Tennessee football: Five takeaways from Greg Sankey’s 2023 SEC Media Days press conference

2. No more immediate expansion on the table right now

When it became clear that Texas and Oklahoma would join the SEC, it also became clear that Tennessee football would have new issues to deal with. This league is already deep enough, the College Football Playoff requires you to be a top two team in your league at minimum to make it, and the Vols have already struggled to navigate it the past decade-plus.

Taking all that into account, adding two more powerhouse programs, one that regularly makes the CFP, was naturally going to scare fans. However, scheduling is a factor here, and Texas has at least been down in recent years. As a result, staying with these 16 teams could help the Vols. It appears Sankey is content to do that for now. Here’s what he said about expansion.

"“We’re comfortable at 16. There’s no sense of urgency, no sense of panic. We’re not just shooting for a number of affiliations that make us better. Could they be out there? I would never say they’re not. I would never say that we will.”"

Now, this could change in the future. Honestly, though, if expansion continues, then the playoff will either have to expand or stop prioritizing automatic qualifiers. It’s almost gotten to that point now with the Big Ten adding the USC Trojans and UCLA Bruins, but it’s not there yet.

For now, though, Vol fans can relax on the question of expansion. There’s no scenario in which Texas and Oklahoma would be paired with them, so a bigger concern would be the Virginia Tech Hokies, Clemson Tigers, Florida State Seminoles or North Carolina school.