TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 The notion of the SEC breaking away, whether it\u2019s making its own rules or even making its own football playoff, entered the public discourse this summer. But it\u2019s been going on within the conference for almost a year.<\/p>\n
Last October, SEC presidents asked commissioner Greg Sankey to present an analysis on \u201cstepping away, or our relationship with the NCAA,\u201d Sankey told The Athletic on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI identified some key elements, and at the end my recommendation was we not pursue that,\u201d Sankey said.<\/p>\n
Then in January, the SEC contracted with an outside firm to hold confidential interviews with its 16 athletic directors, as part of putting together a \u201ccomprehensive strategic plan for the conference,\u201d according to a document obtained by The Athletic. A number of topics came up in those interviews, and the breakaway idea was among them, according to a source briefed on the discussion, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private meetings.<\/p>\n
Since then, frustration has only mounted \u2014 over enforcement of the House settlement<\/a>, lack of movement on federal legislation<\/a> and generally the SEC being in a system many think doesn\u2019t work for the conference\u2019s needs. And so the idea of doing something drastic has also mounted, with Sankey confirming Monday, the opening of SEC media days, that discussion of an SEC breakaway was \u201creal.\u201d<\/p>\n But a few days later Sankey tried to put a finer point on it. For one thing, he still doesn\u2019t want to break away, but he confirmed that others do.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are voices that have expressed that opinion at times, there are,\u201d Sankey said. \u201cHave they asked me to inform that thinking? They did. And at the end of it, I don\u2019t think that\u2019s the direction that should be pursued.\u201d<\/p>\n But that comes with a couple of key caveats:<\/p>\n \u2022 The presidents ultimately make these decisions. Sankey didn\u2019t elaborate on how many want some form of breakaway, and efforts to reach them were unsuccessful. (Georgia president Jere Morehead has in the past been the most outspoken<\/a> about the possibility.)<\/p>\n \u2022 Sankey\u2019s reluctance to break away \u2014 whether it\u2019s making their own rules or more drastic measures \u2014 comes with the hope that federal legislation will still happen. An aide to Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), co-sponsor of the Protect College Sports Act, was at SEC media days, another sign the SEC and Big Ten\u2019s efforts on revisions could eventually get them on board.<\/p>\n But if the bills does fail, Sankey said he and his staff have been directed to study what he called \u201cconference-led decision making. What can we influence on our own.\u201d<\/p>\n That includes things like an SEC-only salary cap, luxury tax or even collective bargaining agreement.<\/p>\n \u201cSure that\u2019s been identified,\u201d Sankey said. \u201cNow it has to be done within certain structures. But there\u2019s some level of flexibility.\u201d<\/p>\n All of this, Sankey cautioned, is only part of the ongoing conversation within the SEC, but not the conversation. Breaking away is not imminent, with other sources around the conference emphasizing to The Athletic this week that there are so many unknowns \u2014 details, logistics, legalities \u2014 rather than some master plan ready to be unleashed if federal legislation fails.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s safe to say that there is a lot of work to be done in order to find a more stable environment,\u201d Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin said this week. \u201cAnd whether a bill passing creates that, or a conference doing something on its own creates it, at this point it\u2019s all conjecture because there is still work to be done to see what those worlds will look like in reality.\u201d<\/p>\n Florida powerbrokers have been openly discussing some of those possibilities. A task force formed by the state university system hasn\u2019t mentioned an SEC breakaway directly. But at an April meeting in Tampa, officials questioned how and whether they could form a compact between states in the same conference. Such a move could be a precursor to self-governance and a different path to antitrust protections.<\/p>\n The most drastic step \u2014 a complete breakaway from the NCAA and the SEC holding its own playoff in every sport \u2014 is very, very unlikely. There are ties to other schools in the NCAA and their own footprint, and there\u2019s a reluctance to risk blowing them up.<\/p>\n Sankey also alluded to political realities, hinting at state governments that wouldn\u2019t be pleased if one SEC school did something that harmed other schools in the state.<\/p>\n \u201cIn all of our states there\u2019s more colleges and universities in Division I beyond just our SEC members. We also have Division II and Division III members whose championship support structure doesn\u2019t exist without March Madness in Division I happening,\u201d Sankey said. \u201cMarch Madness has an American culture expectation of automatic bids, of Cinderella stories and upsets. I don\u2019t particularly like the upsets anymore because we\u2019re on the short end, but that\u2019s part of the ethos, right? And that multiplies into college baseball, where there\u2019s a breadth of access. I think we have the largest amount of HBCUs<\/a> in our footprint. Those relationships, that\u2019s important.<\/p>\n \u201cSo all of that was explained in response to how do we think about something that\u2019s dramatically different, which produced the recommendation that (breaking away) shouldn\u2019t be our focus.\u201d<\/p>\n So there is a push to do something more modest, such as the SEC making its own rules but staying within the existing NCAA structure. That could range from rules on hot-button rules such as eligibility and tampering to even thornier subjects, such as paying players and enforcement.<\/p>\n Ultimately, this is about SEC people trusting their own conference to make and enforce rules, Sankey agreed. He\u2019s more supportive of pursuing that than completely severing the SEC\u2019s connection with everybody else.<\/p>\n \u201cYou want to be the big fish. But you also need some to compare it to show you\u2019re the big fish,\u201d Sankey said. \u201cBut there are real frustrations. That doesn\u2019t mean this notion of doing something else is a top agenda item. But has it been a conversation? Yeah.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 The notion of the SEC breaking away, whether it\u2019s making its own rules or even…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":953673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[930,7208,7210,331,1301,7,450,3499,7211,7209,7206,49,48,1787,7207,4278,156,1541,7212,1078,7205],"class_list":["post-953672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-alabama-crimson-tide","tag-arkansas-razorbacks","tag-auburn-tigers","tag-college-football","tag-florida-gators","tag-football","tag-georgia-bulldogs","tag-kentucky-wildcats","tag-lsu-tigers","tag-mississippi-state-bulldogs","tag-missouri-tigers","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-oklahoma-sooners","tag-ole-miss-rebels","tag-south-carolina-gamecocks","tag-sports-business","tag-tennessee-volunteers","tag-texas-am-aggies","tag-texas-longhorns","tag-vanderbilt-commodores"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116971627063344959","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=953672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/953673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=953672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=953672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=953672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}