Greg Sankey, commissioner of the SEC, tells McElroy & Cubelic why (more) Playoff expansion was put on hold, and everything it takes for the conference to put on Media Days
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Welcome back in. McElroy and Kubrick in the morning, 8 a.m. Thursday, July 18th. Commissioner Sankey with us on Radio Road. Do you have the same, I call it media day's brain fog, where the day it is, what you have in front of you, what you've already done, who you talk to, when you talk to them, all just, it's kind of one big glob. There's a couple pieces. One is I have commissioner brain fog because every day runs together. You have to really go deep to figure out what day it is. The second...

My first year, I would go from station to station. Cole, you may have been a part of this. I was trying to say something original. Then I realized, well, I was just in Chattanooga. Now I'm in Miami. I'm going to be in Little Rock. Then it's Baton Rouge. You can just say the same thing. Exactly. I get through that brain fog by, not that I have a set of talking points, but you get a lot of consistent questions. I will say this is the day. This is day four.

Day one, didn't have a lot of throat irritation at the end of the day. Day two, my throat was irritated at the end of the day. Yesterday, by noon, my throat was irritated. This morning, I woke up and my throat's irritated. It becomes a thing. That's why this right here, Singer Spray. It's good stuff. I had some of that that Joan Cronin, the former director of women's athletics, gave me from Tennessee. So Singers is the brand? Singers Spray, yes. And it's...

Non-alcohol soothing throat spray. There's a point in this week where I want the alcoholic soothing. Well, I don't know. I will tell you, the taste is medicinal. The taste is rough. It's not fun. It doesn't taste good. It's not something that you'll enjoy. It works, though. It does. It's very effective. I think it is. I had some, and I left it at a media day a couple years ago, and my voice has never been the same.

I feel like media days in Dallas has worked so far. We didn't really know what to expect, what might be different, good or bad, but I feel like it's been smooth. I feel like there's more people here. There's been great coverage. How have you felt just about having it in Dallas so far? And there's sunshine on Radio Row. You're not like...

Thankfully, we haven't been blinded by that. It's nice to see outside every so often. That is fair. I think it's been successful. The commissioner comes up with his ideas and people look at me and are like, what are you thinking? And then the credit to our staff and everybody who came together, the people in Dallas, Cotton Bowl, to make this happen. We tried around 2018.

To be here, I had the idea that moving around was something we needed to initiate. It ended up being Atlanta, which was really the right first move. It was kind of a toe in the water.

college football hall of fame atmosphere. Those who typically travel didn't have that much further distance. Some had shorter, some had longer. And then Nashville was a success. And as we moved toward the expansion, I was of the view that we needed to be in Texas more.

really either Houston or Dallas whenever the final date for Oklahoma and Texas joining was known. So here we are. We had an uptick in registrations. I think we've seen people flow in and out maybe a little bit more around teams. But you've got a lot of our traditional stations and media like you guys and then we've drawn in Texas, Oklahoma, a few more Arkansas, Louisiana outlets than we've had before. I think it's been a real success. It's

It does feel different, though, with just the sheer size. It just feels like there's more people. And there's a lot of people I don't know, like you said. So I think it's been a terrific move. And moving it around, I know that there's bidding process and

And I know that, look, where we live, a lot of people want to see it back in Hoover and things like that. But what is the process to get media days? What is that like? We go through a proposal process and try to scout venues. We have at least one colleague conference that goes to a stadium. You know, we've thought about that. But this is really a nice footprint here. You've got a couple big rooms. You're not trying to traipse.

from one end of a stadium to another. I hate empty seats in the background. When I was Southland Conference Commissioner, we'd have pictures of players and games, and you'd have empty seats in the background. So I think we can create the look and feel that we want. In this venue, the College Football Hall of Fame is great. You have a football feel, but it's really tight.

And so we, cost is part of it. I think we'll continue to update our requests for proposals. I have a notebook from Houston sitting in my office right now that they sent right after Destin about hosting next available. I know Nashville's interested. And we actually have some cities that we've not visited previously that have come to us now and said, hey, we're interested. So we're going to think about how we seek input for these events. We've always tried to figure out

How can you bring fans in while still allowing the media to do their work? We haven't figured out the balance. This is not the NFL draft. This is something different. And last year we were going to have a concert on Broadway and lightning struck. I remember that. And so we had to shut that down. So we'll keep thinking creatively.

We want to create momentum heading into a season. I think we've done that here, but we can always adapt and work to build our event. Commissioner, I wanted to go a little bit bigger picture with you. One thing that I heard you say when you addressed the big room on Monday, you referenced finish lines and...

I liked how you kind of downplayed it as to we might not always need an exact finish line to get to to say that we accomplished something or this is the end or this is where we have to be. Because as we talk about college football, I've referenced it sometimes, I don't know when we're going to be able to just exhale and say,

This is what it is as far as teams, conferences, rules, playoffs, divisions, not divisions. It feels like moving forward, it's going to be ever-changing for quite some time. Do we need those landmarks in our sport? Do we need sort of finish lines that you referenced and maybe even other finish lines moving forward? We're in a time of uncertainty, and I think that's big picture culturally, politically,

societally. We're also at a time of uncertainty and change in college sports, college football for our purpose. And when you have those uncertain moments,

One of the lessons I learned, and it was from a guy who leads a church in Atlanta, Andy Stanley. This was during COVID. In times of uncertainty, what people need is clarity. Not that you can answer every question, but where you can provide answers you do and where you are not able to, you're honest about it and say we have to keep working on that. So I think we're in a moment where there is a lot of change. It is the metaphor of a marathon. There is a finish line out there. It's 26 miles away, and so you're going to go mile by mile.

and you're going to set yourself up psychologically to walk through the difficulty here. It's the difficulty of change, and in a marathon it's the difficulty of discomfort. And where we can provide clarity, we will, and that's where issues around legal settlement, how do we interact with state legislators, how do we interact with congressional members of Congress, House and Senate members, is really important. Not that...

There's some magic bill that will come out of D.C. and solve every problem because that's not really the way it works at all at many levels. But we have a responsibility to work. And where we can control decision, let's do that. And where we have to have others participate, let's continue to bring them into those solutions. I'm really interested in...

What the process will be like in the next couple of years as we evaluate the 12-team playoff and what is all on the table. I know we've seen the proposals about a potential 14-team playoff that's been floated that there will be no more automatic qualifiers, things of that nature.

So how deliberate will you and your fellow commissioners be in the next two years in evaluating the current model and then potentially adjusting that model in 2026? A couple factors. One, I think one of the big misses in the college football playoff was basically an 18-month delay after a report was given to fulfill an assignment to say, here's the 60-plus models we've looked at. Twelve is the recommendation.

Obviously, we expanded, and then things just ground to a halt, and we lost time for media considerations. We lost time to address some of the front-line issues and think through the big-picture issues. We will not recover that time. That created an accelerated timeline, one that was not envisioned by the working group that introduced 12-team playoffs.

During that time, there's been a lot of change among leaders and conferences. And one of the lessons about the stop was rather than organizations driving the thinking, like each conference came and said we either needed to expand or not, it became personality driven, in my view, where people brought opinions in. So we have new opinions. We have new leaders.

We've said let's stop this 14 idea that bubbled up right around the first of this year for the initial time. Let's look at 12 meet its expectations. I'm most curious this year to think through the selection process. So we have criteria. Some of that's been adjusted. But teams 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 are critical, not 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

It's a little bit different. Conference champions are accommodated, so there's no automatic bids, but there is this acknowledgment that conference champions were a priority, and so there are five of those. Last year, the best conference champion, not in the A5 at the time, now it's the big four, the power four, as people will say, was, I think, 23rd ranked. Liberty. And then SMU. Right. That's barely in.

If that continues at that level, or those teams are not ranked that are conference champions, I think that's going to be problematic to sustain the conference champion allocation. Because we're going to be displacing the 12th best team in the ranking with somebody...

ranked 24, 25 or outside. Now, not everybody likes to hear that. That means there's discussion. I think that's part of the review. The 14 is an idea that's on hold. We'll see what that means. The automatic bid issue was, again, populated as people's thinking have changed and as people have changed. Do we allocate certain numbers to certain conferences? Well, you look at our league,

our current makeup would have had six teams in the mix, five teams in. Sure. So do you want to take, like, three guarantees? No. Or do you want to take five? Because you're probably not going to win the room at five. Being honest, like, why is...

I'd rather have it all open. I'll say it. Why is the Big 12 getting two? I mean, just personal opinion. You're not saying it. That's me. Greg McIlroy is saying that. I don't think they should be one less than an SEC or even a Big 10 that is considerably deeper and stronger at the top. So I think there are some problems with the automatic allocation. Totally. I've been one who said, hey, I would have just done an 18 playoff if it's the best eight, period. Yeah. Unequivocal. Yeah.

You got my attention. If it's the best 12, I'm still fine with that. But we all have to contribute. We have to compromise a little. What I said at times late last year and early this year as we were coming to a finish line is we've given all we can give. And I quantified...

all of the gives that over time to create this effort, the Southeastern Conference has contributed. And so some would posture me as having been a bit of a bully in some of those conversations. But really it's look at the arc of what we've contributed, whether it's teams in the four-team playoff or the bowl games that we had long-time affiliations with that were changing the nature of those relationships.

um the way the the finances flowed versus participation and consumption of the games um so i think we came to a reasonable outcome at this time and we'll see how the 12 team playoff works this this initial time through we all acknowledge the importance of bowl games and uh in particular the new year's six or the the bcs or whatever the big bowl games are that occupy the quarterfinal and the

I personally am really looking forward to those home playoff games in the first round. How closely will we be evaluating those home playoff games and whether or not they're deemed, quote, effective? Or I know we're going to continue to have bowl games exist within the structure and the confines of the college football playoff, but would there ever be an appetite potentially for a home playoff game in the second round?

The early expansion, so understand the CFP existed based on a set of contracts that were 12 years in length. This is year 11, next year is year 12. That included agreements with bowl games. So to expand early, the bowl games had to be a part of that format.

So that's factual. Opinion is, I think that history of bowl games remains an important cultural issue for college football. The ability to plan, to go to a neutral site, to be in regions where football matters and you can attract local fans, I think is a big deal. If people talked about more than the first round they have, that's not gained traction.

I'll just observe since we're beaming back primarily to Alabama. How will it be viewed? One time I traveled to Montana with Troy for a 1AA playoff game where it was in the teens. That's a tough deal. Yeah.

I went with Mac Neese at Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston to Montana. If you get those teams in your home stadium from the north that time of year, that was a good thing. So that's part of the flavor that's now been brought, and I've lived it before at a different level. We'll evaluate attendance. You know, it's different, so I'm sure there'll be what I'll call complaints, but people are used to playing in on-campus stadiums. And...

I think what you heard from Rich Clark yesterday is his task is to make sure this is operated at the highest level to make sure implementation is an across-the-board success. Commissioner Greg Sankey with us on Radio Row, SEC Media Days, Day 4. With everything that was just said, I'd love to hear you describe your level of concern or any concerns that you have now or may be moving forward with

This is going to sound a little bit crazy, the importance of the SEC championship game. When we talk about multiple teams getting in or where certain levels of buys are, once you were to get in, how you get those buys, have you had any real concern about keeping that game as important as it has been? You guys remember all those folks who said, we need to determine champions on the field. They may have participated in that conversation. So we determine a champion on the field unapologetically.

I think ours has a level of importance compared to others that is head and shoulders above. But you need to determine a champion somehow. That has meaning. And I think it can remain. When it was implemented, we heard all of these horror stories about what it would do and teams won't be able to play for a national championship. And you look back over the last, what, 30 years and how that played

you know, doom and gloom prediction worked out. So I think the championship games can absolutely remain. I think they're a platform for the game of college football across the nation. I think they're a platform for the conference. And I hope that myself, my colleagues with whom I work in the conference, and our colleagues across the nation will retain that commitment as a priority.

The nine-game schedule is something that everybody's continued to talk about. The SEC has fared very well in the era in which they've implemented an eight-game schedule. In the event in which you start to move in that nine-game direction, what are the challenges that you have to consider when...

potentially implementing that in the future. To compete for the championship, just to extend the last question, you're playing a nine-game conference schedule against the toughest competition. No doubt. We have that for two teams. Of course. I take that as a pat on the back. We'll look at this year, our first as a single division. We'll look at the eight-game format this year. We'll look at how the College Football Playoff Selection Committee evaluates our league.

I think as we go into the first quarter of next year, the focus will be on making that decision. There are a lot of factors involved. One of, and this is not embedded in your question, but it was just a piece of it, I enjoy people on the outside who say, well, the SEC has this success because they only play an eight-game schedule and we play nine. If...

People in other circumstances want to believe that's why we're successful. I think that's awesome for us. I think that sets us up for more success because our success is not predicated on an eight-game schedule.

There's a foundation and then a house, if you will, a structure on top of that foundation. And sure, the number of games in the manner in which we schedule is a piece of it, but I think you can change that and still have high-level success. I want to leave you with this. Greg and I were talking about this yesterday. I feel like over the last maybe four or five years, the head football coaches in this league have gone from these sort of

Psychotic trained killers, like super organized, dialed in, almost unapproachable figures to now we have this almost lovable cast of coaches that you just want to go hang out with.

Does that impact you or affect you, or do you see or feel that at all? That description's weak to weak. Yeah, that's it. Depending on how the ball is shot. The lovable nature. You know, one of the benefits, in fact, one of the people asked me, what do you love about your job, what do you not like about your job? And one of the things I love about the job is the people.

and the ability to come to know people that most see from a distance, sitting in stands in a stadium or watching on TV. And you get to watch them work. You get to know them. You know, you heard Steve Sarkeesian talk about the impact Nick Saban had on his life. Last year in Tuscaloosa, 30 minutes before kickoff, it was probably an hour before kickoff, Steve was just kind of pouring that out to me about how Nick impacted him.

Where do you get that experience but in this role with those people? So I have a little bit of an inside view that you come to know folks. You don't get to know them all really, really well. It kind of depends on circumstance. I enjoy working with the 16 now. I spent a couple days in Austin, so I spent a little bit more time around SARC than I might have otherwise gotten to know.

Brent, and we've got a couple new coaches you're coming to know. I knew Jeff a little bit when he was Ole Miss. And, you know, Mike is here today, so he's new to me. So I think part of...

what college football needs to keep in mind is to be approachable, to be a part of a community. And I think what you described is that maybe Mike Leach was the turning point that all of a sudden, you know, Mike, you know, people got to know and you could be a human every so often. And I think you've seen some of that this week, actually, that you've seen coaches, you know,

Lane talking about his dad and he and I backstage he said I don't want to do a press conference about my dad because that's going to be hard for me

And you've watched the coaches then respect Monty. That's not planned. Right. I think that's part of what you're describing is the human side. And if I may, in every sport, I think it's easy for fans to miss that these are human beings. They're in high visibility, highly supported, highly compensated, high expectation jobs. But they are human beings. They have strengths and they have frailties.

They have the ability to cast a vision. And then they have those moments where, no doubt, there's introspection and self-doubt. But I think overall they represent things very well.

Thank you so much for the time. We appreciate it. Appreciate you having us here as well and everything you do for us. And I look forward to catching up soon. Thanks for being here. Appreciate the interaction and the opportunity. Greg Sankey, Commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, joining us on Radio Row. Back with more McElroy and Kublik in the morning right after this. Catch up with all things McElroy and Kublik in the morning by subscribing to the podcast. Mythically, he's grown. He's almost like a little bit bigger than...

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