2022 SEC media days: Coaches sound off on future of college football

“I would say certainly Notre Dame still is a coveted university in terms of what conference would want them. Jack Swarbrick knows what he’s doing. He’s got his ear to the ground. They’re going to land into a good position no matter what they do, whether they stay independent or whether they go into one of the other conferences. Notre Dame can carry itself pretty good.” –Brian Kelly

“The SEC is the top of everything, so people are always trying to chase the SEC and figure it out. I don’t know the history behind the moves, but I’m sure it had something to do with the SEC starting the unique moves for that to happen, for traditional teams like USC and UCLA to move like that, so not that my opinion matters on it, but I don’t like that. I think there’s so much tradition. When you go to places, you’ve been to USC, all these different places, you see how passionate fans are about certain things, what matters, rivalries. For those to be dismantled for money is kind of a shame.” –Lane Kiffin

“Great to be here in the College Football Hall of Fame. What a great venue to celebrate what’s great about our sport. Just walking around, seeing all the wonderful things that make the memories of college football so special. It’s such an incredible game that we have that’s built on the pride of university communities and passed through generations through storytelling, like this Hall of Fame, through great moments, through tailgates, through bitter rivalry defeats, through incredible rivalry wins. It’s what makes college football so awesome. The passion for college athletics is special. My hope is that we don’t lose sight of that moving forward with college football and college athletics. I know that the college football world and college athletics is changing. For any of you Simpson fans, I’m not the old man yelling at the clouds that we want to go back to the way it was, but I do worry and I do question what are the guiding principles for college football and athletics moving forward. I sure hope it’s not, as Pat Forde wrote, about the almighty dollar. I hope it’s bigger than TV deals being the college football guiding principles because every action we take moving forward, we lose sight of what we love about this game. We’re entering, and rightfully, into a new era of college athletics with student-athlete rights, the ability to transfer through the transfer portal, generating of earnings through NIL, all things that were much needed and need to continue to be embraced, but it’s also time for college athletics to set a course and a vision for the future. Let’s make sure that the core principles and guiding principles that we have reflect the values that we want it to be moving forward. Let’s not hide behind what the Supreme Court struck down last year, which was amateurism. It’s not amateurism anymore, but what is it moving forward? That’s the question. That’s what the leaders of college athletics need to decide.” –Eliah Drinkwitz

“I have no idea — you know I don’t like to answer hypothetical questions, which that could be as hypothetical as any I’ve ever been asked,” Saban said. “I do think there is some tendency, as current events sort of indicate, that mega conferences may be something in the future. It’s not my job or my role to understand the dynamics of what’s in the best interest of college football, the SEC, other conferences in terms of how they expand, but this has always been something that has happened. I know one thing for sure, we have a great league. We made two really positive additions (Oklahoma, Texas) to our league that are going to come online in a few years. I think there’s a lot of underlying dynamics from a business standpoint that could impact and affect how this happens, if it does happen in the future, but for right now, we have 14 teams in our league for the next couple years. We have some really, really good teams in our league. It’s a very competitive league. You got to be on task each and every week that you play. That’s kind of what we’re trying to stay focused on. That question’s probably a better question for Greg Sankey or conference commissioners who maybe are looking at what’s in the best interest of their league in the future. I’m sure they would say maybe yes and maybe no. Who knows what those circumstances may have an impact and effect in a positive way on each and every league and on college football in general, but I do think if we move toward the mega conference, again, that whole thing about competitive balance is going to be in question. Look, I’m not here to say we should have it or we shouldn’t have it, but if we have two 20-team leagues, how is that going to impact all the people that are not in those leagues? That’s a question for all of you to speculate and answer on. I really can’t speculate on that.” –Nick Saban

“As a program, we’re excited about the changes that are occurring within our sport and feel as though that which makes us distinct at Vanderbilt also strengthens our position in a rapidly changing landscape. It is our distinct qualities as a program and a university that create a strategic market advantage for us through differentiation. We understand what makes us unique, and we’re looking to optimize that to carve out a competitive product in our market. What we offer our team members is still grounded in the fundamentals of the student-athlete experience, with a focus on transformation over transaction, a commitment to substance over surface. These are the defining aspects of a program that I’d want for my own children in which holistic development isn’t compromised for instant gratification, and the prospect of a lifelong journey towards purpose and impact is not sacrificed for the immediacy of result. We approach the era of transfer portal and name, image and likeness by first staying true to our core belief, which is that the best teams are still bound by the joy found in shared suffering and sacrifice and a willingness to funnel individual goals through team success.” –Clark Lea

“At some point, I mean, I’m beginning to lose track of what’s a league and what’s a conference, what’s a division. The more the merrier, I guess. I’m not against any of it. As far as playoffs, there’s a lot of models. My thoughts on the playoffs are well-documented. We have a great committee thinking about it, considering it. I do think it’s steadily improved.” –Mike Leach

“As far as those games, I mean, go back. Georgia and Auburn, right? There’s history. Alabama-Auburn, there’s history. Those teams, I mean, we’re going to play each other. There’s history in those games. I know this, I know our players are excited about having an opportunity to play those teams. One of the things, too, it really fits into our footprint in recruiting. Georgia has great football players in that state. Alabama has great football players, so I think those games, whether it’s the Iron Bowl or having the chance to play against Georgia, those are important games for Auburn, certainly ones that you want to play in and you want to be successful in. Right now, those are the games that you get an opportunity to go in there and play well, win those games, it changes your season, it propels you very quickly to be one of the more successful teams. I’m sure that will continue. Certainly it’s something that in the history of these programs has been really, really important to where we are now.” –Bryan Harsin

“I think some kind of uniformity. I think that’s what he’s talking about. Change is inevitable. Conferences are going to change a little bit, they’re going to move, the rules. The NIL, the uncertainty of NIL and the difference in the rules per state, what you can do and how you can do it, affects recruiting. Listen, at the end of the day we can coach all we want, you got to have good players. You got to be able to get that uniformity together and create some kind of balance that everybody has the same rules about what you can and cannot do. I think that’s what he’s talking about. Like you say, change is inevitable. Life is always going to change, it’s always going to move. You either have to adapt or get ran over. To me, that’s what he is probably talking about. The transfer portal, I don’t know where that goes either, the situations with that. I think where there’s such chaos. You got conference realignment, you got NIL, then you got NIL on top of transfer portal. I mean, that’s three major, major changes in everything we’ve done for how long? I don’t even know how many years it’s been. What we’re all scared of — what does two man nature make you scared of? The unknown. We have so much unknown. That’s why we’re all on the edge and panicked about what’s going on.” –Jimbo Fisher