The first College Football Playoff rankings of the season are out, and the annual war of words between the Big Ten and the SEC is in full swing. Two Big Ten coaches have already accused the selection committee and ESPN of favoring the SEC.
Now, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey is firing back. Sankey took a shot at Illinois head coach Bret Bielema for canceling a nonconference series with an SEC team, and he told Big Ten coaches to stop running “to the microphone at a press conference” to complain.
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Big Ten Coaches Speak Out
After the first CFP rankings were released last week, Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti took aim at ESPN for its coverage of the SEC.
“SEC gets a lot of love from the ESPN, and all their writers that they don’t technically pay but march to their drum,” Cignetti said. He also shared a post on social media comparing teams’ quality wins, captioning it, “Facts are stubborn things.”
Bielema joined in on Friday, saying that Illinois would “probably be a top 15 team” if it played in the SEC. Bielema should know the conference well, as he coached at Arkansas from 2013 to 2017.
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But Illinois also recently backed out of a home-and-home series with Missouri set for 2027 and 2028, choosing instead to schedule a home-and-home with Notre Dame.
‘Let’s go’
Appearing on The Paul Finebaum Show on Monday, Sankey made it clear that he had heard the criticism, and he took a not-so-subtle jab at Bielema.
“Well, one of those head coaches cancelled a non-conference game with one of our teams,” Sankey said, via Awful Announcing. “So what I would say is, ‘Hey, we’re ready to schedule those non-conference games if you’re concerned about us being overrated.’ There’s a full regular season. We’re pretty flexible with how we approach non-conference games. We have those at the beginning of the season, at the end of the season. Let’s go.”
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“Let’s not run to the microphone at a press conference and complain. Let’s find those opportunities. Because they’re there. And like I said, we just had one of those cancelled. And I particularly like that coach. He coached in our league, and we’ll probably smile at some point,” Sankey continued.
Sankey also pushed back on the idea that he lobbies the committee on behalf of the SEC.
“We all have a common process for reporting information to the College Football Playoff selection committee,” Sankey said. “I don’t call. I don’t lobby. I’m not out there saying a lot directly. Every so often I will have I think a little bit of fun, or maybe I’ve restated what others have said about us. I think the excellence of our football plays out every week.”
Needless to say, this feud isn’t going anywhere, especially with the playoff expanding to 24 teams next year.
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The post ‘We’re ready to schedule those non-conference games’: Greg Sankey fires back at Big Ten coaches over SEC bias claims appeared first on The Comeback: Today’s Top Sports Stories & Reactions.
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