Sankey: SEC-Big 10 to encourage, not cut out NCAA

David Hale, ESPN Staff WriterFeb 7, 2024, 07:56 PM ET

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• ACC reporter.Joined ESPN in 2012. Graduate of the University of Delaware.SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said Wednesday that the brand-new tactical partnership in between his conference and the Big Ten is a reaction to a need for management that can “present some new viewpoint, new ideas, some new thinking or perhaps even more vital help cut through the governmental tape we deal with so often in college sports, “however stated the relationship is not intended to prevent the NCAA.In an interview on “The Paul Finebaum Program,” Sankey stated the partnership with the Big 10 would not act unilaterally but would instead be

  focused on creating a more streamlined technique to recognizing options to college football’s biggest issues, including the College Football Playoff; name, image and likeness rules; and the list of ongoing litigation facing college sports.”What keeps me up during the night is individuals believing I have a set of magical answers, “Sankey said.”There are magical answers to our historic realities that have actually worked truly well in college sports for years, today we’re being challenged in various methods– challenged within our own campus settings, challenged in courts, challenged in state legislatures and challenged in Congress.”Sankey stated he first considered the partnership with the Big 10 after feeling irritated by a lack of development during meetings on the College Football Playoff and with the Department I council last month. After the latter conferences, Sankey stated a variety of stakeholders approached him asking for the SEC and Big Ten to merely determine their goals.Editor’s Picks 2 Related Sankey then reached out to Big 10 commissioner Tony Petitti, and they gained approval from their membership to pursue a collaboration.” We’re going to attempt to take that responsibility of leadership and see if we can establish some ideas that can assist us,”

  Sankey said.During the

  interview, Finebaum mentioned the collaboration as an” alliance, “a term formerly used by the commissioners of the ACC and Pac-12 and

  previous Big 10 commissioner Kevin Warren to explain an ill-fated consortium aimed at countering the SEC’s power following the decision of Texas and Oklahoma to sign up with that league in 2021. Sankey quickly kept in mind that “that’s a bad word. We can’t utilize that word.”Sankey later on suggested his relationships with some other members of college athletics’management were harmed by the SEC’s addition of Texas and Oklahoma, a move that started the current round of adjustment that eventually led to the death of the Pac-12, which now includes simply two members– Oregon State and Washington State.Still, Sankey insisted he’s not interested in cutting out the NCAA or other conferences from decision-making moving on, rather seeing the function of the SEC-Big Ten collaboration as more of a think tank that will then advance key tips on to the bigger group. “This effort to form an advisory group is not about the NCAA,” he stated.”We need a healthy

  nationwide governing body. To the level we can contribute to that in any way, that discusses more what our focus will be.”