When Alabama football didn’t make the College Football Playoff after losing three games in the 2024 regular season, nobody in the SEC was happy about it. Before the league’s spring meetings began Monday in Miramar Beach, Fl., commissioner Greg Sankey said the way the selection committee handled the Crimson Tide, along with South Carolina, could have lasting implications on how the league schedules moving forward.
“One of the things we learned is, you’re not gonna divorce your regular-season schedule from College Football Playoff selection,” Sankey said. “In fact, I think there’s more of a feeling that regular-season scheduling is governed by College Football Playoff selection.”
After the Tide was left out, in favor of SMU, which lost just one game during the season, Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne said the snub could cause UA to reevaluate scheduling tough non-conference games. Sankey said the committee had made it clear that winning meant more than playing a difficult schedule.
Alabama lost to Tennessee, which made the playoff, along with mediocre Vanderbilt and Oklahoma squads. The Crimson Tide did not lose a non-conference game until the ReliaQuest Bowl, which it dropped to Michigan.
“You have a team that played four games against teams with 6-6 records last year that got in, another team didn’t play really anybody at the top of its conference (and) was selected in,” Sankey said. “And it’s clear that not losing becomes, in many ways, more important than beating the University of Georgia, which two of our teams that were left out did. Nobody had that kind of quality win.”
The SEC has not decided what sort of different playoff format it supports going forward. The league will also discuss whether to move to a nine-game conference slate for 2026 and beyond this week, but Sankey said that discussion will also include talk of how it could impact (or not) playoff selection.
According to a report from Yahoo, the league could also consider a play-in format during conference championship week to determine its autobids. Sankey was asked whether such a format could dilute the value of the regular season.
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