SEC commissioner Greg Sankey talks more Texas law than Texas Longhorns at Media Days

NASHVILLE — A year from now, Texas and Oklahoma will be in the Southeastern Conference. Their presence will be discussed at 2024 SEC Media Days, which SEC commissioner Greg Sankey announced Monday will be held at the Omni Hotel in Dallas.

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Their upcoming entrance into the league, just under a year away, was touched on by Sankey at the 2023 SEC Media Days during his opening statement.

“As excited as I am about our future, the expansion to 16, welcoming Oklahoma and Texas, the changes around our schedules, not only in football but in other sports, seeing different teams in different places competing at the highest level for National Championships, we have important work ahead that requires a new level of collaboration to ensure the opportunities currently presented in our athletic programs be made available for decades to come,” Sankey said.

Sankey spoke about his excitement about a future that included the Longhorns on another occasion, and Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher even mentioned his excitement for the 2024 return of the rivalry game between the Longhorns and Aggies.

Texas A&M HC Jimbo Fisher on the return of the rivalry game between the Longhorns and the Aggies: “I think it’s great. I think it’s great for college football. I think it’s great for both Texas A&M and Texas.”

— Joe Cook (@josephcook89) July 17, 2023

But the crux of Sankey’s session with the media had more to do with the actions of the Texas Legislature than the Texas Longhorns.

Name, Image, and Likeness unsurprisingly made up a large chunk of Sankey’s statements. When asked about bills like HB 2804, Sankey made a point to mention his disappointment in that type of legislation.

“Our student-athletes deserve something better than a race to the bottom at the state legislature level,” Sankey said. “As the efforts are made to create what are perceived as a competitive edge through state laws that are not overseen.”

Sankey was not opposed to the idea of players earning money NIL, but he was not onboard with bills like those signed in Texas and more recently in New York. No words were minced by the loquacious commissioner when discussing those types of laws.

“This is an ongoing problem that we identified as the exact wrong way to go about permitting student-athletes to engage in name, image, and likeness activity,” Sankey said.

Texas’ current strategy with NIL does not, at this juncture, include linking Longhorn Foundation loyalty points to Name, Image, and Likeness donations to the Texas One Fund, something HB 2804 permits. Texas A&M is taking advantage, using the 12th Man Plus+ fund to allow Aggie donors to earn loyalty points with the 12th Man Foundation for NIL donations.

Other states have given license to institutions within their borders to have similar setups. The reality is that Sankey, who oversees a conference with a footprint that’s about to be 12 states in number, may have to deal with 12 different sets of laws. That’s something he hopes is overridden by a national standard passed down by Congress, and something he believes could become a reality.

Sankey isn’t the only conference commissioner to assail these types of laws. Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark told On3 last week that even if state laws permit certain types of donations, he expected his membership to “adhere to NCAA policy” instead of policy created by local lawmakers.

And like Yormark, Sankey is hopeful for a federal solution to a national problem.

“The reality is only Congress can fully address the challenges facing college athletics,” Sankey said. “The NCAA cannot fix all of these issues. The courts cannot resolve all of these issues. The states cannot resolve all of these issues, nor can the conferences.

“Whether Congressional action is achievable is a matter of debate, much debate. But educational opportunity, supporting equitable opportunities for men and for women, ensuring the United States’ continued success in the Olympic Games, providing medical care, nutritional support, academic support, mental wellness counseling, these are non-partisan issues that deserve a non-partisan solution.”

Texas and Oklahoma may be the talk of the town in Dallas next year, along with whoever returns as SEC (or potentially, national) champions. They weren’t ignored in this year’s proceedings, but laws passed in the Lone Star State took precedence for the SEC commissioner less than 365 days before the Horns head east.

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Other notes from Sankey

+ Sankey said the main focus when trying to craft a football schedule for a 16-member conference was to find something “fair” and “balanced” within the SEC’s definitions of the term.

“Balance was rotating teams through with greater frequency… fair was narrowing the competitive equity band, which is what we achieved, even with our eight-game schedule we announced a few weeks ago in June,” Sankey said.

But nothing new on the eight- versus nine-game front?

“The eight- or nine-game schedule debate, the number of games played within the conference will start be part of our discussion as we move forward and look to 2025,” Sankey said.

+ Is the SEC intent on adding more teams and becoming a super conference?

“I’ll go back to my standard observations: I think we are a super conference,” he said.

+ The Longhorns were not mentioned often. The Sooners were mentioned less often. But Sankey did note one aspect of the addition of both programs that holds true.

“People can criticize me to say, wow, you really sprung it on people in ’21, which we did, and maybe there’s no clean and perfect way to deal with conference membership,” Sankey said.

+ Let Sankey’s words explain what Texas is joining in the SEC.

• Four straight CFP National Championships
• Five SEC programs have won 13 national championships over the past 17 years
• The No. 1 pick in the NFL and MLB draft were from the SEC. The SEC produced the first collegiate player selected in the NBA draft.

Plus, of course, a nice paycheck.

+ SEC is looking to plant its flag in Texas more so than just in College Station. The SEC’s Media Days in 2024 will be at the Omni Hotel in Downtown Dallas, where, as Sankey said, “the SEC will light up the Dallas skyline with the colors of the Southeastern Conference.”