TAMPA, FL — Late within the regurgitation of the long, cold offseason, whereas wading by means of the nauseating airing of endless grievances, a transparent and decisive choice slipped by means of the fog of Greg Sankey’s state of the SEC message to start SEC Media Days.
You say choice, I say center finger.
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When the commissioner of the SEC declares publicly that the potential for his convention breaking away from everybody else is “real” and isn’t “a leverage point,” it’s in all probability time to pay attention. No matter how he couches it.
No matter how he declares a accountability to be a steward of school sports activities — not simply the SEC — and assist information it into the nice unknown.
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No matter how he thanks members of Congress attempting to push the Save College Sports Act camel by means of the attention of a legislative needle.
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No matter how he deftly tiptoes by means of the apparent elephant within the room, and desperately tries to point out solidarity with different faculty sports activities leaders with significant reform.
Sankey has had sufficient. Or extra apropos: the SEC presidents and chancellors have had sufficient.
Enough of Congress attempting to shove their capability to earn by means of media rights offers and potential growth into an unescapable field — by means of the guise of what’s good for all of school sports activities.
Enough of a 24-team College Football Playoff pushed by the remainder of faculty soccer, a watering-down of not solely the postseason, however the sport itself.
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Enough of colleges — some inside the SEC — refusing to abide by guidelines, and utilizing litigation to keep away from enforcement.
Enough of colleges — together with practically each group inside the SEC — flouting the spirit of personal NIL offers, and utilizing the secondary market to destroy any semblance of economic aggressive steadiness.
Enough of being informed their convention championship sport — the muse of the league’s wild success over the final three a long time — has to go. By some coaches and athletic administrators in their very own convention, no much less.
Enough of being compelled right into a structural, logistical and monetary mannequin that they are saying, greater than something, doesn’t work for them.
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So yeah, there are alternatives. The similar go-it-alone choices Georgia president Jere Morehead and Mississippi State president Mark Keenum — two of essentially the most highly effective presidents in faculty sports activities — acknowledged publicly in May in the course of the league’s spring conferences.
Nothing has modified as a result of, effectively, nothing has modified. Time its working out on the Save College Sports Act, a invoice that neither the SEC nor Big Ten help in its present state — as a result of, partially, each don’t need to share media rights income, and don’t need growth limitations.
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But perceive this: Congress doesn’t want the SEC and Big Ten’s approval to push the invoice by means of. If the invoice goes by means of as-is — with out the blessing of the 2 tremendous conferences — the SEC and Big Ten are left with a troublesome resolution.
Agree to the laws, and cope with any potential unwinding of its capability to earn or develop, or go it alone. The SEC and Big Ten assume the identical; the SEC’s presidents have merely been extra vocal.
“I do not believe that is a leverage point,” Sankey mentioned. “I think that’s just honest communication.”
More than something, it’s a degree of frustration. One that gained’t finish with the passing of a Congressional invoice, or growth of a postseason or every other magic bullet concept that will or could not acquire management of the annual free-moving, free-agent free-for-all that has kneecapped faculty sports activities.
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Like it or not, the going it alone speak is’t going anyplace.
“I know the pride with which I spoke of (winning) 13 national championships, and there is meaning and value,” Sankey mentioned. “ But that national organization must function in a healthy manner, otherwise that simmering will continue.”
All the way in which to a defining second for school sports activities.
Matt Hayes is the senior nationwide faculty soccer author for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB. Listen to him day by day, from 12-2 p.m., on 1010XL-Jacksonville.
This article initially appeared on USA TODAY: SEC going alone over CFP, Save College Sports Act isn’t leverage, it’s reality | Opinion