Truly a debate that’s spanned years and now generations of SEC football coaches, the league is back in a familiar place.

After two days of the SEC spring meetings, league commissioner Greg Sankey indicated they didn’t expect to leave the Sandestin resort with a resolution to future football scheduling models.

Eight games?

Nine?

Good question. Again.

How?

This is truly an annual discussion that remains unresolved in a matter that could hold the key to future playoff models. Is it a chicken or egg matter as it relates to the playoff as coaches and administrators link different postseason plans to the number of league games played each fall.

So we just asked Sankey after Wednesday’s round of meetings. What makes this issue so hard to resolve?

“I’m in a different room than this one,” Sankey said in the small auditorium of reporters. “So that’s the complexity. Right. And you have a variety of perspectives. Some would say let’s just go play nine games. More SEC games is better.

“Some would say, wait a second, I’m looking at bowl qualification and it’s going to be harder to get to that six-win threshold as I build my program.”

It’s easy to forget there are programs outside of the playoff conversation that have their own self-preservation in mind.

“Then you have some,” Sankey continued, “that looked last year and said our interpretation is under the current (playoff) selection criteria losing weighs more than winning a solid game — that losing a game is more problematic. And until we have a better understanding of the future criteria or entry points for the CFP, we’re not inclined to go to nine games.”

That was the conversation several years ago when a 12-game playoff was still in the planning phase. How many wins or losses would be required or tolerated remained an unknown.

The same mystery exists for a possible 16-team field. Or 14.

Probably not 12, but who knows?

What comes first, a scheduling plan or playoff clarity? Great questions.

“I think those are three philosophies,” Sankey concluded. “I think there are some that are ready to go to that and you need a majority to make a decision. When you have three different mindsets, you might not have majority out of those mindsets.”

You also have philosophical differences between coaches, athletics directors, and university presidents.

There are 16 sets of each gathered in the gulf-side resort where a consensus remains elusive.

It also fair to say other conferences with nine-game schedules have expressed frustration over the SEC’s current eight-game plan. Sources from within Big Ten conversations told Yahoo Sports it wasn’t on board with a specific playoff model discussed in Sandestin unless the SEC moved to a nine-game slate.

Asked later if the Big Ten could influence the SEC’s thought process, Sankey held the line.

“Well, I don’t know what they’ve said about models this or that,” Sankey said. “They’ve been at nine and we’ve been at eight. So there hasn’t been a whole lot of influence at this point. But we’re going to make our decision. They’ve made their decision.”

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.