Greg Sankey promotes 'humble' SEC, trolls 'The Alliance' between other conferences

In July 2021, news broke of Texas and Oklahoma’s decisions to leave the Big 12 for the SEC in 2025. The events that followed would change the college athletics landscape as we know it, and the best example of that occurred Friday when the ACC added three schools to go to 18 members — 17 in football — in 2024.

The Big Ten and Big 12 have also added members while the Pac-12 fell apart over the last couple months. Meanwhile, the SEC stood pat, opting to stay with the 16 teams it will have starting next year — one year earlier than originally planned, of course.

That means Greg Sankey has been in a unique position as the college sports world turned upside down. But he’s comfortable with where the SEC is and made that clear during Friday’s appearance on The Paul Finebaum Show.

“We have a great season ahead,” Sankey said. “But what’s ahead for us, we added two schools — think about this. We added two universities, Oklahoma and Texas. The Big 12 … they had to add eight after Oklahoma and Texas left. The Big Ten’s added four, and now the ACC has added three. The humble Southeastern Conference will be at 16.”

Shortly after the Texas and Oklahoma moves became official, “The Alliance” was formed between three conferences — the Big Ten, Pac-12 and ACC. No document was signed, as Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff said during the infamous press conference, and that “alliance” came into question as the Big Ten added USC and UCLA in late June 2022.

Sankey certainly remembers how those events unfolded.

“Remember The Alliance?” Sankey asked Finebaum. “That was fascinating. And you know, I know why that was done. When I’m here and I’m talking to you about [how] we’re going to focus on growing to 16 and making decisions that are right for the Southeastern Conference, the people debate and wonder why. There’s a reason why.”

Greg Sankey on the latest round of conference realignment: ‘It’s been a fascinating 30 days’

One month ago, the Pac-12 was grappling with the loss of Colorado after the Buffaloes announced their decision to return to the Big 12. Of course, three other teams — Arizona, Arizona State and Utah — followed them. Oregon and Washington announced their departures for the Big Ten shortly thereafter.

When USC and UCLA announced their plans to leave the Pac-12, it was just before Fourth of July weekend. News of Oklahoma and Texas’ decisions came down in late July 2021 as media days were approaching.

Normally, Sankey said that time is when commissioners go on vacation. That’s what made the timing much different this time around.

“It’s been a fascinating 30 days,” Sankey said. “The good news if you’re a conference commissioner is these expansion things usually mess up your July 4 weekend, which is the one, like, four or five day period you can actually not check email. So this happening in early August through August, we’re working normal, anyway. It’s been an interesting few days, few weeks. Very different from what we did two years ago.”

This recent shakeup was also noticeably different from the one in 2021 that saw the SEC go front and center. Sankey pointed that out, as well, reiterating the league’s decision to avoid westward expansion. That doesn’t mean he didn’t hear from schools interested in joining the SEC, though.

“Two years ago, we had universities reach out to us,” Sankey said. “All this notion about TV managing people, this was about what was right for the Southeastern Conference, our 14 members, Oklahoma and Texas. We have talked in our meetings about, ‘Should we be thinking west?’ So I had outreach from the West Coast back the week after the Oklahoma and Texas vote, and that’s not who we are.

“In fact, you’re going to talk to [Tennessee] Chancellor [Donde] Plowman. Months and months ago, we were speaking — in fact, really last year — and she had one of the clarifying points and said, ‘You know what? We actually know who we are. We’ve made really good decisions to set us up for the future.’ So we have the ability to determine our path as a group. Our fans know us. We’re comfortable in who we are. And we’re really excited about moving to 16.”