Over the summer, conversations took place about possible changes to the SEC schedule. A nine-game model was on the table, but commissioner Greg Sankey said there were a few reasons the league stayed at eight games – including the expanding College Football Playoff.

Ahead of the final selection show, Sankey said that conversation will start again once the calendar flips to 2025. What happens Sunday will come up when the league revisits those potential changes to the schedule.

When those schedule discussions start again, Sankey said it won’t just be league officials in the room. ABC, the conference’s primary media partner, will also be involved. Of course, there’s also the need to see what move puts the SEC in the best position for bowl eligibility.

“We said, back in the summer, that that decision becomes, essentially, first quarter of 2025 because we go through a 16-team, eight-game, single-division, if you will, format … with an expanded Playoff and wanting to know how the selection committee evaluates our teams in the current format,” Sankey said on The Paul Finebaum Show. “We’re still on that course.

“We include our media partner in that conversation. We want to evaluate bowl eligibility because that’s important to a number of our programs, and that will be an early 2025 point of focus for us.”

Greg Sankey: ‘There has to be recognition’ for strength of schedule

As the SEC gets ready for its championship game on Saturday, the league is at the center of the College Football Playoff discussion. The winner of the matchup will likely receive a first-round bye under the 12-team format and bracket, but questions are swirling about what happens to some of the other ranked teams.

Georgia came in at No. 8 in the penultimate rankings, which bodes well for the Bulldogs’ chances of staying in the Top 12 even if they end up losing to Texas. However, Alabama is on the bubble as the last team in the field, leading to questions if the Crimson Tide can stay in the bracket, depending on what happens during Championship Week.

Of course, strength of schedule is a key part of the discussion, and SEC teams have some of the hardest schedules in the game. That’s why Greg Sankey said they deserve to be recognized for playing such challenging matchups.

“There has to be recognition. Like I could pull out my email and show you our 16 teams’ strength of schedule. And this is not my rating, this Massey, FPI and Sagarin combined,” Sankey said on The Pat McAfee Show. “So you combine all of those, 14 of our teams’ strength of schedule is greater than the first of the other Top 25 CFP teams. In other words: 14 of our 16 have stronger schedules than the next CFP team. And then the next two follow and then everybody else in the CFP Top 25 rankings has a lesser schedule than our 16 teams when you use that metric.”