Greg Sankey shares how college football can keep pace with NFL popularity

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey is leader — both in words and actions — in the college sports on all types of issues, from postseason expansion to how college football flows with the NFL. That latter was discussion point last week at SEC Media Days during a radio hit.

Sankey was on the McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning during the four-day event. When asked about college football trying to keep pace with the NFL and maintain at least its spot as a top sport in the country, Sankey discussed game presentation.

“We’ve talked about how the game is presented,” Sankey said. “I would confess with all the other things pressing upon us not enough. We’ve done some. Some of that’s left individually. I have observed we have an NCAA football rules-making system that’s flawed for our needs. It is association wide. Very very small number of representatives from the autonomy conferences from our level of football. Kirby Smart is a member of that committee so we have access. You just wonder if the ability for Division III to contribute and look at the scope of the game at this level is an appropriate way for us to make rules about how that game is played when toe hits leather. We’ve had some conversations about that, haven’t pressed too much. I think we should. There’s just some changes on football oversight committee, which is like Charlie Brown adults talking because that’s bureaucracy: can you separate some of the thinking and decision making?”

“One of my concerns is we show up — and this is not the criticism of the NCAA; it’s a reality of our system — and we go in with the same agenda and we don’t challenge our thinking in meetings,” Sankey said. “This is globally, beyond just the game, to say well, that’s the standard agenda. But what if you threw that away and said what are the three most important things we have to talk about? Let’s spend two days only dealing with those issues. I think those are the kinds of conversations that need to take place. As commissioners, we meet about a lot of things. The playoff is one that I would argue is about how the game’s played. We didn’t need the expansion. I think it will access more opportunities but we need to make sure the game is national.”

There have been a lot of moving parts in the college football world in recent times, headlined by NIL, the transfer portal and the expansion of the College Football Playoff. Those three topics — rightfully so — take up a lot of bandwidth and air time in meetings, discussion and phone calls.

But there are other topics that go by the wayside because of the attention of these and others.

“One of my concerns is we show up — and this is not the criticism of the NCAA; it’s a reality of our system — and we go in with the same agenda and we don’t challenge our thinking in meetings,” Sankey said. “This is globally, beyond just the game, to say well, that’s the standard agenda. But what if you threw that away and said what are the three most important things we have to talk about? Let’s spend two days only dealing with those issues. I think those are the kinds of conversations that need to take place. As commissioners, we meet about a lot of things. The playoff is one that I would argue is about how the game’s played. We didn’t need the expansion. I think it will access more opportunities but we need to make sure the game is national.”

One thing that Sankey brought up was college football moving games to be played on Friday nights.

He says the decision, done to find an open television spot on the increasingly full college sports calendar, has many adverse impacts that aren’t helping grow the game.

“This is not about the Big 12, even though it was postured this way in some reports,” Sankey said. “I’ve said for years I think it’s problematic that colleges are playing more and more football games on Friday night. That’s about how the game is played because high school provides the foundation for college football. Negatively impacting high school football is in no one’s best interest at the college level. Simply accessing a TV window or two and then negatively impacting communities that have high-level high school football, long term that’s unwise in my opinion. That’s not about any conference. That’s about everybody playing on Friday night.”

Sankey wrapped up by saying that while the high-ranking conference leaders think and discuss football a lot, it is not enough. They should be doing it more.

“I have to think about football every day,” Sankey said. “You’re rightly asking me do we think about football enough in our meetings? And I would say no. We think about it a lot when we meet nationally, but we could have even more refined focus on key elements.”