Big Ten fan heckled SEC chief at baseball game over football schedule

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey ventured into Big Ten county to catch a baseball game at Wrigley Field, and wasn't safe from the wrath of a rival fan over his conference's football schedule.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey says a Big Ten fan heckled him at Wrigley Field over the SEC's football schedule. | Jordan Godfree-Imagn Images

To play, or not to play, a ninth conference football game has been a major question in the SEC over the last few years, and it was again this offseason, driving a wedge between itself and the Big Ten amid a dispute on how to expand the College Football Playoff.

Now, the citizens of Big Ten country are apparently getting personally involved, as SEC commissioner Greg Sankey revealed such an interaction that took place when he attended a baseball game at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

“As soon as I sat down, there was some Big Ten fan who stands up and starts yelling, ‘You need to play 10 games, 10 conference games. You need to play 10 conference games,’” Sankey said on The Paul Finebaum Show.

“No hello. Just knew who I was in the middle of Wrigley Field. The opposite of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. I was not in the right field bleachers, I was right behind home plate.”

Sankey laughed off the interaction while talking about it, so it didn’t appear the Big Ten homer was too militant about his opinions of the SEC football schedule.

But it does reveal what remains a real point of contention between the SEC and Big Ten as regards what their respective conferences’ schedules should look like before anyone signs off on expanding college football’s postseason.

For much of the offseason, it appeared the SEC and Big Ten were on the same page as to how the future playoff should be structured.

Until recently, the two conferences agreed that they should be awarded four automatic qualifiers each, while giving the ACC and Big 12 two each.

But then the SEC appeared to back out of that view after it received some backlash, namely from the ACC and Big 12, which denounced that plan as unfair.

That left the Big Ten alone in supporting the four automatic qualifier proposal, a stance it’s unlikely to budge from unless the SEC adds a ninth conference game to its football schedule, up from the current eight-game league slate it plays.

The feeling from the Big Ten is that the SEC will artificially improve its win-loss numbers come playoff selection time by playing a perceived pushover opponent late in the season, known informally among fans as “Cupcake Week” in late November, while Big Ten teams play league opponents.

Sankey has endorsed the idea of adding that ninth conference game in theory, but there doesn’t appear to be any imminent pressure or plan to actually implement it.

Which means the Big Ten will want to get as many automatic qualifiers in any future playoff that it can, to prevent the SEC from snatching up at-large bids based on what the selection committee believes is a tougher overall schedule in that league.

That means the Big Ten will not move from its position. And since the SEC will not move from its own stance, we may not see the College Football Playoff expand in 2026.

That is, unless the SEC takes the view of at least one Big Ten guy from the north side of Chicago, and adds that extra game in the future.

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