Greg Sankey dismisses ‘college football commissioner’ proposal, says centralized power would ‘dumb down’ SEC

With ever-changing conference lineups, a complicated web of state laws governing NIL and transfer rules that vary by league, many fans, coaches, athletic directors and media members have called for some sense of top-down order in college football. For some, that could possibly come in the form of a “college football commissioner” who could wield power and settle disputes between schools and conferences. 

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey is not one of those people. 

During an appearance on the Triple Option podcast, Sankey said centralizing power in college football would only be an attempt by the the rest of the sport to catch up with the SEC.  

“I’ve studied it a little bit and I come back to, I don’t want to dumb down the Southeastern Conference to be a part of some super league notion with 70 teams that some people speculate would happen,” Sankey said. “They want to be us and that’s on them to figure it out, not on me to bring myself back to earth.” 

In recent days, the College Sports Tomorrow advisory group released a proposal they call the “College Student Football League”. Under the proposed structure the FBS would be reorganized into two conferences — one comprised primarily of power conference teams, with much of the Group of Five settling into another. The project has a handful of high-profile backers, including billionaire Jimmy Haslam, Tennessee AD Danny White and West Virginia president Gordon Gee. 

However, there’s little reason for Sankey and the SEC would agree to such an agreement as the league hoards record profits. The Big Ten and SEC teams are set to make potentially double per school as the ACC and Big 12 in coming years after adding several top members of the Pac-12 and Big 12 through realignment. 

The consolidation of wealth has come as the sport undergoes massive changes at every level. The SEC poaching Big 12 founders Oklahoma and Texas created a tidal wave of conference realignment still reverberating for leagues such as the Mountain West, AAC and Pac-12. 

“I think there’s probably more of that [commissioner] possibility happening now because of the disdain for what’s happened in some compartments, but just having a commissioner wouldn’t solve the transfer portal and legalities around that,” Sankey said. “It wouldn’t solve the name, image and likeness issues. It wouldn’t resolve lawsuits. So we have to deal with what’s in front of us.” 

Sankey’s comments come with the backdrop of a meeting between SEC and Big Ten athletic directors in Nashville. The leagues are reportedly planning to discuss issues from College Football Playoff format to scheduling agreements. More notably, they’re doing it without input from any of the other major players, including the Big 12 and ACC. 

“It’s not as if we’re just going to unilaterally change the world in an athletic directors meeting, but we do need to talk about issues around the legal settlement to the extent we’re permitted to legally,” Sankey said. 

“We’re not going to meet the challenges in front of us in big rooms filled with people.”

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