Greg Sankey's SEC was deemed the weekend's big winner following the College Football Playoff Selection Committee's release of the 12-team bracket for the 2025/2026 field. The Athletic's Ralph D. Russo believes Sankey earned special privileges from getting five teams into the field:
The No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs, No. 6 Ole Miss Rebels, No. 7 TAMU Aggies, No. 8 Oklahoma Sooners, and No. 9 Alabama Crimson Tide; the latter of which was a highway robbery getting in over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
As Russo pointed out, Sankey's conference flexed Alabama losing 28-7 in the SEC Championship Game to Georgia and not moving in the rankings at all over the Big 12's Brett Yormark and the BYU Cougars, who lost 34-7 to the Texas Tech Red Raiders and were bumped out of the field.
"Commissioner Greg Sankey won the offseason. After getting only three teams in the initial 12-team CFP, Sankey and his constituents spent months insisting the SEC should be treated differently than the rest of the conferences. Its rigor needed to be respected. Mission accomplished. The SEC has five teams in the field, including three first-round hosts, and ninth-seeded Alabama was the only team to lose a conference championship game and not drop in the final rankings," Russo wrote.
Conferences defeat College Football independence in CFP decision
Notre Dame found out what "It Just Means More" truly entails on Sunday. And it wasn't only the SEC that delivered the bad news. The ACC did the same with the Miami Hurricanes, who had two losses and a head-to-head win over the Fighting Irish, also making the field instead of Notre Dame.
It couldn't be clearer what the takeaway was for the Fighting Irish: join a conference or risk a rankings screw job every year. Pete Bevacqua may think this won't happen again next year, but College Football independence has already been punished to the fullest extent.
Adapt, or continue watching Sankey and Big Ten commissioner Tony Pettiti, who absolutely would've gotten the same treatment had one of his teams been in the same boat, get the better end of the CFP stick.
Hell, even the ACC's Jim Phillips has bragging rights over South Bend this year.
There's one way out of this rock bottom for Notre Dame. It's going to cost them profits, though. We'll see if the spirit of competition, or unrivaled media rights, is the school's top priority moving forward.