MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. — SEC commissioner Greg Sankey kicked off his conference’s spring meetings by tempering expectations for what might happen over the next few days at this beachside resort.“If you could overhype a spring meeting, I think that happened,” Sankey said Monday of the buildup for this year’s annual gathering.With several enormous issues facing the league, including College Football Playoff expansion and whether the SEC should potentially break from the NCAA and govern itself, Sankey wants his constituents to come away from here weighing options more than coming to conclusions.That hasn’t been the case in other conferences over the past few weeks when it comes to CFP expansion.Public support for a 24-team Playoff has picked up momentum since the last meeting of the CFP management committee in April. This month, commissioners from the ACC and Big 12 have both backed the Big Ten’s idea to double the size of the CFP field from the current 12. Notre Dame’s athletic director also threw his support behind 24.That leaves the SEC seemingly as the one holdout, instead in favor of a more modest expansion to 16 teams. But that’s probably an overstatement of the SEC’s position. Tennessee athletic director Danny White voiced support for 24 teams, and more coaches are increasingly hoping for as much CFP access as possible.Sankey doesn’t seem in a rush for his conference to make a decision.“I don’t think consensus is needed (now),” Sankey said.This week’s meeting is about trying to get SEC ADs and coaches to understand that there are currently more questions than answers about how a 24-team Playoff would impact college football.“We’ll look at a variety of ideas, but really look at the process for how we come to a conclusion, whether it’s remaining at 12 or some other number,” Sankey said.“So we want to have the right kind of conversations about health, recovery, preparation of student-athletes. We need to understand the marketplace. December and January are crowded months relative to football, particularly on days where you’d be seeking to play college football games in a Playoff that could be expanded. And what happens in the regular season?” he said.While all 10 FBS conferences and Notre Dame have a say in the Playoff format, the new agreement among that group puts the final say in the hands of the SEC and Big Ten, and the Big Ten is firmly behind 24 now. Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti said last week his members did not discuss anything but 24 at their spring meetings.“I was surprised by that, because they brought 16 to the table,” Sankey said. “When we were meeting last year, all those 16 ideas, they weren’t ours. So I think there’s probably clarity that they have looked at 16, just not much of late.”The impasse between the two leagues on expansion led to the current 12-team format rolling over into this season.That’s caused some angst in the SEC, where the conference will use a nine-game league schedule for the first time. How that impacts the CFP selection committee’s assessment of SEC teams remains to be seen, but many within the league expected more Playoff access points when they agreed to play an additional conference game.Sankey said he has no regrets about leading the SEC to a nine-game conference schedule, despite the stagnant Playoff. Would his members be comfortable with another season at 12 if the Big Ten does not move off 24?“It varies,” Sankey said. “I don’t think we’d have a unanimous vote right now.”Sankey ‘pretty committed’ to SEC title gameExpanding the Playoff to 24 teams would also mean eliminating conference championship games and beginning the Playoff on the first Saturday in December instead.Sankey, though, reiterated his commitment to the lucrative SEC title game, which sources told The Athletic earns the conference an estimated $100 million annually as part of its 10-year television deal with ESPN that runs through 2034.“We have contracts, so pretty committed,” Sankey said. Asked if the league was philosophically committed to the game as well, he repeated himself.“Pretty committed.”Taking a look at self-governance?Another major topic this week will be SEC self-governance. Sankey reminded reporters that the SEC making its own rules is nothing new: The conference used to have its own limits on transfers, for instance.It’s just how drastic those SEC rules might be, given the frustration within the conference on the lack of federal legislation on various issues, including eligibility, and perceived lack of enforcement on tampering and third-party payments to players.“I do expect that we’ll have a conversation about what we do within our authority as a conference,” Sankey said. “We still believe we need national standards. If those can’t be achieved, then we’ll have to look at more conference-led regulations.”But is there enough buy-in from schools, as well as a potential enforcement structure, to make that work?“Yeah, people have to have buy-in. Schools, campuses, coaches have to want to be governed,” Sankey said. “But that governance system has to keep up with the change that’s happening around them.”As for the CFP, Sankey said he is concerned about expansion both negatively impacting the regular season and watering down the postseason.“I’m not an opponent of 24 or 28,” he said. “We have to inform the decision-making. I think we did a good job of informing our position last year on 16. We’ll consider other ideas, certainly this week and moving forward.”He added: “I’ve never thought football was a tournament sport.”