SEC media days are underway and Commissioner Greg Sankey concluded his annual speech on the state of the Union. Sankey addressed some key subjects around the dry and university football as a whole.
He opened with a brief statement that pointed out where he feels things for the conference.
Dry is a “supercurrent”
Sankey came out of the door, stressing that 2024 was the first season of the dry as a conference at 16 teams. Conferences become much larger entities. The programs work to hang on and stay in the lucrative umbrellas that these power conferences provide.
Sankey has teased that the SEC is now one of the first “super conferences”.
“There is anchored joy in what we do, and we are proud of what was accomplished last year,” said Sankey. “Our first as 16 members, what I think is a” supercurrent “, for all those of you who like to speculate on the supercurrent, welcome to one.
“We have a geography of common sense, restored rivalries and record audiences,” continued Sankey. “In fact, I asked for data this weekend. If you take the hours consumed from the audience on linear television, almost 40% of this audience focused on games involving universities and teams from the Southeast Conference. Big Ten was following, just about 30%. This means with these two conferences, a little more than two thirds.”
Plans to attack the new world of college athletics
Sankey stressed that he is still receiving questions on the transfer portal, the university football playoffs, the size of the NCAA tournament for basketball, the conference matches, the game of athletes and coaches and the admissibility of athletes.
Sankey confirmed that two meetings in person and “numerous video conferences” had taken place with sports directors of the SEC and the Big Ten within the framework of the Advisory Council between the two conferences.
The SEC Commissioner expressed another desire to continue working with sports directors and presidents across the country to find solutions to the above -mentioned subjects. There have been changes of staff who slowed down part of the process, but Sankey expects things to reorganize soon.
The colony of the NCAA house is something that Sankey has also seen intense interest. He compared it to a marathon and noted that there are still folds to work.
“Regarding the regulations, I considered appropriate to use a little metaphor to run a marathon,” said Sankey. “I ran and finished 41 marathons in my lifetime. It’s been a while, but I remember the importance of making it pass for the right type of start. and transformational change.
Programs making the transition to the era of income sharing
“We are in the midst of change, and in the midst of something important, it will become messy,” continued Sankey. “It doesn’t mean you are leaving. In a marathon, that does not mean that you leave the course because myself, as bad as I sometimes felt you after two or three miles, I remember that these moments could really produce the best efforts. The burden of doing a new system work is certainly shared by the commissioners and conference offices, athletics, athletics and the authorities are also shared.
Decision on the schedule of conferences to come soon
“I have been careful to give dates,” said Sankey. “I said on several occasions that I learned during Covid that you wanted to use your time. This would not dwell terribly longer. We have to make decisions in season 26 and adjust. If we go to nine games, then there are displaced or reproduced games. If we stay at eight years old, probably a little easier on this part of the logistics. Once we have made our decision in the conference office. Destiny, and two weeks later, we had adversaries.
The current format for the university football playoffs could remain
“Big ten has a different vision,” said Sankey. “It is good. We have a 2 team eliminatory series, five champions of the conference. It could remain if we cannot agree. I think there is this notion that there must be this magical moment and that something must happen with expansion and that it must be forced, no. I think that when you have authority, you want to be responsible in the use of this authority. I think we are both prepared.”
“Let me be clear. From my point of view, university athletics is not broken. University athletics is not broken. It is subject to stress. He is tense. “
