Greg Sankey sends veiled shot at Big Ten expansion when talking about the Texas, Oklahoma in the SEC

When speaking with ESPN and SEC Network’s Cole Cubelic and Greg McElroy on Friday, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey threw a little shade toward the Big Ten. With the news of Texas and Oklahoma bailing from the Big 12 to the SEC a year earlier than planned, Sankey got to tout the geographic connectivity of his league.

Whereas the Big Ten is adding two schools in Los Angeles — USC and UCLA — to a league which features its furthest west team in Lincoln, Nebraska, SEC programs won’t have to stretch their legs much to play Oklahoma or Texas. The new longest trip in the SEC? Columbia, South Carolina, to Austin, Texas.

“We really haven’t expanded our geographic reach. We’ve expanded the attention, nationally and internationally, with the move to 16. Our longest trip will be from Columbia, South Carolina, to Austin, Texas. Which is about 80 miles or so further than our current longest trip — Columbia, South Carolina to College Station, Texas. And we have others in that same range,” Sankey said. “You realize that’s actually shorter than what will be the shortest trip for the L.A. schools when they move to the Big Ten?”

A direct flight between Austin and Columbia would cover a little more than 1600 miles. A direct flight from Los Angeles to Lincoln is more than 2000 miles. Add nearly another 2000 and you’ve got the flight from LA to play at Rutgers in New Jersey.

Sankey also highlighted how by adding Texas and Oklahoma — mainly Texas — a number of rivalries are going to be restored. Texas and Texas A&M will play again regularly, as will Texas and Arkansas. Oklahoma and Missouri, former Big 8 rivals, will share a conference again.

Conveniently, Sankey glossed over the fact that the Texas rivalries with Arkansas and Texas A&M were originally put on ice because of conference expansion and realignment. He also left out the fact that the Bedlam Game between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State would fall casualty to the new arrangement.

“And we’ll have probably 25% of the old Big 8 membership, for college athletics historians,” Sankey said. “Interestingly enough, if you look at the history of Oklahoma and Georgia and the lawsuit labeled Board of Regents v. The NCAA, we now have the two plaintiff universities in our league. So you have these really unique histories, and there are other historical games between these programs.