Greg Sankey Pumps Brakes on SEC Expansion, "No sense of urgency"

The SEC is the best of the best and Greg Sankey knows it.

The commissioner of the Southeastern Conference opened up SEC Media Days 2022 in Atlanta by sharing a laundry list of achievements, most notably the three straight CFB Playoff National Championships by three different teams. Seen by many as the orchestrator that streamlined conference realignment, the start of the 2022 coellge football season is business as usual for Greg Sankey.

Is college football barreling toward a couple of super-conferences? “We are a superleague,” he responded.

The SEC does not need 20 teams in order to succeed. It is content with 16 teams starting in 2025. This superleague doesn’t need to dilute its product to be the best of the best.

SEC Not Looking to Expand

“There’s no sense of urgency in our league, no panic and reaction to others’ decisions,” a not-so-subtle shot from Sankey to the Big Ten. “We know who we are. We are confident in our collective strength, and we are uniquely positioned to continue to provide remarkable experiences, educationally and athletically, along with world-class support to student-athletes.”

“We’re comfortable at 16,” he later added. “There’s no sense of urgency, no sense of panic. We’re not just shooting for a number of affiliations that make us better. Could they be out there? I would never say they’re not. I would never say that we will.”

Sankey is happy to hear from inquiring institutions. The SEC’s door is always open. However, in another shot at the Big Ten, they can afford to be picky.

“This expansion (to 16) keeps the SEC in contiguous states which supports reasonable geography among like-minded universities and keeps us confident that fan interest will continue to grow.”

Texas and Oklahoma can wait

When news broke at last year’s SEC Media Days that Texas and Oklahoma would join the league in 2025, most pundits believed the move would happen sooner rather than later. One year later, that sentiment has shifted. Members of the media have learned that breaking a grant of rights is much easier said than done.

“That’s not up to me,” said Greg Sankey. “That’s about the relationship between Oklahoma, Texas and the Big 12. We are focused on the addition being effective July 1st, 2025.”

Greg Sankey is going Nuclear on CFB Playoff Expansion

Last year the shortly-lived “Alliance” voted against its short and long term interests, just to stick it to the SEC. Greg Sankey and the league made concessions in order to turn the 12-team expanded playoff a reality. He was willing to throw them a bone, allowing for half of the bids to be automatic-qualifiers for conference champions. During the next round of talks, not every conference may get a seat at the table.

“The pressure was there to have conference access with some guarantee. So the 12-team, six at-large, which increases the at-large access, and six conference qualifiers, not automatic qualifiers, but the guarantee that the six best conference champions was a really good balancing outcome,” said Sankey.

“But things have changed. I was clear back in January when we walked away from the conversation that we as a conference weren’t unanimous in our support. I had as commissioner moved people forward to the point we were supportive as a league. If we’re going to go back to square one, we’re going to take a step back from the model introduced and rethink the approach, number of teams, whether there should be any guarantee for conference champions at all. Just earn your way in. There’s something that’s healthy competitively about that and creates expectations and support around programs.”

Last month Sankey had conversations with decision-makers that left him more optimistic that expansion is possible. This time, it will be on the SEC’s terms.