DALLAS – Greg Sankey opened SEC Football Media Days with his new go-to phrase: “We’re going from 14 deep to 16 strong.” Then the SEC commissioner added a caveat. “Sixteen is our today and 16 is our tomorrow.”
Later, one reporter had a good follow-up question on that.
“I just wanted to clarify: ‘Tomorrow,’ does that simply just mean tomorrow, or is that a long-term future tomorrow?”
Clearly, the media here didn’t take as gospel Sankey’s assertion that there will be no more SEC expansion, at least in the immediate. But he found himself having to repeat his pet phrase, in various iterations, throughout his 30-minute presentation, which was carried live on the SEC Network and a couple of other ESPN platforms.
Three of the first five questions – including three in a row – that Sankey fielded during the Q&A portion that followed his 3,981-word opening statement all were related to the possibility of further expansion. After the third, Sankey sought to change the subject.
“So, the last three questions are a part of the reality, and I’ve responded now three times where our focus lies,” Sankey said before repeating his refrain. “Our focus is on our 16 members. I have a responsibility to pay attention, (but) I’m certainly not going to fuel speculation on what happens next. We can certainly remain at 16 for a long, long time and be incredibly successful.”
On July 1, the SEC officially added Oklahoma and Texas to the conference roster in a deal that was brokered three years ago. Those additions from the Southwestern U.S. are why the SEC’s annual preseason football meeting came west here to the Omni Hotel Downtown Dallas for the first time in the four-decade history the league has convened this event.
Once a 10-team conference, the SEC expanded to 12 teams in 1992 and to 14 teams in 2012. The 16 it has now remains fewer than the newly-expanded Atlantic Coast and Big Ten conferences. The Pac-12, at last check, was down to two.
But as the SEC opened its 39th annual preseason football media gathering, there remained growing speculation that Clemson and Florida State are targets of further expansion for the SEC. Both schools currently are embroiled with the ACC in lawsuits that seek to disentangle themselves from a broadcast rights agreement that prevents them from leaving without paying exorbitant, multi-million dollar buyout penalties.
Sankey was asked if he is following those court battles and how the outcomes might affect rapidly-changing landscape of college athletics.
“I pay attention,” said Sankey, entering his 10th year as SEC commissioner. “As I said, we’re focused on our 16. I’ve said before at Media Days, I’m not a recruiter. My job is to make sure we meet the standard of excellence that we have for ourselves on a daily basis. That attracts interest. It’s done with the two universities that we have added this year. They’re not the only phone calls I’ve ever had, but I’m not involved in recruitment.”
Conferences adding and subtracting teams are just one of college football’s legal entanglements. USA Today recently reported that the NCAA in the last 10 years has incurred $433 million in legal expenses alone. Lawsuits were sitting on state and federal court dockets from coast-to-coast as Sankey spoke.
That wasn’t the case when Oklahoma and Texas agreed to leave the Big 12 and come the SEC’s way. Sankey made the surprise announcement without prior warning or speculation at the 2021 SEC Media Days in Hoover, Alabama. Since then, those two schools had their own legal issues and financial penalties to wrangle through with the Big 12.
With all that finally behind the two schools and the SEC, the league is eager to enter a period free of any new legal scrums.
“Our presidents have been clear that I am not going to entangle us in litigation around expansion,” Sankey said. “So, I pay attention, but I’m not engaged in those conversations. … I certainly don’t spend any time engaged in recruiting activity because we’re focused on our 16. And I want to be respectful of the difficulty that’s currently faced with that issue -- that set of issues within the ACC and my colleague Jim Phillips.”
As has been proven with the events of the last three years, power conferences still can do whatever they want, the SEC in particular. With their pockets lined with billions of dollars from television broadcast rights, they’re going to do whatever they have to do keep the money train rolling.
That has, of course, become increasingly complicated. With the Name, Image and Likeness legislation coming online in 2021, players are now paid for their services and without any current restrictions. That they’re currently doing so without any limit on where or how often they transfer further drives a burgeoning player-income economy.
As it loses legal battle after battle, it has become evident amid that the NCAA is not equipped to oversee all the change. Meanwhile, local lawmakers have only added to chaos by pushing through legislation designed only to give their respective state universities a competitive advantage when comes their ability to land the best players and continue to make the most money.
Sankey has led an initiative to lobby Congress for help through “countless” trips to Washington D.C. Still, no solutions appear soon in coming. The leagues now encompassing what’s called the Autonomous Conferences – led by Sankey and the SEC – may have to take matters into their own hands.
“Being a unique time for college athletics, time for movement, obviously, and a time of change, we as leaders are responsible for navigating what really are for us in college sports uncharted waters of change,” Sankey said. “We’re doing so at a time when the pressures to recruit, to win, to draw people in, are just as high as they’ve ever been. But we’ve added a set of external factors, the litigation that presses in, state-level legislation, conversations with Congress, and the emergence of the next great idea that is sold or pitched as something that will quickly and fully resolve the issues currently faced in college sports.
“But the reality is there is no easy button we can just go push to resolve the issues we face. There’s no magic pill. Anytime you go through a reset, it is difficult.”
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