Will there be further expansion of the SEC? Perhaps. Will Oklahoma and Texas join the league early. Dunno. What’s the solution to competitive equity with the advent of NIL? Not sure but working on it. Will the College Football Playoffs expand? Maybe, eventually.
That paragraph could duly but not entirely accurately sum up Commissioner Greg Sankey’s remarks to open SEC Football Media Days at the College Football Hall of Fame on Monday. Nothing definitive.
As they were delivered, though, Sankey’s words were profound and well summarized where the game is at the onset of the 2022 football season – in flux.
Sankey’s opening remarks and answers to the many far-reaching questions that came his way on Day 1 of the SEC’s annual preseason convention were more honest than evasive. There simply are too many moving parts now to pronounce anything definite.
“We’re dealing with complex problems that won’t be solved with complaints, by accusations, by finger-pointing, by offering simple solutions,” Sankey said. “What is needed now is collaboration, deep thinking about real-world solutions with everyone participating in the conversation.”
The chief takeaway Monday was that Sankey is quite content with where the SEC is at the moment. The league will expand to 16 teams with the addition of Oklahoma and Texas from the Big 12 Conference in July 2025, if not earlier.
Sankey referred to the SEC as “a superleague” and said he felt that way before and after the Big Ten added UCLA and Southern Cal to expand its membership to 16 on June 30.
“We’re comfortable at 16,” Sankey said during a question-and-answer session with a few hundred sports journalists in the main hall of the Hall of Fame in downtown Atlanta. “There’s no sense of urgency; there’s no sense of panic. We’re not just shooting for a number of affiliations that make us better. Could they be out there? I’d never say they aren’t, and I’d never say they are.”
The truly intriguing part of Sankey’s 40-minute appearance, televised live on the SEC Network, was his admission that the SEC is actively fielding inquiries from other teams from other conferences about the possibility of joining the SEC. In the immediate aftermath of the Big Ten’s expansion news came reports that Clemson, Florida State, North Carolina, Virginia and Virginia Tech might be interested in jumping ship to the SEC.
Sankey would not confirm which teams he has or has not heard from, only that many out there are considering options. Like last summer, when Sankey said he was approached by Oklahoma and Texas, Sankey said he owes it to the membership to listen.
“We’re attentive. We’re engaged in conversations,” Sankey said. “The great news for the Southeastern Conference is that people call and say, ‘Hey, you’re doing something really special, and they kind of hint around the edges.’ But, as I’ve said, we know who we are. We’re confident in our success. We’re really looking forward to the expansion of 16 teams and don’t feel pressure to just operate at a number. But we’ll watch what happens around us and be thoughtful.”
There does, however, seem to be an inevitability that conference realignment will continue nationwide.
“It’s left a lot of internal conversations about where do we go, I understand that,” said LSU coach Brian Kelly, who left Notre Dame after last season. “There’s the question about Notre Dame, what do they do? Maybe they’re better positioned than some. It’s musical chairs, and there’s not enough chairs for everybody. That’s the current state of college football.”
Sankey hinted the league is not interested in necessarily expanding its geographic footprint. With their recent membership expanding with other Power Five teams or “Autonomous Five,” the Big Ten and the SEC have asserted themselves as college football’s power brokers. Speculation continues that those two conferences could break away from the NCAA to form a sort of “superleague.”
Sankey scoffed somewhat at that prospect. He enumerated in his opening remarks the SEC’s consistent domination of college football’s competitive landscape. With Georgia’s national title secured in January, the league has won three consecutive CFP championships. He also pointed out the run of four straight titles from 2007-2010 and six different teams claiming championships.
“So, I’m not trying to be a smart-aleck guy, but we ARE a superleague,” Sankey said. He also mentioned the SEC’s current configuration of having schools located in “contiguous states.”
In addition to keeping the SEC as is, Sankey said it is fine with keeping the playoff format at four teams. Twice in the last four years the final has included a pair of conference affiliates.
But he has been outspoken in his support of a 12-team playoff that would include six “conference qualifiers” and six at-large selections. However, that format was shelved at the NCAA summit with other league’s dissenting.
“I walked out of that meeting much more positive about the path forward than when I walked in,” Sankey said. “There’s a lot of work to do. We have time, and we’ll use it.”
Managing Name, Image and Likeness and the issues that have come with it – some expected, others unexpected – is even more complicated. Like most everyone in the sport, he believes it has to be regulated, whether that’s at a state law or NCAA level.
“We’ve allowed it to enter the recruiting space in a really weird way, and that needs to be healthier than it is right now,” Sankey said. “We need an enforceable standard.”
Still to be decided is the scheduling format for a 16-team SEC. Sankey allowed that coaches and administrators favor a one-division, three-permanent-rivals format but that many details still needed to be worked out. A nine-game schedule represents the best solution.
“There are limits on the number of options available for three permanent opponents based on the number of games; nine makes that more practical,” Sankey said. “I had two points when we expanded that I wanted to be front and center: One is that we engage in blue-sky thinking, let’s look at the big picture. The second is that we rotate teams through campus as frequently as possible so we don’t go 12 years between visits. Those two have guided us. That last one relates to the number of games, permanent opponents and how many times you can move people that cleanly.”
