Greg Sankey Kicks Off SEC Media Days: News and Notes
ATLANTA — Welcome to the annual “it just means more” week. The Southeastern Conference will make Atlanta its home through Thursday for SEC Media Days.
Commissioner Greg Sankey kicked off the festivities Monday morning with an opening statement that was over 30 minutes long, touching on a laundry list of subjects regarding not only the SEC but college football as a whole.
UGASports empties the notebook from Sankey’s time at the podium.
Super Conference Era
Capitalizing on the talk of “super conferences,” Sankey welcomed everyone to what he believes is a “super conference.” But it isn’t just a match-up of some of the sport’s top teams and biggest brands, but it also boasts “common sense geography.” That last bit is a uniqueness among the other conferences.
Conference Schedule
No decision about the future of the SEC conference schedule has been made. Sankey did not give a timeline for when one will be, but did say it will not “linger” much longer.
“We will continue to evaluate increasing the number of SEC games from eight to nine,” Sankey said. “As I have said repeatedly, understanding how the CFP will evaluate ‘strength of schedule’ and ‘strength of record’ is a critically important part of our football schedule decision making.”
He added his belief that no matter whether the SEC continues its eight-game format or not, there aren’t others who will want to swap their schedule with an SEC program.
“I don’t believe there’s anyone looking to swap their conference schedule and its opponents with the opponents played by the Southeastern Conference teams in our conference schedule, be it eight or nine,” Sankey said.
College Football Playoff Expansion?
Building off the uncertainty of the conference schedule, Sankey is also at the forefront of discussions regarding the future format of the College Football Playoff.
“Those of you with us in Destin will remember a lot of speculation going into that meeting, but what came out is we think growth beyond 12 could be positive and should be pursued,” Sankey said. “There’s also a belief that the process for selecting teams to participate in the College Football Playoff can be updated and improved itself.”
Although there are still ongoing discussions about the future of the format, Sankey mentioned that he thought the first year of the 12-team format was a “success.”
“I felt the first year of the 12-year College Football Playoff was a success,” Sankey said. “That doesn’t mean everything was perfect, and there are certainly opportunities to improve.”
More Expansion…
Not only is the SEC in favor of expanding the College Football Playoff, but Sankey also revealed they’d like to see the men’s and women’s college basketball tournaments expanded as well.
“In general, we support bracket expansion for both the men’s and women’s tournaments,” Sankey said. “Nothing else in college basketball is static, so tournament expansion is worth exploring. We think there are enough quality teams across the country to merit giving this growth full consideration.
‘College Athletics is Not Broken’
Despite the constant change and the myriad of issues, Sankey does not believe the system is broken.
“Let me be clear — college athletics is not broken. But it is strained,” Sankey said. “Those of us in higher education and within college athletics will continue to adapt as we provide life-impacting opportunities and create lifelong memories for young people across our nation.”
Although he did acknowledge that things are “messy.” That doesn’t mean he is ready to leave.
“We have heard a lot of naysayers in the last 14 days commenting on a new model, that only just began on July 1,” Sankey said. “Today is July 14. We are working through historic, transformational change. We are in the middle of change, and the middle of anything is always messy.”
Congress
Even in the aftermath of the House settlement, work with the federal government and specifically Congress continues.
“We welcome the ongoing dialogue in Washington and continue to support Congressional engagement for the purpose of building a future where education and competition coexist with clarity and fairness,” Sankey said. “A future where policies are adopted to preserve national competition, national championships and support healthy economic opportunities for student-athletes.”
Georgia and head coach Kirby Smart will meet the media on Tuesday. He will be joined by CJ Allen, Daylen Everette, and Gunner Stockton.