SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey has a question for those who believe the College Football Playoff committee is ranking based on brand.
“I think the reaction to the rankings about brands, I’d ask people on the outside that are commenting about brands: Are you watching the football games?” Sankey said Friday during an appearance on “The Paul Finebaum Show.”
“I know the committee is. The committee engages in really in-depth analysis. You may disagree. (But), I could make the case we have two other teams (No. 13 Ole Miss and No. 14 South Carolina) that merit the kind of consideration even compared to some others who are outside our conference, but the committee makes that decision and we’ve entrusted them with that.”
Texas and Georgia, both participating in Saturday’s SEC Championship Game, are expected to be locks for the CFP. As of the committee’s last poll, Alabama is ranked No. 11 with a 9-3 record, ahead of No. 12 Miami (10-2).
“The amount of outside noise on X and opining and kind of going back and forth is an interesting development,” Sankey said. “I think that’s culturally what’s happening. But the committee’s going to go in and shut itself off and make some decisions, and those are going to be hard decisions. Yet, I think this isn’t about our brand, I think this is about our football. This is about what happens on the field.
“And again, this isn’t about two losses vs. three losses. … The criteria has other specific issues and being undefeated or having one less loss than another team, that’s actually not in the criteria. And I think that has to be understood much more than this brand commentary.”
