Tag: Greg Sankey

SEC commish gives statement on ACC, Big Ten, Pac-12 alliance

On Tuesday, the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 officially announced an alliance that will work together on a “collaborative approach surrounding the future evolution of college athletics and scheduling.” The move comes in response to the SEC, which of …

On Tuesday, the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 officially announced an alliance that will work together on a “collaborative approach surrounding the future evolution of college athletics and scheduling.”

The move comes in response to the SEC, which of course added Texas and Oklahoma. Both schools will officially join the SEC on July 1, 2025.

Following the announcement of the alliance, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey gave a statement to The Action Network college football insider Brett McMurphy:

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Alliance Social Media reactions: ‘These people must be new to college athletics’

Twitter explodes after the announcement of the “Alliance” between the ACC, Big Ten, and Pac-12 Conferences.

The SEC and commissioner Greg Sankey rocked the college football landscape when they brought in two of the biggest brands in the sport. Both the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns rank among the most valuable football programs.

This left the remaining eight schools in the Big 12 and commissioner Bob Bowlsby trying to figure out the next move. The “other” eight don’t really bring much in terms of value if they wanted to join another conference. It appears that the Big 12 is all but dead at this point.

The focus shifted to the ACC, Big Ten, and Pac-12 Conferences as they were set to announce a three-conference alliance in response to the SEC’s power play. If their hope was to put the SEC on notice, it appears that they have failed miserably. At least in the eyes of the social media reactions that transpired shortly after the commissioners spoke to the media.

We have collected some of the top reactions from today’s news of the alliance.

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SEC extends Greg Sankey’s contract

SEC extends Greg Sankey’s contract.

The Southeastern Conference extended the contract of commissioner Greg Sankey on Thursday.

Sankey’s contract has been extended through at least 2026.

SEC press release:

Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey has agreed to a contract extension that will keep him in his post through at least 2026, the Conference announced on Thursday.

Sankey’s contract extension, approved by the Conference’s Presidents and Chancellors, continues a role he began on June 1, 2015, when he became the eighth Commissioner of the SEC.

“College athletics is in the midst of a transformational period, and the SEC is fortunate to have a highly impactful leader to guide us forward at this critical time in our history,” said Jere Morehead, President of the University of Georgia and current President of the SEC. “He has effectively introduced change and advancement for the conference while respecting the institutional traditions that make the SEC unique. His leadership and ability to foster collaboration through the COVID-19 pandemic helped establish a framework for all of college sports, and those leadership skills will be critical as we move forward with change in the years ahead.”

Now in his seventh year as Commissioner of the SEC, Sankey has successfully promoted a collaborative culture in the Conference in the midst of the highly competitive environment that is college sports.

“I am grateful for the support of the SEC’s presidents and chancellors, and for the continuing opportunity to serve our universities while supporting the student-athletes of the Southeastern Conference,” said Sankey. “We are in the midst of a time of change for college athletics, and I look forward to working with the SEC’s campus leaders to identify a path forward that will sustain the incredible success of our Conference and provide opportunities for young people to grow academically and challenge themselves athletically.”

Over the past 18 months alone, Sankey has guided the SEC through the COVID-19 pandemic and prepared for a return to action in the fall of 2020. He launched the SEC Council on Racial Equity and Social Justice, a league-wide body consisting of a diverse group of student-athletes, administrators, coaches and SEC staff. He also finalized a milestone 10-year agreement with the Walt Disney Company that grants ABC and ESPN exclusive broadcast rights to premier SEC football and basketball events beginning in 2024-25 and continuing through 2033-34.

The 2020-21 athletic year was particularly successful for SEC schools which recorded nine national championships and placed the most schools in the Top 25 among all conferences in the Learfield IMG Directors’ Cup all-sports standings. In all, SEC’s schools have won 32 national titles since Sankey became Commissioner in 2015.

Most recently, the SEC announced it will welcome the Universities of Oklahoma and Texas – two outstanding academic institutions with storied athletics programs — to the Conference in 2025. This expansion, which will be the third in the Conference’s 88-year history, will bring the SEC to 16 member universities across a 12-state footprint.

Sankey, 57, was appointed Commissioner by the Presidents and Chancellors of the SEC on March 12, 2015. He first joined the SEC staff in 2002 as Associate Commissioner for Governance, Enforcement and Compliance and later added supervision of the league’s championships staff to his responsibilities. He was elevated to Executive Associate Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer for the league office in 2012, becoming responsible for the day-to-day operation of the SEC Office.

Before joining the SEC, Sankey served as Commissioner of the Southland Conference for nearly seven years. He joined the Southland Conference staff in 1992 where he served as both assistant and associate commissioner before he was named its commissioner in 1996 at the age of 31.

Prior to his term at the Southland Conference, he was Director of Compliance and Academic Services at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, LA, as well as coach of the Demon’s golf teams. Before his tenure at Northwestern State, he was the Director of Intramural Sports at Utica College in upstate New York.

A native of Auburn, NY, Sankey earned his master’s degree from Syracuse University and his undergraduate degree from the State University of New York College at Cortland. Sankey and his wife, Cathy, reside in Birmingham, AL, and have two adult daughters, Hannah (and her husband, Rod) and Moriah.

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SEC extends commissioner Greg Sankey through 2026

Sankey has been the SEC commissioner since 2015, and he oversaw the new 10-year television contract with ABC and ESPN.

The Southeastern Conference will maintain leadership continuity as it undergoes realignment in the next couple of years. The league has extended commissioner Greg Sankey through 2026, it announced in a statement on Thursday.

“College athletics is in the midst of a transformational period, and the SEC is fortunate to have a highly impactful leader to guide us forward at this critical time in our history,” Jere Morehead, the SEC and University of Georgia president, said in the statement. “He has effectively introduced change and advancement for the conference while respecting the institutional traditions that make the SEC unique. His leadership and ability to foster collaboration through the COVID-19 pandemic helped establish a framework for all of college sports, and those leadership skills will be critical as we move forward with change in the years ahead.”

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The news comes on the heels of the announcement that Oklahoma and Texas have accepted invitations to join the SEC in the coming years. The Big 12’s grant of rights expires in 2025, but it’s very possible (and even likely) that the teams try to make their exit sooner than that.

Sankey has been the SEC commissioner since 2015, when he took over for Mike Slive. During that time, he helped negotiate the new 10-year SEC television deal with ABC and ESPN that replaces the expiring contract with CBS.

“I am grateful for the support of the SEC’s presidents and chancellors, and for the continuing opportunity to serve our universities while supporting the student-athletes of the Southeastern Conference,” Sankey said. “We are in the midst of a time of change for college athletics, and I look forward to working with the SEC’s campus leaders to identify a path forward that will sustain the incredible success of our Conference and provide opportunities for young people to grow academically and challenge themselves athletically.”

With the college football landscape potentially set to permanently change in the coming years with the fallout from SEC realignment, it makes a lot of sense that the conference wanted to secure its future. Now under a new contract, Sankey’s tenure is set to at least match Slive’s at 13 years.

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Current dynamic between Big 12 and SEC commissioners

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey described the current dynamic with Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby via ‘The Paul Finebaum Show.’

The college football landscape has changed. The SEC is gaining two of the Big 12’s most esteemed programs in the Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns. With the Southeastern Conference’s expansion, it certainly raises the question on the current relationship between Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby and SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey. With the current climate, it is not out of the question to confer that both sides might feel differently in light of recent events.

Without their most prominent programs, the future of the Big 12 seems underwhelming. In contrast, with the addition of OU and Texas, the SEC is on the cusp of a powerhouse conference in college football. A super conference that will change college athletics moving forward.

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In a recent appearance on the ‘Paul Finebaum Show,’ Sankey discussed his current relationship with Bowlsby. He provided a reminiscent vantage point to previous mergers within college football and previous colleagues casting aside differences to work together in past expansions.

“I’ve had subsequent opportunities to watch colleagues work through those issues with expansion, again at the ACC to the Big East, or the Big Ten adding members from the Big East and ACC, and there are those moments we all have a responsibility to guide forward to work, obviously, to lead our conferences and I’m certain that we will, we will work to do so.”

A rather business approach but to be expected following such an upheaval. Both the Sooners and Longhorns have accepted official invites to join the Southeastern Conference but the official move will not happen for several more years. The two programs are scheduled to enter the SEC on July 1, 2025. This provides time for broadcasting contracts to be made and finalized, along with an adjustment period for all parties involved.

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SEC presidents unanimously voted to have Oklahoma and Texas join the conference and now the aftermath from the move will be sorted through.

Is Clemson, ACC thinking outside the box, like the SEC?

It appears expansion to the College Football Playoff could be placed on the back burner, at least for now. As many have reported Friday, new Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff says the proposed 12-team playoff needs to be reconsidered now that …

It appears expansion to the College Football Playoff could be placed on the back burner, at least for now.

As many have reported Friday, new Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff says the proposed 12-team playoff needs to be reconsidered now that Texas and Oklahoma have officially joined the SEC. Kliavkoff’s main point, it is hard for the CFP to expand its structure when there is so much uncertainty going on in college football right now.

“It’s certainly going to be readdressed,” Kliavkoff said to CBS Sports. “Remember that was a two-year process done by four people. The proposal is good, but it’s not done. We’ve mis-set fans’ expectations that it’s going to move on a very fast timeline.”

It is no surprise Kliavkoff feels this way. The Clemson Insider has spoken with several people around the ACC and Clemson at what the SEC’s new members mean to the CFP expansion and the future of college football.

There is thought the SEC could be thinking outside the box and maybe the bigger picture, especially when trying to determine what the future of college football might look like.

Could the SEC be positioning itself to begin a Super Conference? Maybe it does not want to share the CFP with the Group of 5 Conferences? And where does Clemson and the ACC fall in this discussion?

One source told TCI they don’t know if Oklahoma and Texas joining the SEC necessarily signals, ‘I don’t want to play with the little guys.’

“Remember, SEC Commissioner [Greg] Sankey was part of the small group that worked on expanding the playoff, which inherently grants more access to the playoff, including the Group of 5 Conferences,” another source said. “To say this move means they do not want to play with the little guys. I don’t think that is necessarily fair.”

But where is college football going, at least with playoff discussions?

“It’s unfortunately likely to delay approval of a CFP expansion plan,” Kliavkoff told ESPN on Thursday. “I think there’s going to be realignment fallout we have to get through before we understand what format for an expanded CFP works best for all of college football.”

Alternatively, is this a start of Super Conferences?

“There are so many perspectives you can play out,” a high-ranking administrator from an ACC member institution told TCI. “Two or three Super Conferences on one end of the spectrum, and then on one end a very isolated conference shakeup. And will there be any dominos from it?”

The answer probably lies somewhere in between, as it normally does. On that spectrum, is a Super Conference in play?

Some said that is a possibility and we would be naïve to think that it is not.

“Is it likely? I think it is on one end of the spectrum. There are all kinds of other options in between,” a source said.

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SEC extends membership invitations to Oklahoma, Texas

SEC extends membership invitations to Oklahoma and Texas.

The Southeastern Conference has extended membership invitations to Oklahoma and Texas.

Membership for the Longhorns and Sooners would be effective July 1, 2025, with competition beginning in all sports for the 2025-26 academic year.

SEC press release:

The Presidents and Chancellors of the Southeastern Conference on Thursday voted unanimously today to extend membership invitations to the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas to join the SEC effective July 1, 2025, with competition to begin in all sports for the 2025-26 academic year.

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey communicated the invitations to the respective presidents of the two universities following today’s videoconference meeting of the Conference’s Presidents and Chancellors. The meeting was convened after the two universities submitted separate requests for membership invitations to the SEC on Tuesday, July 27.

“Today’s unanimous vote is both a testament to the SEC’s longstanding spirit of unity and mutual cooperation, as well as a recognition of the outstanding legacies of academic and athletic excellence established by the Universities of Oklahoma and Texas,” said Commissioner Sankey. “I greatly appreciate the collective efforts of our Presidents and Chancellors in considering and acting upon each school’s membership interest.”

Today’s actions are in accordance with SEC Bylaw 3.1.2, which authorizes the Chief Executive Officers of the Conference to extend invitations for membership if at least three-fourths of its 14 member institutions vote to approve.

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Report: SEC Presidents unanimously vote yes for Oklahoma and Texas’ invitation

The SEC presidents voted yes for the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns to be invited to the conference.

In the least shocking vote in college football, the SEC has unanimously voted yes to officially extend an invitation to Oklahoma and Texas. Continue reading “Report: SEC Presidents unanimously vote yes for Oklahoma and Texas’ invitation”

Report: How soon could we see Oklahoma and Texas in the SEC?

One SEC source believes that Oklahoma and Texas will join in 2022.

With the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns sending out their joint statement, the question now becomes a matter of when they could join the SEC.

Well, the first obstacle has been cleared, the two rival schools have declared their intentions to the Big 12 Conference. That is just the first of many still standing in the way of both members of the Red River Rivalry. The next obstacle is an actual invitation from the SEC. While no word has been made on when the conference is set to meet. According to conference bylaws, a vote of 11 members saying yes is needed for the invitation.

According to Matt Hayes of Saturday Down South and Stadium, the expectation would be for Oklahoma and Texas to join in time for the 2022 college football season.

That seems more in line with the timing of the statement from both schools. In a recent interview with former Alabama player George Teague, he stated the same. His opinion is this move doesn’t wait three years if the teams are already making their declaration to leave.

“I don’t think they would even start talking about this move unless it was a year out.” –Teague to Sooners Wire

If the source to Hayes is indeed correct, Oklahoma and Texas would be set to join the SEC for 2022. Likely setting up return battles against their former conference rivals, Texas A&M.

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With so many moving parts to this story, it is still a wait-and-see approach. Right now it is your move commissioner Greg Sankey.

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Amateurism is dead: How the past 16 months have permanently shaped college football

Oh, the times they are a changin’.

What a wild time to be a college football fan.

Covid-19 stormed into what was shaping up to be a casual 2020 offseason and ripped everything apart. Now, in July 2021, the game has changed so dramatically that there is no return to what once was. Change can be unsettling. Change can be uncomfortable. But change happens all the same.

When I was standing here in 2015, it was my first time to be the commissioner for SEC Football Media Days, and I opened with a song lyric from Bob Dylan way back in 1963, “The Times They Are a-Changin’.” You may recall that Dylan spoke of you in one of the verses in that song: Come writers and critics who prophesize with your pen. Keep your eyes wide open, the chance won’t come again. And don’t speak too soon for the wheel’s still in spin, and there’s no telling who that it’s naming, because the loser now will be later to win, for the times they are a changin’.

If you wonder if I pick songs that have some meaning, I think I got that one right, maybe a little early because the times are changing.

–SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, July 2021

And in the past 16 months, the game has transformed. Amateurism is dead, and the college football world will never be the same.

So how did amateurism die?

Rewind to March 12, 2020. The Southeastern Conference canceled the rest of its league basketball tournament because of Covid-19 concerns. The NBA had just announced the night prior that it canceled the rest of its season, and the world slowly ground to a halt. Throughout the rest of the spring and summer, collegiate athletics as the United States knew it was in danger of being canceled for the foreseeable future. However, as the summer marched on, there was optimism within the Power five that a college football season would be played. Quickly, the SEC, Big 12, and ACC formed individual plans for their respective teams. College football would exist in some form in 2021.

Eventually, the rest of the Power five followed suit along with the Group of five. But the season would have to be restructured. Players would have to be tested. Fan attendance would have to be regulated. And during rescheduling, some interesting topics were discussed. Should we do away with conference divisions? Should the SEC finally move to a nine-game conference schedule? Will we ever see Ohio State make it through a full season without a blowout loss to (insert random Big Ten basement dweller here)? Should Notre Dame join a conference? The answer to the last question was yes, but only for a moment- just to sneak into the College Football Playoff and get destroyed yet again. Discussions surrounding conference alignments seemed to rumble in the background of the college football landscape.

Fast-forward to a year later to March 2021. Covid-19’s rampage came and went within the United States. Alabama (unsurprisingly) won the national title. Word spread of a bill that California had passed in 2019. This was a bill that would allow college athletes to be paid. California started pushing the bill hard and within a couple of months, other states passed similar bills of their own. During this time the transfer portal was alive and active and introduced a new rule: athletes could now go wherever they wanted once without penalty. College football’s version of free agency.

Then on June 10, 2021, the College Football Playoff committee announced that a sub-group of the College Football Playoff’s management committee presented a proposal to change the current four-team format to a 12-team event. Bill Hancock, Executive Director of the CFP, said that the board of managers will make the final decision, and that decision will not come before the fall. Fanbases across college football were shocked. Finally, there might be parity in a system that seemed to favor a handful of Power five schools. A celebration from the Group of five ensued. I find it entertaining that the same thing was said back in 2013 when the BCS system was thrown away and the CFP was introduced.

Action surrounding NIL continued to pick up steam and on July 1, 2021, college athletes could finally be compensated. Add it to the list of major turning points this offseason. And then, during SEC media days, massive news broke right before Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher took the podium to answer questions from the media.

Texas and Oklahoma were trying to join the SEC?

A wild concept, for sure. Initially, I thought there was no validity to the rumor and continued about my day. However, steam picked up quickly, and before SEC media days came to a close, word had spread that the Sooners and Longhorns were expected to announce the plan within a few weeks. Immediately, the realignment theorists emerged from the shadows with models for a 16-team super conference. SEC Network shared its own model, composed of a four-pod system that would force the SEC to move to a nine-game conference schedule. It’s interesting that the network had a specific model prepared and proposed so quickly.

So how did amateurism die in the last 16 months?

It started during the pandemic. Covid-19 gave commissioners time to think about potential models and plans for conference realignments, whether that be within its own conference, or possibly bringing in new schools to compete. I can imagine the loss of revenue made the SEC hungry to make it up. The fastest way to make it up? Bring in two of college football’s wealthiest programs. It also gave the United States time to decide on compensating college athletes. It gave the College Football Playoff committee time to come up with a model that benefited everyone. It gave the NCAA time to bolster their newfound creation, the transfer portal, by allowing athletes to go wherever they wanted one time without penalty.

Today’s game collectively resembles college football’s professional counterpart, the NFL. The National Football League had a 12 team playoff until earlier this year when they expanded it to 14, because of money. The NFL compensates its players to compete. College athletes aren’t being paid directly by the schools but boosters, local businesses, and markets factor into which universities thrive over others.

The NFL has free agency. College players can’t come and go as they please like the NFL’s free agency, but the “recruiting” process is similar because money/NIL deals are a factor. The NFL also uses a four-pod system for its divisions within the AFC and the NFC.

Gone are the days of amateurism in college football and eventually collegiate athletics as a whole (presumably). The SEC is leading the charge in a monumental shift in the way the game is fundamentally played. It’s professional football on a smaller scale. There is still so much to learn in the coming months as we are given more information about conference realignments.

Oh, the times they are a-changin’.

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