With Big 12 media days behind us, the SEC is now up to the plate. The Southeastern Conference decided to move their media days to the heart of Big 12 country, which, of course, is in Dallas, Texas.
For the next few days, the Omni Hotel will be home to dozens of SEC fanboys asking all kinds of silly questions. And what do you know, it didn’t take long for one to get asked by SEC commissioner Greg Sankey right off the bat, thanks to Kirk Bohls from the Houston Chronicle.
Question: “Texas liked to think it ran things in the Big 12. I was curious what you would state as far as your expectation of Texas’ influence and impact on the playing field and in the board room?”
The fact that this question was asked is beyond ridiculous and embarrassing, but at this point, nothing surprises me anymore when it comes to the Texas media. Are there actual people out there who believed Texas was going to enter the SEC and start bossing people around?
As crazy as that was, I also found some of the things SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said very interesting. Of course, when asked about potential expansion and realignment, Sankey repeatedly said that he is just “focused on the 16 teams” he has. But here are some of the other things he said that bothered me.
“We know who we are, and the Southeastern Conference, we’re the one conference at this level where the name still means something, the southeastern part of the United States, where when we expanded.”
I know that Mr. Sankey is far more educated than I am. He has a master’s degree in education from Syracuse, and I don’t. But I am sure at some point during his time in the classroom that he has seen a map of the United States. Now, if I asked Greg to circle the southeastern part of the United States, would it include cities such as Columbia (Missouri), Norman (Oklahoma), Austin (Texas), or even College Station (Texas)? I don’t think it would.
“We’re not in a world either where we’re allowed to focus on just one issue or even one small set of issues at any particular time. As you know, there are other lawsuits. We have state attorneys general that have engaged in lawsuits against the NCAA.
“We have state legislatures continuing to enact or change laws that govern how we conduct college athletics. There are outside ideas that come from those apparently associated with private equity firms, professional leagues, search firms, former executives from leading media companies who want to insert their thinking.
“We have new wave entrepreneurs who want to be in on the so-called front end of a new paradigm for college athletics. But it’s our leadership responsibility to figure this out.”
The reason all of this started, Greg, is because of you. When the news of Texas and Oklahoma leaving the SEC broke, it caused a chain reaction like we have never seen before in college athletics. Don’t sit there and act like you don’t know why this is all happening. You were the one behind closed doors with Texas and Oklahoma behind the back of the Big 12. I would bet everything that I own that you didn’t give a damn about the future of college athletics or any other conference when those two schools were interested in joining the SEC in those meetings.
Also, spare me with this holier-than-thou speech. It’s extremely hypocritical for you to throw shade at others who are exploring private equity or exploring outside ideas. They are doing it because they want to be on the same financial level playing field as the conference you are the commissioner of.
At the end of the day, if you are looking for someone to blame Greg, then I suggest you invest some of that SEC money in a mirror, stand right in front of it, and point the finger. because the only person to blame here is yourself.
