AUSTIN, Texas – Don’t depend on the brand new, 12-team Faculty Soccer Playoff to begin earlier than 2026 as of this level. That’s the message Southeastern Convention commissioner Greg Sankey shared at halftime of the sport between No. 1 Alabama and Texas on Saturday.

“The 2026 season,” he stated when requested what was the probably yr that the brand new format would start.

Head Coach Kirby Sensible of the Georgia Bulldogs shakes fingers with SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey after the Georgia Bulldogs defeated the Alabama Crimson Tide 33-18 within the 2022 CFP Nationwide Championship Recreation at Lucas Oil Stadium on January 10, 2022 in Indianapolis, Indiana. 
(Picture by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Photographs)

“However we’ve been informed to return and look to see if it will possibly occur for 2024 or 2025, and that’s undone,” Sankey stated. “The perfect likelihood is ’26. We’ll work on ’24 and ’25. Whether or not it occurs, that is still to be seen. I actually sense from the presidents a a lot greater motivation. Whether or not or not, once more, we will make it occur early, I don’t know. When you’ve got readability on the presidential degree, it’s actually a motivating issue.”

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Sankey shortly pushed off any discuss of eliminating varied convention championship video games when the brand new playoff format provides extra video games on the finish of the common season.

Not Going Wherever

“I believe so. These have relevance, which means,” he stated. “You’ve bought to find out a convention champion. There are going to be convention champions.”

(L-R) Faculty Basketball broadcaster Dick Vitale receives an autographed basketball from SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey previous to the beginning of the sport between the Texas A&M Aggies and Arkansas Razorbacks within the Semifinal sport of the SEC Males’s Basketball Event at Amalie Enviornment on March 12, 2022 in Tampa, Florida. 
(Picture by Andy Lyons/Getty Photographs)

That would occur with no convention championship sport, nonetheless.

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Sankey additionally shouldn’t be leaning to shortening the 12-game common season due to extra playoff video games.

“No, not proper now,” he stated.

For participant security, he supplied fewer performs in video games.

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“I believe we must always take a look at methods to handle the common season – how the clock is managed,” he stated. “You would scale back the variety of performs in a sport with the clock guidelines, and doing it moderately.”

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Sankey was requested if further tv companions added to ESPN, equivalent to FOX or others, to the Faculty Soccer Playoff may drive the whole bundle to over $2 billion.

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“I don’t guess on that,” he stated. “Right here’s what has to occur. We’re going to go to the market and discover out what a 12-team playoff might be valued at, and who might be . Till we all know that, whether or not it’s one associate, which I believe it may nonetheless be, or a number of companions, which it may very well be, and what its worth is, I don’t know. These are good tweets, they usually fill in house. However that’s not our actuality.”

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey is on the sector for pre-game heat ups on the TicketSmarter Birmingham Bowl between the Houston Cougars and the Auburn Tigers on December 28, 2021 at Protecting Stadium in Birmingham, Alabama.  
(Picture by Michael Wade/Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Photographs)

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Sankey differentiated between the SEC’s upcoming addition of Texas and Oklahoma by 2025 to the Huge Ten’s latest addition of USC and UCLA from The Pacific-12 Convention within the coming years.

“Our enlargement is in some ways distinctive as a result of we’re restoring rivalries – Texas-Arkansas, Texas-Texas A&M or Texas A&M-Texas, relying on one’s view,” he stated. “Oklahoma-Missouri was one-fourth of the Huge 8 Convention beforehand, they usually’ll play once more. We’ll have the border sharing of Arkansas and Oklahoma taking part in. The query is do they occur yearly? Our motivation is to maneuver our groups extra often by way of our campuses. No matter we will do to facilitate these actual, conventional encounters must be within the forefront of our thoughts. Even when not performed yearly, we’ve bought the flexibility to proceed rivalries.”