If Greg Sankey has his way, the only conference in college athletics that will exist is the SEC.
I get it. His job is to do what is in the best interest of his conference. But come on, at some point he must put what is best for collegiate athletics to the forefront.
The SEC Commissioner opened the league’s spring meetings on Monday with a press conference where he basically championed for teams that lose to make the College Football Playoff over teams that win, just because they play in the SEC.
For example, he is still whining about how three-loss teams Alabama, Ole Miss and South Carolina were left out of the CFP while SMU and Indiana got in, sighting strength of schedule and how Alabama and Ole Miss beat Georgia.
Okay! I get it. I see his point.
However, does he see anyone else’s?
Yes, Alabama and Ole Miss beat SEC Champion Georgia. However, Sankey fails to mention how those same two teams lost to Vanderbilt, Oklahoma and Kentucky.
Alabama lost by 21 points to an Oklahoma team that was 2-6 in conference play. Ole Miss was even worse. The Rebels lost to Kentucky at home, the same Kentucky team that was 1-7 in the SEC.
He might have had an argument with South Carolina, who won on the road at Clemson to close the regular season and did not lose to anyone it was not supposed to. The only problem, however, is the Gamecocks lost to Alabama and Ole Miss, and there was no way they were going to jump both.
All the talk about last year’s CFP field is coming from the fact how the SEC and Big Ten want to strongarm the CFP so they both can have four automatic qualifiers in the proposed 16-team field, while the ACC and Big 12 get two, the Group of 6 get one and there are three at-large bids, which many feel will likely fall to the SEC and Big 10.
No surprise, the ACC, Big 12 and Notre Dame are pushing back.
And it’s not just football. They are pushing back when it comes to other sports, too.
For instance, 14 of the SEC’s 16 teams were selected for the men’s basketball tournament. South Carolina, who won two conference games, was even invited to the NIT, which, thankfully, they turned down.
Sankey was bragging about how 13 of his 16 teams in baseball earned NCAA Regional bids, though Oklahoma (14-16) and Kentucky (13-17) produced losing records in conference play and finished 12th and 13th in the league’s standings.
He was also bragging about how five of the eight teams in the Women’s College World Series were from the SEC. Well, that is not surprising considering 14 of the league’s 15 teams got in the field, including 7-17 Kentucky and 6-18 Auburn.
It is also not surprising that the league got seven of the top eight national seeds. Even South Carolina, who was 13-11 in the SEC, was given a top eight seed over national power UCLA, who knocked off the Gamecocks in the Super Regionals, and ACC Champion Clemson.
How can teams perform that poorly in conference play and still make the tournament or be given high seeds? That is not going to happen anywhere else, and then Sankey has the audacity to cry about his teams getting left out of last year’s CFP.
When is winning going to matter?
Maybe Clemson should go back and claim national championships in 2015 and 2019 if winning is not the objective here. At some point, and I don’t care what conference a team plays in, winning has to out-rank losing, especially when teams are not even close to having a winning record in their own league.
Last week, ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips took some heat from me and a few others because he voted for the 12-team CFP to move to straight seeding, moving away from automatic qualifiers earning the top 4 seeds.
The CFP needed a unanimous vote to approve the change. After the news broke last Thursday, Phillips told CBS’s Brandon Marcello that his vote was in the best interest of college football.
“We have to serve our constituents, but we also have to be mindful as to what’s best for college football,” Phillips said. “Today’s decision was done in the best interest of the sport. It may not always benefit the ACC, but it was the right decision and that’s a responsibility I take very seriously.”
Do you think Sankey is going to make a decision that is the best interest of the sport or college athletics in general?