The SEC Commissioner fears that potential changes in schedule could influence the CFP bids of the conference

SEC Commissioner Greg Saney made his hopes clear on Monday. He advocates the conference, which changes from eight games to a second slate with nine games, but is worried about potential failures from a schedule.

The SEC will play a schedule with eight games next season, but will have a few important months ahead of a decision for 2026 and beyond. Although Saney is for moving to a schedule with nine games, the additional conference game naturally adds another balance in the loss column for half of the SEC schools.

“One of the problems in the room for our athletics directors is what seemed to be the most important, the number on the right, the number of losses,” said Sankey on Monday in a appearance in the Paulinbaum show. “And how do we understand what this means for our schedule for our schedule? I am someone who said I really should try to move to a conference plan with nine games. I think that can be positive for many reasons. They observe the interest in conference games. But not if we lead to losing opportunities.”

Sankey admitted that the qualification for Bowl and College Football Playoffs is an important decisive factor for the Sec. He works to understand how the CFP committee made decisions last season, the first with an extended 12-team field. Georgia, Texas and Tennessee represented the SEC in the CFP last season. Alabama missed the last bid in favor of the SMU.

After the first start circle with 12 teams, the CFP could optimize last season, which could affect the SEC's planning decision. The five best rated conference champions are currently receiving an automatic bid. The four most meiest champions get a bye in the first round than the four best seeds. Seven AT-Large bids then make up the rest of the field.

If the format changes to grant the SEC One or several automatic bids itself, a jump to nine games can become clear, although the conference champion has certainly only automatically qualified.