SEC commissioner Greg Sankey fires back at alliance

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey appeared on Jacksonville radio show XL Primetime on Wednesday and discussed a number of topics ranging from the newly-established, multi-conference alliance, extending invitations to Texas and Oklahoma and the expansion of the College Football Playoff.

The ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 on Aug. 24 formally announced their multi-conference alliance following weeks of reports that the commissioners were in discussion. Sankey seemed unfazed by their grouping, created in part to enable unique interconference scheduling, because he says every week provides competitive matchups in the SEC.

“I thought one of the more curious statements was the ability to talk to TV partners about reducing conference games or providing more compelling matchups through the alliance,” Sankey said. “The great thing about the Southeastern Conference is that every week is a compelling matchup when we’re playing conference competition. Hopefully, we’ll learn more about their plans.”

Sankey then reaffirmed that Texas and Oklahoma first approached the SEC about membership, not the other way around.

“Those two universities reached out to us, and things accelerated in the middle of media days,” Sankey said. “Pretty clearly, it was those two universities reaching out [to us]… [People say] ‘ESPN is in on this.’ No, that’s not accurate. This is two universities who were making decisions about their future and chose to reach out to the SEC.”

Sankey denied that the SEC ever initiated the conversation and denied that any television network like ESPN could have played a role. The Houston Chronicle first reported on July 21 that the universities had contacted the SEC regarding membership, and Sankey discussed the leaked story, while also indicating that other athletic directors would likely have made the same decision he made.

“I think there’s a bit of an old playbook when you’re trying to manage through some things — you know, the anonymous AD said this or the anonymous AD said that,” Sankey said. “The words trust and communication and collaboration were there a lot, and I’ve yet to have any one of them say to me, ‘Wow, I wouldn’t have done the same thing you did if that opportunity materialized.'”

Sankey also discussed College Football Playoff expansion in light of a recent proposal that would turn the four-team field to a 12-team field. Sankey said the Playoff subcommittee focused on the 12-team proposal this spring, and ultimately decided it was in the best interests of all conferences to move forward with it. He denied that the SEC operated under only its own best interests; rather, Sankey said, “we wanted to be thoughtful.”

“These conferences said very clearly, ‘We want a [new] format.’ And so, our subcommittee focused on 12 [team field] for a little bit, and you saw that introduced — I think — a lot of positive feedback,” Sankey said. “There’s a new datapoint now which is membership transition, so people have to consider that, I think that’s fair. I think each of them should consider that reality, I have to consider that reality along with our conference. But there was never some kind of push like we have to have this done from the Southeastern Conference perspective. In fact, much the opposite, we wanted to be thoughtful.”