SEC's next conference realignment move? What Greg Sankey's comments really mean | Toppmeyer
Greg Sankey lamented the destruction of the Pac-12, he subtly jabbed at the Big Ten and he bragged about the SEC. He repeated his line that the conference is focused on 16 teams.
The SEC’s 2021 seizure of Oklahoma and Texas became “the envy of everyone in college football,” he said, and the SEC doesn’t need to stretch beyond two time zones to generate global interest. (There’s that familiar Sankey elbow directed at the Big Ten.)
“We’re in an enormously healthy place,” the SEC commissioner said Tuesday on “The Paul Finebaum Show.”
More important than what Sankey said about expansion, though, was what he didn’t say.
He didn’t say the SEC is closed for business. In fact, he left the door open to additional growth.
“We're always going to be attentive to what's happening around us,” he said. “And perhaps there'll be some opportunity, but it needs to be a lot of philosophical alignment. And it's not something where we're actively out recruiting institutions right now.”
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The boss of the nation’s most powerful conference speaks in code, so let me put it clearly: The SEC isn’t going to napalm the ACC, but if that conference’s fissures lead to fracture, the SEC won’t be a spectator while the Big Ten invades the South.
“I’m not a recruiter. I’ve said that repeatedly,” Sankey said. “We have a responsibility to look, from an interested standpoint, at what’s happening around us.”
For more than a year, the Big 12 posted an “Accepting new members!” sign in its storefront, and the ACC is now picking through leftovers. That’s not the SEC’s style. It’s too cocksure to look desperate. The SEC’s expansion playbook is one of stealth growth.
Sankey might not be a recruiter, but he’s an opportunist. When Texas and Oklahoma wanted out of the Big 12, the SEC made sure it was the landing place for those two elite brands.
Unlike the Big Ten, SEC expansion is mindful of the conference’s well-crafted identity built on the pillars of Southern culture and football pedigree. The conference historically expands into neighboring terrain.
North Carolina, Florida State and Clemson remain ACC brands that mesh with the SEC’s culture and geographical footprint.
The ACC’s grant of rights runs through 2036, and I believe Sankey would prefer that contract continue to glue its membership in place, just like I believe he wanted the Pac-12 to fend off raids.
The status quo is good for the SEC. But if the ACC cracks despite Sankey’s wishes, I think the SEC would pounce.
What if Alabama or Tennessee went independent?
UCLA coach Chip Kelly recently pondered aloud: What if conferences were scrapped for football and every team joined Notre Dame as independents?
That idea would do wonders for creative scheduling, but it would tilt the power balance further toward the nation’s biggest brands.
Programs like Alabama would command massive TV contracts, while the Mississippi States of college football strike deals worth pennies on the dollar.
Which SEC schools would command the most media rights revenue as independents? Schools that enjoy a statewide or regionwide following and attract a big TV audience. I think the valuation would be some ordering of Alabama, LSU, Tennessee and Georgia.
Alabama played in five of the nation’s top 10-rated regular-season games last season, according to Sports Media Watch.
Should Kentucky build Mark Stoops a statue?
Former Kentucky coach Rich Brooks thinks Mark Stoops deserves a statue for breathing life into a moribund program. Fair enough. Stoops is UK’s best coach since Bear Bryant. If UK opts for a Stoops statue, I suggest it be built using labor from Eastern Michigan, Miami (Ohio) or other MAC schools.
Email of the week
Britney writes: I am worried that the aggressiveness of the (Big Ten) will want to get FSU, UVA, UNC, and Miami in the BIG boat quickly, and that would effectively close the SEC off to any quality schools. It’s a very nervous time for the SEC as the aggressors up north seem to be taking control.
My response: The SEC didn’t want the West Coast schools, and I understand its rationale on that front, but if the ACC fractures, I wouldn’t expect the SEC to be a bystander.
OPINION: Beautifully crafted 12-team College Football Playoff could be next realignment casualty
Three and out
1. Dan Mullen still sounds salty about his 2021 firing during his lone losing season in Gainesville. Mullen was Urban Meyer’s offensive coordinator for Florida’s 2006 and ’08 national championship teams, but his affection resides with Mississippi State, which he led to eight straight bowl games. “If you had to associate me with coaching somewhere … I’d say Mississippi State,” Mullen said on a recent episode of the "Saturday Down South" podcast. “That would be the school I would claim.” Maybe MSU should build Mullen a statue.
2. Saturday Down South recently ranked its national top 25 quarterbacks. Only two from the SEC cracked its top 10: Arkansas' KJ Jefferson at No. 7 and LSU’s Jayden Daniels at No. 9. In stock-market terms, I’d buy low on Carson Beck (Georgia), Joe Milton (Tennessee), Devin Leary (Kentucky), Spencer Rattler (South Carolina) and Jaxson Dart (Ole Miss).
3. Stock down: Pac-12. Stock up: Mountain West. The MWC retained its full membership during this round of realignment, including San Diego State, which once was viewed as a Pac-12 target. Now the MWC is positioned for growth. A conference that includes Boise State, Fresno State and Air Force would become spicier with the addition of Oregon State and Washington State.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's SEC Columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.
The "Topp Rope" is his SEC football column published throughout the USA TODAY Network. If you enjoy Blake’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it. Also, check out his podcast, SEC Football Unfiltered, or access exclusive columns via the SEC Unfiltered newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: SEC football expansion next move? What Greg Sankey comments mean
