ATLANTA — The unofficial start of college football has arrived with the beginning of SEC Media Days on Monday.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey will kick off the event at 9 a.m. on Monday at the College Football Hall of Fame with his version of his league’s “State of the Union” address.
LSU coach Brian Kelly, South Carolina coach Shane Beamer, Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin and Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea are also scheduled to speak on Monday, each bringing along three players from his respective team.
Sankey’s words figure to carry the most relevant news with the collegiate athletics landscape still shifting in the wake of the House vs. NCAA settlement.
RELATED: What changes to expect in college football after House settlement
SEC head football coaches and players will have their thoughts and opinions on the new model that is unfolding, too.
Many of the coaches, including Georgia’s Kirby Smart, spoke up at the SEC spring meetings on topics that have still yet to be resolved.
SEC PREVIEWS
Here are 3 key college football issues that Sankey and SEC coaches will likely have comments on:
1. College Football Playoff model
The CFP field is expected to expand from 12 to 16 teams starting with the 2026 season, but college football leadership is running out of time to agree on a new model (Dec. 1 deadline).
RELATED: CFP model hot topic at Big 12 Media Days
The SEC, along with the Big 12 and ACC, have voiced support for a “5-11” model that would give automatic bids to the four power conference champions and highest-ranked Group of Six conference champ, and then the 11 highest-ranked at-large teams as determined by the CFP committee rankings.
The Big Ten has supported an automatic qualifier model that would guarantee 4 automatic bids each for the Big Ten and SEC, 2 automatic bids each for the ACC and Big 12, an automatic bid for the highest-ranked Group of Six team and then the three highest-ranked at-large teams.
2. SEC schedule model
Sankey indicated the SEC would decide on playing an eight- or nine-game league schedule in 2026 by the start of this fall.
The SEC would like to have an idea of what will happen with the college football playoff model for 2026 and beyond, but that’s not expected to happen.
Smart spoke up on behalf of an 8-game SEC schedule, pointing out the value of playing marquee non-conference games like the one Georgia played against ACC champion Clemson to open the 2024 season.
To Smart’s point, those sorts of conference matchups are valuable to the CFP selection committee as they provide transitive properties that can be applied when measuring teams from different conferences against one another.
Sankey indicated the next SEC schedule model, even if only eight games, would protect the league’s rivalry games. For Georgia, that would mean the continuation of annual SEC games with Auburn and Florida.
Further, Sankey left the door open for the next SEC schedule model to be in effect for only one season.
Transfer portal dates
Sankey made the SEC’s preference known when it came to having only one college football transfer portal window, sharing that Jan. 2-12 are the preferred dates for the 10-day window.
The Big Ten, however, has made its preference known for a transfer window to take place after spring football in April.
There is still some question as to who will determine the appropriate time (s) for the football playoff window.
The possibility exists that if the leagues can’t come to an agreement college football will continue to have two portal windows, as it did this past year in December, and again in April.
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