SEC commissioner on realignment: 'I hope everybody stays where they are'

By Brian Murphy, WRAL sports reporter

The commissioner of college football's most powerful conference didn't hold back in criticizing some of the moves and motives of his fellow league leaders.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, whose league has won the last four college football national titles and is adding two of the sport's most iconic brands in 2024, lamented the public conference expansion and realignment talk surrounding the sport.

"I've not been the one going to microphone saying that we're going to go do this out West or we're not done," Sankey said Thursday at "The Future of College Athletics" summit in Washington, D.C. "I try and still try to act responsibly given that I think there are ripple effects from messaging from conference commissioners."

The remark seemed a clear rebuke of Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark, who has not been shy about wanting to expand his league's footprint and get into the Pacific Time Zone.

Sankey and the SEC are adding current Big 12 members Texas and Oklahoma in 2024, the same year the Big Ten adds USC and UCLA from the Pac-12.

Those two moves have set off a fight for survival, in some ways, between the Big 12 and the Pac-12. The Big 12 added four schools, which begin play this fall. The league could add more.

"It's been fascinating in the aftermath of our invitation to Oklahoma and Texas, the short-term behavior of some, the longer-term behavior and those realities are not lost on me," Sankey said. "And they seem to contemplate, well, we need to create some mass so that we're relevant. I don't feel that way."

Of course, Sankey's league is stable and prosperous, with schools looking to join not leave. The SEC has grown from 10 teams to soon 16 teams with additions in 1991, 2012 and 2024. Five of the new additions came from the Big 12 or, in Arkansas' case, one of its predecessors.

"I think the old way would not be to be at microphone saying I'm going here, I'm going there," Sankey said.

Sankey said he made painful calls to other commissioners, some of whom he considered good friends.

"My belief was those two universities (Texas and Oklahoma) were going to move -- some place," he said. "Grant of Rights is going to end. You have the ability to explore. That may be the reality now with the conversations taking place. I have to deal with reality. That's a responsibility I have in a league. And I have to recognize the difficulty, the hurt, the different relationship with a person."

Sankey said he first met then-Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby in 1996.

"That sucks. I feel badly about that," he said. "I feel badly about the phone calls that came to me afterwards. But I wasn't going to stop change. And I think it would have been irresponsible for me to simply sit on the sidelines and watch change happening without positioning my conference wisely."

Sankey and several SEC football coaches were in DC to lobby lawmakers for federal legislation to reign in name, image and likeness. ACC commissioner Jim Phillips also met with lawmakers and spoke on a panel. UNC athletics director Bubba Cunningham was in attendance at the summit, organized by the University of Arizona. NCAA president Charlie Baker spoke on a panel earlier in the day.

The panel touched a number of issues impacting college athletics, including NIL and the transfer portal, sports gambling and collectives as well as realignment and the expansion of the College Football Playoff.

July 1 often serves as a deadline for conference realignment moves. The Big 12 and Pac-12 could add members this month. ACC members, too, have been looking at the league's Grant of Rights, which extends through 2036.

With the SEC and Big Ten projected to dwarf the other leagues in revenue and, likely, spots in the expanded playoff, schools with any hope of joining them are trying to position themselves.

"I hope everybody stays where they are," Sankey said. "Now that may be my self interest. But I welcome everybody to just take a moment. Be happy. But I'm going to pay attention to what happens."

While outsiders point to even more expansion from the SEC and Big Ten, Sankey said there are logistical issues that come with ever-larger leagues, including television and travel. A 20-team league, for example, would necessitate at least 10 broadcast windows during conference play.

"Where on a Saturday are you going to put 10 broadcast windows?" he said. "I think there's a naivete to just be talking about numbers. In a way, you're committing to the fact that we're going to play Thursday, Friday, Saturday. We don't do that. Others do. I think those who play on Friday night aren't looking at the big picture either because that diminishes the role of high school football in our society, which feeds our programs."

The SEC, with its additions, now stretches across the entire Southeast from South Carolina to Florida to Texas and Oklahoma. The league remains contiguous, unlike the Big Ten, which will soon stretch from New Jersey and Maryland to Los Angeles, or the Big 12, which has members in Florida and Utah.

"Our longest trip will be shorter than the LA schools' shortest trip," Sankey said. "I think we have a responsibility to our student-athletes."

He added that when Texas A&M joined the league, a basketball player asked him when Texas was going to join.

"Why are you asking me the question? Because you don't want them to join anytime soon or you want them in as soon as possible?" Sankey said. "And he said I want them as soon as possible because I want to play those games. I actually think that is about student-athletes."

Asked about the biggest myths surrounding conference expansion and realignment, Sankey said he had several:

• "That somehow TV told me what to do. That's just not even in the ballpark. It's so far in left field. The conference makes decisions. Nor did TV tell the involved institutions what do."
• "I was structuring a 12-team playoff so I could expand. Whether you want to believe it or not, those were completely separate realities."
• "I have some magic lists that I put up in front of my presidents every time we meet or just ready to go. ... There's no magic list or set of invitations. As I said before, we try to act responsibly. I'm entirely aware of what's happening around us. But there's not this list."
• "There's a policy about not adding schools within a state. ... It may seem that way," he said, referencing the belief that Clemson or Florida State, for example, would not be welcomed because the league already has South Carolina and Florida. "There are rules and structures within these Grant of Rights, within TV contracts, within the conference bylaws. ... We follow those. I know what those are and it created a level of difficulty."