Greg Sankey: "I Believe We Handled Things the Right Way"
Updated: Sep 24, 2021
In a matter of five weeks Greg Sankey went from the superhero whose plan to expand the College Football Playoff had the makings of the financial answer that can save the sport from itself, to Darth Vader, the arch-villain sent to destroy all that is good, decent and wonderful about the game.
Having saved the 2020 college football season with his brilliant plan that saw the Southeastern Conference play 69 of the 70 games on its schedule, Sankey was already viewed as the single most powerful player in the college athletics arena. When Sankey and his working group quietly put together a plan to expand the College Football Playoff from four to 12 teams, Sankey was once again viewed as a forward thinker with insight while the rest of the administrators wore bifocals. Five weeks after the playoff proposal, when it leaked out that Texas and Oklahoma were seeking to leave the Big 12 for membership in the Southeastern Conference, the commissioners of the Big 12, Big Ten, Atlantic Coast and Pac-12 conferences and some in the national media were firing slings and arrows at Sankey.
How dare he sit in the same room with Bob Bowlsby (Big 12 commissioner) while listening to Texas and Oklahoma they decried? How dare he stab Bob Bowlsby in the back?
Sankey sees it a bit differently. While attending last Saturday’s Florida-Alabama game at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, Sankey pointed out once again that it was Texas and Oklahoma that sought to join the SEC and not the other way around. What was he to do when the inquiries came in: Call up Bowlsby to tell him that two schools from his league that had asked for confidentiality were seeking to bolt his conference to join the SEC?
“I hold Bob Bowlsby in high regard,” Sankey said. “You hurt in that relationship that these opportunities are presented but when those phone calls and inquiries are made it’s a compliment. We responded accordingly. I’m going to be criticized no matter what I do in the chair [as Southeastern Conference commissioner]. Literally, what would people be saying if they had gone someplace else? But they didn’t so I look forward to our future.”
Texas and Oklahoma didn’t go someplace else because they felt it was in their best interests to leave a league with an uncertain future to join what is arguably the best and most powerful league in the country, led by a visionary of a commissioner. Within a matter of days after the story leaked, Texas and Oklahoma not only applied for membership in the SEC but were accepted unanimously by the league’s 14 presidents and athletic directors.
If the SEC had rejected Texas and Oklahoma, the two almost certainly would have turned to the Big Ten, which would have moved every bit as quickly as the SEC to issue an invitation and accept them as members. The Pac-12 and ACC would have done the exact same thing had they been afforded the opportunity so the argument that Sankey was out to help the SEC while trying to destroy the rest of college sports is hypocritical at best.
Yet, because it is Sankey, because it is the SEC and because football is the engine that drives all of college athletics, Sankey has been the target of almost constant slings and arrows, particularly from the commissioners of the Pac-12, Big Ten and ACC. He’s heard all their snarky comments. If their animosity bothers him, he certainly isn’t showing it. If anything Sankey just raises an eyebrow and moves on to the next subject.
“I’m unapologetic,” Sankey said. “I believe we handled things the right way.”
The commissioners of the Big Ten, Pac-12 and ACC acted like they were seriously wounded. It didn’t take them long to band together, forming what can only be viewed as a “we’ll show you just how tough we are” response – a scheduling alliance and a vow to level the playing field with the SEC. The alliance is shaky, at best. Their attempt to intimidate Sankey didn’t work. Perhaps they have spent too much time basking in the glow of their own self-importance.
Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren, if you recall, tried to X out the entire 2020 fall football season as his response to COVID-19 only to reverse course comically when Sankey and the SEC forged ahead with a 10-game, conference-only schedule. The Pac-12 and ACC are headed by rookie commissioners whose inexperience has been exposed. This is the first foray into college sports for Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff. ACC commissioner Jim Phillips was the athletic director at that noted college sports powerhouse Northwestern. About the only thing accomplished so far by Warren, Kliavkoff and Phillips is a show of unity that did manage to get the vote to expand the College Football Playoff from four to 12 teams tabled for the time being.
Perhaps Sankey was annoyed by their efforts, but he wasn’t caught by surprise. Almost in anticipation of their effort to slow down the expansion process, Sankey offered this nugget Saturday at The Swamp: “Four teams [in the playoff] has worked just as it was intended to work. We’re good with four. We haven’t been the ones asking for expansion.”
The SEC has every good reason to be happy with the current 4-team format that is under contract to run through 2025. Since the inception of the playoff in 2014, the SEC has won the national championship four times including the last two. The SEC has had at least one team in the playoff all seven years and in 2017, Alabama and Georgia played for the championship. If the playoff were to be held today, the SEC would command the top two seeds in Alabama and Georgia. The ACC and Big Ten would be shut out. It would take an unmitigated disaster for the SEC to go unrepresented in the playoff. Clemson from the ACC has been in the playoff all but the first year. Twice (2017-18) the Big Ten has been shut out while the Big 12 (2014, 2017, 2020) has missed three times. The Pac-12 has only had a team in twice (2014, 2016).
As long as it remains a 4-team model, at least one of the Power Five conference will see its champion on the outside looking in at playoff time, which is better odds than the Group of Five. The system is weighted in such a way that it is nearly impossible for any team from the Group of Five to make the final four, which eliminates the possibility of the Cinderella story that makes the NCAA Basketball Tournament so popular. The 12-team format would resolve that problem and could provide a boost to ratings that have continued to sag because nearly the same exact teams make the final four every year.
The proposal that Sankey and the working group came up with assures the six highest rated conference champions an automatic playoff bid with six at-large teams to fill out the bracket. This would assure at least one Group of Five team would be in the playoff field.
“We shouldn’t forget they play football, too, and their fans watch the playoff on television,” Sankey said.
From a financial standpoint, it is in the best interests of all 10 conferences and the independents that make up the 130 schools in Division I for the playoff to expand. At a time when every college athletic program is still reeling from the financial disaster caused by COVID-19 – enough that even heavyweights such as Texas and Stanford and Texas have eliminated non-revenue sports – one of the few places to find new money to keep entire athletic programs afloat is the playoff. The 4-team playoff can only do so much so expansion is the only option that makes sense.
Under the current playoff format, each of the five power conferences receives a $66 million slice of the annual $475 million pie that ESPN antes up in exchange for exclusive broadcast rights. Independents, the Group of Five and to a lesser extent Divisions II and III divvy up shares of what’s left. With expansion to 12 teams, numerous sports economists believe the broadcast rights could command three or four times what the current contract brings.
The Pac-12, ACC and Big 12 should especially be pushing for expansion. Big 12 revenues will dip considerably from their current $38 million per year level when Texas and Oklahoma leave for the SEC and their media contract with ESPN and Fox expires in 2025. The Pac-12, which distributed $33.6 million, and the ACC, which distributed $32.3 million, are bottom feeders. The Pac-12’s media contract with Fox and ESPN expires in 2023. The Big 12’s agreement with ESPN and Fox expires in 2025. The ACC contract with ESPN is rock solid and locked in until 2036. The Big Ten, which sees its media contracts with ESPN and Fox expire in 2023, distributed 54.3 million.
What the Big Ten, Pac-12 and Big 12 truly need is for a new playoff contract to be negotiated, agreed upon and in place no later than 2023. Since all three have ties with Fox, it is in their best interests if somehow Fox gets involved in the playoff negotiation, but this is where things get tricky. Why would Fox be willing to spend big bucks increasing the level of its participation in college football broadcasts if it has no shot at the playoff. As one radio talking head put it earlier in the week, why pay for the gas if you don’t get to drive the car?
The Big Ten has a far better chance to bring Fox and ESPN to the negotiating table than the Pac-12 or Big 12. Thanks to its wide coverage area and overall success of the Big Ten Network, the Big Ten pulls in good ratings. Games that people are actually willing to watch has a lot to do with that. That can’t be said about either the Pac-12 or the Big 12. ESPN and Fox can afford to play it cool, forcing the Pac-12 and Big 12 to arrive hats in hand, begging for a deal. As for the ACC, as much as it would like a renegotiated deal with ESPN, the only way that happens is if somehow the ACC is a deciding vote in who gets the contract for an expanded playoff. Right now, that doesn’t seem so likely.
Meanwhile, Sankey and the SEC can sit back and let everyone else do the sweating. The SEC finished second in money distribution last year ($45.5 million). It would be more except for the low return from the football broadcast contract with CBS that expires after the 2023 season. Sankey negotiated a 10-year contract with ESPN that kicks in once CBS is out of the picture. The $300 million a year contract with ESPN will increase revenue distribution to the 14 current SEC schools by $20 million each. If Texas and Oklahoma remain in the Big 12 until their contractual obligations expire, the ESPN contract will stay in its current form until 2024, but if they are able to leave the Big 12 sooner prior to 2025 then a new contract will be drawn up and will likely result in added revenue for all SEC schools. There are economists who are already predicting SEC payouts will increase to $72-80 million once Texas and Oklahoma join the league.
Sankey is perfectly willing to wait things out until 2025. He should be willing to show some patience since the SEC is the only Power Five league whose finances are guaranteed over the long haul.
It might take ESPN doing a deal with the Big 12 for the early release of Texas and Oklahoma and buying out the final year of the CBS contract for the SEC to expand prior to 2025. What the Big 12 needs is a broadcast contract to provide stability and some financial assistance to help its four new members (BYU, Cincinnati, UCF and Houston) out of their contracts with the American Athletic Conference. A new broadcast contract won‘t come anything close to what the Big 12 gets now, but it will prevent a total financial collapse.
All that is speculation, however, and Sankey isn’t about to tip his hand one way or the other whether he has had discussions with ESPN regarding Texas and Oklahoma leaving the Big 12 prior to 2025.
“Our focus is entirely on 2025,” Sankey said. “There are existing membership commitments between Oklahoma and Texas with the Big 12. That’s one. Two, we made a decision and I announced it last December to migrate to ABC/ESPN. We’re fully prepared to fulfill our agreement with CBS and that’s a focus.”
Whether Texas and Oklahoma join prior to 2025 or wait it out as members of the Big 12, Sankey is well aware of what the two new schools will bring to the SEC. The SEC is already the strongest sports league in the country with powerhouse programs on both the men’s and women’s side of the ledger. While most of the talk about Texas and Oklahoma has centered around what they bring to the table for football, adding them will make the SEC even more dominant in a number of sports.
In the 2020-21 sports year, the SEC brought home national championships in football (Alabama), baseball (Mississippi State), men’s tennis (Florida), men’s outdoor track (LSU), women’s golf (Ole Miss), women’s indoor track (Arkansas) and women’s volleyball (Kentucky). The SEC had the No. 2 team in the nation in baseball (Vanderbilt), men’s indoor track (Florida), women’s indoor track (Texas A&M) and women’s outdoor track (Texas A&M).
Texas and Oklahoma brought home national championships in men’s swimming (Texas), women’s rowing (Texas) and softball (Oklahoma) plus the runner-up in men’s golf (Oklahoma), women’s gymnastics (Oklahoma), women’s swimming (Texas) and women’s volleyball (Texas).
Sankey was invited to speak recently to the Kentucky volleyball team, which beat Texas in the national championship match.
“I said that when this [expanding the SEC to 16 teams by adding Texas and Oklahoma] happens, the SEC will be the strongest volleyball conference in the country,” Sankey said. “Mary Wise (Florida volleyball coach with 24 SEC championships and four Final Four appearances) would tell you, ‘I never saw a day when that statement would be true.’
“Just look at the work that’s been done by our 14 existing schools. We were watching the Olympics with all the SEC athletes and I said we’ll have the Olympics twice a year in the SEC with both indoor and outdoor track and field. Swimming, baseball, softball, gymnastics, tennis … we trail in soccer as a group, but I’m confident that we’re going to address that in the future.”
Sankey ignores those in the media speculating that the additions of Texas and Oklahoma are just the first moves that will spur expansion and realignment to form four super conferences.
“As far as I am concerned, there is only one super conference and that’s us,” he said. “I’m focused completely on our [SEC] future. What other decisions are made, they’re not on my agenda. I don’t know what decisions others may have. We’ll just have to pay attention to what others talk about, but I don’t over-predict other decisions around about super conferences. My focus is completely on doing what’s right for the SEC.”
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