Word Out to SEC Commish Greg Sankey – Pigs Get Fat, Hogs Go to Market
By Rock Westfall
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey inherited a behemoth from his late great predecessor, Mike Silve. And while Sankey has kept the train on the track, his greed grows geometrically. His latest comments about the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament have ignited a firestorm.
Sankey Suggests Altering March Madness to Put More SEC Losers In
Greg Sankey believes that the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament field should be expanded and that everyone needs to get with the times. Sankey's rationale was that recent runs by UCLA from the First Four to the Final Four in 2021 and Syracuse's run to the Round of 16, beginning with a First Four win in 2018, show the caliber of power-conference teams on the fringe of the NCAA tournament.
"Nothing remains static," Sankey told ESPN. "I think we have to think about the dynamics around Division I and the tournament. That tells you that the bandwidth inside the top 50 is highly competitive. We are giving away highly competitive opportunities for automatic qualifiers, and I think that pressure is going to rise as we have more competitive basketball leagues at the top end because of expansion."
"It's important not to apply an old model to a new dynamic to keep something special and beloved," he said. "In any business, you have to evolve and change. That's what's being contemplated. It's not portending an outcome."
Sankey believes that there are too many automatic qualifiers from smaller leagues that take up room from the SEC Big Boys, such as Kentucky, Auburn, Florida, Mississippi State, and South Carolina, who, incidentally, were all humiliated in first-round losses.
Indeed, Karma can be a witch in 12-inch heels.
Sankey’s Comments Indicative of Increased Tone Deafness
Regardless of one’s position on the NCAA Tournament, Sankey’s comments came off as pigheaded and against the spirit of March Madness. Each year, Cinderella teams emerge. We saw it in the first round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament when Oakland beat SEC blue-blood Kentucky and Yale stunned SEC Tournament champion Auburn.
Sankey was once heralded as a moderate voice of reason who appreciated the culture of college sports. He was seen as a protector who would bridge the gap between the tradition and rituals of college sports and the new realities of today.
Over the past year, however, Sankey has come off as a man who is more in love with the sound of his voice. As this space has documented, he acts more and more as if the SEC’s success was his creation. In this, Sankey has forgotten where he came from.
In 2002, Sankey was hired as associate commissioner by the late Mike Slive, who completely remade the league in its current image. Slive’s vision of increased academic emphasis, compliance, expansion, and a TV network made the SEC what it is today. Sankey inherited those riches and now seems to believe he alone is the reason for the SEC’s power and prestige.
Recommended Articles
Greg Sankey would be well-advised to stop admiring his own headlines.
Gordon Gekko Blushes at New CFP TV Deal & Sankey’s Abusive Greed
Last week it was announced that the College Football Playoff and ESPN agreed to a $7.8 billion deal that runs through the 2031-32 season. The SEC and Big Ten will get the largest cut at $21 million per school. In comparison, the ACC gets $13 million per school, the Big 12 gets $12 million per school, and Notre Dame is expected to get “more than $12 million.”
The CFP format though has not been finalized. The CFP has full autonomy in setting up its playoffs, which will probably consist of 14 teams. The next question is how much the SEC and Big Ten want to bully the other leagues on the topic of automatic qualifiers.
Sankey’s job, indeed, is to represent the interests of the SEC. But it is also true that if he continues to press the point too far, fans from other leagues may decide to check out. There comes a point where there is more to be made by treating everyone, or at least the four major conferences, as equals instead of planting their faces in the mud.
The best example is from the 1960s when the upstart American Football League took on the National Football League. The AFL teams shared all TV money equally. In those days, some terrible AFL teams were on financial life support, but because of that revenue-sharing plan, the AFL became strong enough to reach parity and a merger with the NFL in 1970. Incredibly, all AFL teams survived the 10-year war. The rest is history.
On the other extreme is a dire warning from Major League Baseball, which does business the Sankey way. MLB has a few megamarket powers and then bottom feeders that are, in reality, developmental farm clubs for the rich franchises. As a result, Baseball lost millions of fans and is now a fringe sport, a fate that was once considered unfathomable for the so-called “National Pastime.”
College Football might want to take a crash course on those lessons.
Sankey has his share of fanboys, but his success and greed have gone to his head. He has become the most powerful man in college sports. But as the saying goes, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Perhaps a better idea than Sankey's is for the rest of the leagues to kick out the SEC and Big Ten from March Madness. Let Sankey have his own tournament. He can allow all his SEC pretenders in the field.
Alarmingly, the once benevolent Greg Sankey is morphing from a pig into a hog.
History shows that mightier men than Greg Sankey have had faster, greater, and more shocking falls. Will Sankey go to market next?
