By Rock Westfall
The late former SEC commissioner Mike Slive put the puck on the tape for Greg Sankey. Sankey is now mentioned as a potential future commissioner for the entire sport.
An Ivy Leaguer Inherits a Conference of Outlaws
On July 1, 2002, Mike Slive was named commissioner of the SEC, replacing the retired Roy Kramer. Slive seemed an odd fit for the SEC. He was born in Utica, NY, and was highly decorated for his academic achievements. Slive earned his degree from the Ivy League’s Dartmouth College and matriculated to obtain law degrees from Virginia and Georgetown.
Ironically, it was this Ivy League Yankee Lawyer who made his name and fame in the Bible Belt, where college football is religion.
Slive inherited a league that was good from a competitive standpoint but hardly dominant. It would stun fans to discover that from 1981 through 2005, an SEC team won the national championship only three times.
Just as bad as its lack of championship success was the SEC’s outlaw reputation. It was a renegade conference known for overt, rampant cheating. Furthermore, its academic reputation was so bad the parents of recruits would often forbid their sons from playing in it.
Mike Slive stepped into an SEC perceived by the nation as being an illiterate NASCAR moonshiner. And then he went to work.
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The Bar is Raised – Setting New Standards
Slive wasted no time setting a tone for an improved SEC image and substantive results. Quickly, he quarterbacked a national summit on sportsmanship and fan behavior.
Next, he founded the SEC Task Force on Compliance and Enforcement. If there was a moment of conception for SEC dominance, this was it. Slive demanded that the SEC clean up its act on the recruiting trail and in the classroom. He vowed tougher enforcement to ensure both.
In short order, the SEC’s reputation dramatically improved. Weary parents were willing to give their sons a shot, finally confirming that they would get a decent education at improving schools. And while nobody is naïve enough to believe that the SEC was ever as clean as a hound’s tooth, its reputation improved and became comparable to the other conferences.
By 2006, Slive rebuilt a league ready for takeoff. The Florida Gators won the first of seven consecutive national championships by SEC programs, and the league became the Gold Standard of college football.
The Ultimate Visionary
Mike Slive saw the future and that it would work. He was a man ahead of his time when he proposed a College Football Playoff format in 2008. While the plan was rejected, it planted the seed for college football’s ultimate and lucrative CFP of today.
Slive saw that the SEC was leaving tens of millions of dollars on the table with its dreadful basketball programs that nobody cared about. He joined the NCAA Men’s Basketball Committee and appointed Mike Tranghese as the coordinator for SEC men’s hoops. Men’s basketball immediately improved on the hardwood, at the gate, and on television.
Conference realignment, anyone? Slive set the pace by adding Texas A&M and Missouri in 2011. For better or worse, college football has never been the same since.
Slive was masterfully playing the long game. His noteworthy accomplishments set up the SEC to lead college sports and take over as the dominant conference.
Now it was time for Slive’s biggest and most transformative move yet.
The SEC Network Clinches a Legacy of Greatness
On August 14, 2014, the SEC Network made its debut. The idea had been in the works shortly after the Big Ten Network debuted in 2007. Slive was wise enough to partner with ESPN, making distribution a cinch. In no time, the SEC Network powered past the Big Ten Network as the best of its kind.
With that grand slam, Slive retired. Sadly, his final years were spent battling prostate cancer. He passed away on May 16, 2018, at age 77.
As Bill Parcells would say, “You are what your record says you are.” Slive died as the GOAT of college commissioners.
Enter Greg Sankey, who inherited unprecedented college football wealth and power.
Greg Sankey – The Ultimate Trust Fund Boy of CFB Commissioners
It would take a special brand of incompetent fool to destroy the SEC. Slive constructed it so well that even former Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott and his successor, the current fugitive George Kliavkoff, would stand a 50/50 shot of not blowing it.
Today, the conventional wisdom regarding Sankey is that he is the smartest man in the room. And Sankey most certainly would concur with that assessment. Nobody loves the sound of his voice and the word “smart” more than Sankey.
There is a near-unanimous consensus that Sankey should be the czar of college football. He is given credit for saving the 2020 pandemic season when other leagues were eager to wave the white flag.
The truth is Sankey hemmed, hawed, and delayed for much of that fateful summer. Finally, realizing that SEC fans would storm the gates if football season were canceled, Sankey relented to preserve his career. The other conferences did follow his “lead,” but the fact remains it was fans and donors and, most likely, greedy TV executives on the down low while pretending to be woke that saved the season much more than Sankey.
Greg Sankey named SEC commissioner, replacing Mike Slive http://t.co/rbwoOCDsFI #SourceNCAAF pic.twitter.com/axWJequ7Sz
— Source Vital (@Source_App) March 12, 2015
The Alliance Will Determine Sankey’s Legacy
Up to now, everything Sankey has accomplished has been based on Slive’s foundation. But the February 2, 2024, announcement of a partnership with the Big Ten to research the future of college football is all on Sankey. It will likely take years to determine an outcome for the sport. But arrogantly excluding the Big 12 and ACC is not indicative of being “smart” about it.
A prospective College Football Commissioner would not exclude two major conferences from leading a future built on inclusive growth. And it’s doubtful that Mike Slive would either. After all, Mike Slive was the smartest man in the room and has remained so, in absentia, to this day.
Mike Slive perfectly set up Greg Sankey with the puck on the tape to tap in an empty net goal. Will Sankey miss?
Paul Finebaum Believes SEC, Big Ten Alliance Leaves Other Conferences In The Dust https://t.co/0WA6aenE4d
— Athlon Sports (@AthlonSports) February 6, 2024
