Greg Sankey on adding schools: I'm not one who's been talking about expansion

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey joined Tom Hart, Chris Burke, Kyle Peterson on the broadcast during the SEC title game Sunday and made a firm statement on expansion.

The SEC added Texas and Okahoma ahead of the 2024 season and with the two new teams coming in, many wonder who’s next. The Big Ten added USC and UCLA while the Big 12 added BYU, UCF, Cincinnati and Houston ahead of the 2023 season to counteract its two outgoing schools.

A simple question from Hart on the broadcast to Sankey: “What qualities would the SEC look for if it were to add schools?”

While Sankey is excited for the 15th and 16th schools, respectively, he didn’t elaborate further.

“Well, we’ve got Crimson and Cream as they say and Burnt Orange coming in; so those are two qualities we’ve looked for,” Sankey said. “I’m not one who’s been talking about expanding. Now, I have other colleagues who’ve said, ‘we’re not done or we want to go to the West.’ We’ve very much focused on growing the 16 and the strength that will be present here. 

“We’re fully (aware) on what’s happening around us and as we go to our meetings beginning the week, we’ll have an opportunity to look at the landscape. But we have not been recruiting, we’ve not been on the phone. We have been paying attention, will be paying attention. But we’re focused on the strength of our 16.”

So Sankey didn’t totally rule out further expansion and with the way the sport is at the moment, there could be a lot of movement over the next few years.

The commissioner gave a lengthy answer on how he viewed conference expansion talk on Always College Football. And since OU and Texas aren’t members yet, he’s not focused on those two big acquisitions just yet.

“We have to focus on what we’re doing,” Sankey said on Always College Football. “So that’s our current 14 (teams) … We need to support that effort with excellence in our spring meetings next week, the activity through the summer, leading into the fall of football, volleyball, soccer, cross country, you repeat it all again. (that) leaves me with less hair and more gray where it doesn’t exist. That has to be the focus.”

Sankey might have a good rest of spring with the SEC likely well represented in the NCAA baseball tournament. Plus, future member Oklahoma is dominating the softball scene.

But the expansion talk can rest until 2024, when there are new members.