SEC Media Days is a wrap for 2025. Most of it was forgettable, but here are five things worth remembering from the league's annual showcase.
The circus has packed up the tent — err, SEC Media Days has come to a close for 2025 — and as usual, answers to tough questions were careful and calculated, if not coached. Nevertheless, there were still a few newsmakers and comments worth remembering. Here are five takeaways from the annual event:
1. Greg Sankey draws SEC's line in CFP sand
While insisting the SEC-Big Ten relationship is fine, the SEC commissioner with the occasional silver tongue left no doubt that his league places no pressure on itself to align with the Big Ten's inane 4-4-2-2-1 CFP format idea. The SEC would sooner forgo expansion and extend the current 12-team format than support a fixed number of automatic bids for each league. Still, Sankey would no doubt prefer expansion, and the accompanying revenue spike, but under a more sensible format. For the SEC, two sand-timers are simultaneously losing grains: the time left to make a CFP format decision, and separate-but-related, the time crunch on deciding whether the SEC will add a ninth conference game by next year. In expressing indifference about expansion, Sankey signaled an absence of panic.
2. Eli Drinkwitz' outlandish suggestion of a 30-team CFP
Was Eli Drinkingwitz?
Here's how the Missouri coach sold his idea for expanding the College Football Playoff from 12 to a whopping 30 teams: "The NFL takes 44% of their teams, in order, into the playoffs to increase the passion or keep the fan base engaged,” Drinkwitz said. “If we're talking about 12, that's 9% (of FBS teams). If we're talking about 14, that's 11%. If we're talking about 16, that’s 12%"
Drinkwitz said that with college sports moving toward a pro-like model in so many ways, the CFP should follow suit by embracing massive expansion. Sorry, but just because the sport is being forced to be more pro-like in some ways doesn't mean it's smart to sign up for more. And it's a little hard to believe Drinkwitz is advocating for the entire sport when one considers Missouri has finished 13th or worse in the final CFP rankings in 10 out of 11 years.
3. Texas A&M fight song used for Sarkisian walk-up music
Was this Sark snark? Or an honest mistake? Either way, video of Texas coach Steve Sarkisian being officially introduced by Sankey while the Texas A&M fight song served as his walk-up song will provide Aggies fans with social media giddiness for years to come. It'll play on a non-stop loop in College Station if TAMU can pull off a road upset of the Longhorns.
4. Media polling rights and wrongs
An Alabama defense that should be one of the best in the SEC didn't have a soul selected to the media's pre-season All-SEC first team, but the Crimson Tide loaded down the second- and third-team with six selections. Linebacker Deontae Lawson, DE LT Overton, CB Domani Jackson and DT Tim Keenan were second-teamers, while the safety tandem of Keon Sabb and Bray Hubbard were third-team picks. Lawson can make a solid first-team case, but with the Mobile native coming off a knee injury, it shouldn't be shocking. ... Mississippi State was the overwhelming pick for the SEC cellar, which would mirror its finish in 2024. These are lean times for the Bulldogs, but I'd bet on the field against MSU in the race for the bottom. Somebody will be worse. ... Also, it is more egregious that two people with an SEC Media Days credential voted for Vanderbilt as league champion, or that one voted for Auburn? A reasonable argument. Yours truly picked Georgia to repeat, but the overwhelming vote-getter was Texas.
5. Vanderbilt football in January
Commodores coach Clark Lea, with standout QB Diego Pavia returning, boldly inferred his 2025 team is College Football Playoff material. “We believe we have what it takes to play into January,” Lea said. That's a mouthful for a Vanderbilt coach, even with the CFP field now expanded to 12 teams. Or is it? Lea has an escape hatch here, after all: the SEC plays in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl, played on Jan. 2.
Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23. Reach him at [email protected]. Follow on X.com @chasegoodbread.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: The five worthwhile things to remember from SEC Media Days
Category: General Sports
