SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey Says Conference Is Considering Moving to 1 Division

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said Thursday that the conference is "leaning heavily" toward switching to a one-division alignment for football.

Sankey told Marc Ryan of CBS Sports Radio discussions about a single division have taken precedence over the current two-division setup or a possible four-pod structure.

The SEC, which is scheduled to expand to 16 teams in 2025 with the additions of Oklahoma and Texas, has been in discussions about future alignment for awhile.

In September, Sankey said the idea of pods—a 4x4 plan—"really doesn't work" for much the same reason the current two-division system has drawn ire: the lack of home-and-away meetings between programs in different divisions.

At the time, the biggest question the conference was working through was whether it would increase the number of conference games in coordination with the likely division change.

"The focus in football is on a single division right now," Sankey told reporters. "The real debate is eight or nine [conference] games. That doesn't mean divisions are completely erased from our consideration but they're not at the forefront of our thinking."

So far, it appears one division remains the runaway favorite.

Although it's impossible to create a balanced schedule with 16 teams and eight or nine conference games, getting rid of the divisions would allow the playing field to level out over the course of multiple years, something that isn't possible with the current structure.

As it stands, there are three Power Five conferences with divisions: the ACC, Big Ten and SEC and two without divisions: the Big 12 and Pac-12.

It's unclear whether the SEC could expedite the divisional adjustment to put it in place between Oklahoma and Texas make the move from the Big 12.