would be gobbled up by the Big Ten and SEC anyway, of course, but negotiating for them, instead of competing on the field for them, is a bad idea on many levels. Obviously, the SEC can’t make this decision alone, but the stance it ultimately takes will largely dictate the future of the CFP. Commissioner Greg Sankey should encourage league members to choose the 5-11 format that aligns with the SEC’s competitive bravado: earn berths on the field, don’t leverage them in a board room.
2) Eight or nine conference games
This issue is inseparably, and needlessly, tied to what happens with the CFP format. It’s a safe bet that Sankey would have preferred getting this long-volleyed topic settled this week. After all, we’re talking about a league that once had its schedule nailed down a decade into the future, now 15 months away from a season with no schedule. But schools are determined to see the CFP format settled before they vote on increasing SEC games to nine per season, or keeping the status quo eight. I’ve got little tolerance for the argument that a nine-game schedule is too tough. Show me a school that ardently supports staying at eight league games, and I can probably show you one that wants to line up four shooting-gallery ducks in non-conference play. What’s tougher: an eight-game conference schedule with two Power Four non-conference foes, or a nine-gamer with none? Criticism from the Big Ten that eight isn’t enough conveniently ignores that question. And unfortunately, so do some schools in the SEC.
3) Transfer portal reform
The league’s coaches are strongly in favor of a single transfer portal window on the NCAA calendar, rather than two. Of course they are. They’re looking for any rock of continuity, other than their massive paychecks, to grab hold of as they’re swept down this raging river of upheaval in the sport. The spring window appears to be the one being targeted — Georgia coach Kirby Smart made an impassioned case for one January window in remarks to reporters — but there was less authority to reform NCAA portal policy assembled at SEC Meetings than any topic listed here. Even after the revenue-sharing era begins with the House settlement, the NCAA will be reticent to curtail any freedom it’s already provided to athletes. An elimination of the spring portal window would invite instant lawsuits, and coaches wouldn’t be paying the NCAA’s attorney fees.
4) Scheduling pact with the Big Ten
How about every school in the SEC playing an annual game against a Big Ten school? Sounds like fun — why not? — but like the first two topics, this decision won’t be made independently, either. It’s the third domino, at best, and won’t fall without being knocked over by the fates of the CFP format and SEC scheduling. LSU coach Brian Kelly is all in on the idea, but it’s an easier position for him to take because he doesn’t already face an annual in-state rival from a power conference. Others (South Carolina, Florida, Kentucky, Georgia) do.
Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on X.com @chasegoodbread.
