With conference spring meetings starting, Greg Sankey's CFP views are the most important to track

The month of May functions as the beginning of formal talking season. Coaches can jump on podcasts and talk with experts like Josh Pate all they want post-spring, and those sit-downs are very, very valuable for fans and media members alike. But May means each of the major Power Conferences are set to hold their spring meetings, and therefore some of the biggest names and decision-makers in the entire sport will be in specified places where they can field question about the issues surrounding college football.

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The Big 10, the ACC, the Big 12, and other Group of Six leagues are set to have their meetings at some point in May, with the ACC starting its get-together at Amelia Island in Florida today. The Southeastern Conference is scheduled to hold its meetings in Destin, Fla. in the days following Memorial Day. What Texas dignitaries like president Jim Davis, athletic director Chris Del Conte, football coach Steve Sarkisian, men’s basketball coach Sean Miller, and women’s basketball coach Vic Schaefer say will surely be important. Similar applies to some of their SEC counterparts both at the administrative and coaching level.

But all eyes will be on SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, yet again, as he functions as the voice for the 16 member institutions for the SEC. What Sankey says regarding the hottest topic in college football right now — the expansion of the College Football Playoff — will be the most important thing to come out of these meetings.

At this point, Sankey is endorsing patience and research. On a recent appearance on The Paul Finebaum Show, Sankey said that they “have to do the homework” when it comes to expanding from 12 to a number greater than 12.

“You now there’s not a lot of research (into) what’s the media marketplace interest in a 24-team playoff. We understand it for 16, we know it for 12. Are there other options that should be considered?” Sankey said. “I also know that when we tried to go from 4 to 12, I had commissioner colleagues whose stopping point was student-athletes’ health, well-being, the number of games. How (does it affect) the full calendar?

“And I said to the media last week, it’s ironic we’re not even talking about that. That’s a gentle reminder to all of us that just adding games has consequences.” Sankey said.

He’d continue, “We have to do the homework. And when we went from 4 to 12, I think one of the mistakes was we announced we’re going to 12 and then negotiated with the media. We should understand the media marketplace before we have an increase in, for example, the number of teams.”

One of the biggest reasons why Sankey is hesitant on expanding the CFP to 24 is because any expansion past 16 opens up bidding on the playoff’s media rights. That would allow for entities like Fox, CBS, or NBC to get in on the action that ESPN currently has exclusive control over. Speaking of ESPN, they pay the SEC a lot of money to air its football and men’s basketball games.

Expanding to 16 doesn’t re-open negotiations, and it’s a step Sankey has endorsed as recently as this past December.

“When we’ve talked as a league, we think the move to 16 is the next right step that provides 11 at-larges, it honors conference champions,” Sankey said in December. “And I do expect there’s going to be a lot of stress about the low-ranked conference champions that are in this thing right now because they’ve displaced some much more highly ranked teams. That’s the point of controversy. So I do think we have to continue to adapt. Our league has said 16 is the right next step.”

Sankey will have other topics to discuss in Destin, including the recent expansion of the NCAA basketball tournament, ABS at the SEC baseball tournament, and the overall competition his league has with the Big 10.

But as other commissioners like the Big 10’s Tony Petitti, the ACC’s Jim Phillips, and the Big 12’s Brett Yormark embark on their spring meetings in the coming weeks, they’ll likely endorse an expanded 24-team playoff.

Sankey’s thoughts on the topic, whether they’ve changed or not, may dictate what the next step is for the sport.

It’ll be the most talked-about portion of talkin’ season.