By RALPH D. RUSSO
Associated Press

DALLAS — Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey officially opened the 16-team league’s inaugural football season Monday in a sprawling hotel ballroom in North Texas, a new venue for SEC Media Days at a time when everything around college sports seems to be in flux.

“It’s time to reset your expectations of college athletics,” Sankey said at the opening of the four-day event.

The SEC, a powerhouse with 13 national champions in college football since 2006, now includes Texas and Oklahoma. It’s one of several changes taking effect in college football this year, with many more to come.

“As leaders, we are responsible for navigating what are uncharted waters of change for us in college sports,” Sankey said.

The 59-year-old commissioner stressed that university sports must find solutions from within, but that there must also be external pressure, such as from lawsuits and politicians, that complicate the situation.

“But the reality is there is no easy button that we can just push to fix the problems that we have. There is no silver bullet. Any time you go through a reset, it’s hard,” Sankey said.

Perhaps the most dramatic changes are yet to come. In late May, the NCAA and the power conferences agreed to a framework for settling several antitrust lawsuits. The settlement includes $2.8 billion in damages to be paid by the NCAA and a groundbreaking commitment by the conferences to allow their schools to share a percentage of athletic revenues with their athletes.

A full term sheet detailing the settlement has yet to be filed with the federal court in Northern California overseeing the case, which is expected to happen soon. It must then be approved by Judge Claudia Wilken.

“We are literally taking a change that would normally take 10 years and making it happen in a few months,” Sankey said.

Sankey said new revenue streams are needed, but he warned that college sports leaders could cede control in exchange for cash, a not-so-subtle allusion to private equity.

“We’ve been incredibly successful and I understand why so many people from outside the campus and the conference community are eager to get involved and contribute to this. But it’s our responsibility to engage people in the solution and not cede authority to outside parties,” Sankey said.

BIG ENOUGH?

Early in his approximately 30-minute opening statement, Sankey made a statement that garnered widespread attention on social media and prompted a number of follow-up questions.

“Sixteen is our today, and sixteen is our tomorrow,” he said, referring to the size of the recently expanded conference.

After three years of tumultuous and transformative conference reshuffling, there is relative peace on that front in 2024. But instability at any conference fuels speculation.

In the Atlantic Coast Conference, Florida State and Clemson have sued the league, challenging the agreements that bind schools to the league, with hundreds of millions of dollars in potential exit fees and fines.

Sankey made it clear that he is involved in the ACC lawsuit only as a spectator.

“As I said, we’re focused on our 16. I’ve said before at Media Days that I’m not a recruiter,” he said. “Our presidents have made it clear that I’m not going to get involved in litigation about expansion. So I’m paying attention, but I’m not going to get involved in those conversations.”

Sankey was asked to clarify 16 today, 16 tomorrow. Was that a reference to the long-term future of the SEC?

“So the last three questions are part of the reality, which I’ve answered three times now where our focus is. Our focus is on our 16 members. I have a responsibility to pay attention, and I’m certainly not going to fuel speculation about what happens next,” he said.

“We can definitely stay 16 years old for a very long time and be incredibly successful.”

In a massive realignment, the Big 12 has 16 teams, the Big Ten has 18, and the ACC now has schools in Dallas and the California Bay Area. The Pac-12 is a two-team league fighting for survival.

Texas and Oklahoma’s decision to join the SEC was the first domino to fall in 2021, a move that doesn’t look all that radical compared to others that followed.

“We know who we are and the Southeastern Conference, we’re the only conference at this level where the name still has meaning. It’s the southeastern part of the United States. When we expanded, we reestablished the historic rivalry and added just 100 miles to the longest campus-to-campus trip our student-athletes will ever make,” Sankey said.