SECMD25: Sankey brings tidings of joy to open four-day festivities

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey spoke to the media at Monday’s session of Kickoff Media Days at the Omni in Atlanta. (Bill Lumpkin, III)

By GRAHAM DUNN
ATLANTA - If you are looking for a super conference, you’ve got one….

At least that is the opinion of SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, who opened the 2025 version of SEC Football Media Days at the College Football Hall of Fame on Monday.

With all the discussion of expanding leagues and bringing teams in (and kicking a few out), the exception to the rule, according to the commissioner of the most grandiose conference in America, has already arrived.

“From my perspective, college athletics is not broken,” Sankey explained. “It is under stress. It is strained. The answers we seek are tied into the complexities that have been referenced over time.”

That strain, according to Sankey, is the complexities of change, which is swallowing college athletics whole. Money has become the answer to any problem. It is also the beginning of them. Problems, he said, can be solved. But in many cases, the answer has intricate “mile markers.”

“What we're dealing with is not like a law school class hypothesis or a finance project for somebody's MBA, this is real life, and we're seeing that happen over the last two weeks,” he said. “That's my observation. Just clarity on the first one. I’ve had those meetings. I've had outreach on a continuing basis. They bubble up from time to time. The question, what problem are you trying to solve and what's the substance of the solution? What's the downside? What if you don't achieve all of those mile markers.”

Coaches at media days on Monday echoed Sankey’s sentiment.

“Transparency and consistency,” LSU coach Brian Kelly said when asked about changes. “Those two words are probably the most important thing as we continue to move forward. Now, other thing we would like federal government involvement. I got the Christmas list here. I can go through them all. If we start with transparency and start with the clear communication necessary and consistency and approach, look,

“It's got to start with us. I mean, we have to be the stewards of this. There has to be a moral high ground. Ethics in this. It starts with us. It starts with coaches. I was at a speaking engagement a few weeks back, and every question about the NIL was trying to find a way around it, trying to find a way to bring in revenue in some other way. Sooner or later we have to take the stand that transparency, consistency, ethics, and morality are at the core of this.”

When asked about eight-game or nine-game schedules, Sankey went back to his stance from before the 2024 season when he told a similar audience that the playoff structure would help provide an answer to the question. 
“We have to make decisions about the '26 season and adjust. If we're going to go to nine games, then there have to be games moved or rescheduled. If we stay at eight, probably a little easier on that part of the logistics. Once we make a decision in the conference office, we’re pretty much ready to go. If you go back to when we made our last decision, it was in Destin, and two weeks later we had opponents out. Shortly thereafter, we were prepared with dates and sites sort of thing.”

The playoff setup was also a cause of concern for media members but Sankey put everybody to ease saying, “I think, when you're given authority, you want to be responsible in using that authority. I think both of us are prepared to do so.”

“We had a different view coming out of Destin around the notion of allocations, if you will, and I think you'll probably hear that again from our coaches. The Big Ten has a different view. That’s fine. We have a 12-team playoff, five conference champions. That could stay if we can't agree.”

Sankey continued his positive fuzzy feelings stating things are not as bad as fans might think.

“From my perspective, college athletics is not broken,” he said. “College athletics is not broken. It is under stress. It is strained. The answers we seek are tied into the complexities that have been referenced over time.”