Greg Sankey wraps SEC spring meetings with clear shot at Senate bill, continued CFP discussions

MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. — Greg Sankey offered the first glimpse of resistance to the bipartisan Senate bill introduced this week on Thursday. The SEC commissioner opened his final media address by pushing back on the legislation’s provision that would allow conferences to pool their media rights.

The Protect College Sports Act includes a minimum threshold of 75 percent of the 138 FBS schools that must be reached to pool rights. Even if the Big Ten and SEC did not sign off and the rest of the FBS did, it would be over 75 percent.

“Nobody’s ever had that conversation with me,” Sankey said. “So I saw the bill was introduced yesterday, and as I’ve said a couple of times, 111 pages, I haven’t consumed. They have looked at that SBA [Sports Broadcasting Act] piece, so always offered that those who advocate have represented things to me about how revenue would be distributed generally. I think they have no idea how hard those conversations would be, no idea.”

Texas Tech billionaire booster Cody Campbell, who assisted and offered input to senators working on the bill, fired back at Sankey on X on Thursday.

“If pooling is just too hard for even a luminary such as Greg Sankey to fathom, and since he apparently thinks that the rest of the sports and commercial world is too ignorant and stupid to find a solution, there is nothing in the Cantwell/Cruz bill that forces him (or anybody else) to participate in the conversation,” Campbell wrote.

Sankey continues to double down that the SEC is a super league, not needing to look for outside assistance in maximizing TV media rights value.

“Our 16 are special,” Sankey said. “We said before, we are super. I’m proud of that fact. I’m proud of the 90-plus-year tradition that exists within this conference. I’m proud that we could sit in meeting rooms for a few days and have honest and open conversations about the realities in front of us, the need to address those, and how we work collaboratively even in the midst of great competition to make this environment better.”

Asked about the discussions on self-governance held among athletic directors and presidents this week at the Hilton Sandestin, Sankey said he had no news to announce. A source in the room told On3 that the SEC needs to lead. Conversations will continue into the summer on potential bylaw changes. Sankey said the league could specifically look at the current rule that requires the league to circulate bylaw changes for three weeks.

“Why would I announce what might happen when it hasn’t happened?” Sankey said. “What happens next will happen next. I’ll share what happened then, not now.”

The commissioner also confirmed Thursday that the Big Ten put forward a proposal this winter to move to a 16-team CFP for three seasons before transitioning to 24 teams. Sankey did not have the appropriate info at the time to make a decision, he said.

It’s just the latest chapter in College Football Playoff expansion talks. On3’s Brett McMurphy was told by a Big Ten source that “that ship has sailed” for the league to back a 16-team CFP field. Sankey is expecting to find out in the next few weeks how much networks might be willing to pay for extra CFP inventory. That is the next important topic. They’re also working through exactly how the calendar would be structured for 24, which hasn’t been decided.

The next College Football Playoff meeting among commissioners is set for next month in Denver.

“There had been no research and work done on 24, and simply saying we’ll do this to do that without the supporting information was not a decision that we were prepared to make,” Sankey said.