Greg Sankey doesn’t favor SEC breakaway, but options being explored amid ‘real frustrations’

TAMPA, Fla. — The notion of the SEC breaking away, whether it’s making its own rules or even making its own football playoff, entered the public discourse this summer. But it’s been going on within the conference for almost a year.

Last October, SEC presidents asked commissioner Greg Sankey to present an analysis on “stepping away, or our relationship with the NCAA,” Sankey told The Athletic on Thursday.

“I identified some key elements, and at the end my recommendation was we not pursue that,” Sankey said.

Then in January, the SEC contracted with an outside firm to hold confidential interviews with its 16 athletic directors, as part of putting together a “comprehensive strategic plan for the conference,” according to a document obtained by The Athletic. A number of topics came up in those interviews, and the breakaway idea was among them, according to a source briefed on the discussion, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private meetings.

Since then, frustration has only mounted — over enforcement of the House settlement, lack of movement on federal legislation and generally the SEC being in a system many think doesn’t work for the conference’s needs. And so the idea of doing something drastic has also mounted, with Sankey confirming Monday, the opening of SEC media days, that discussion of an SEC breakaway was “real.”

But a few days later Sankey tried to put a finer point on it. For one thing, he still doesn’t want to break away, but he confirmed that others do.

“There are voices that have expressed that opinion at times, there are,” Sankey said. “Have they asked me to inform that thinking? They did. And at the end of it, I don’t think that’s the direction that should be pursued.”

But that comes with a couple of key caveats:

• The presidents ultimately make these decisions. Sankey didn’t elaborate on how many want some form of breakaway, and efforts to reach them were unsuccessful. (Georgia president Jere Morehead has in the past been the most outspoken about the possibility.)

• Sankey’s reluctance to break away — whether it’s making their own rules or more drastic measures — comes with the hope that federal legislation will still happen. An aide to Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), co-sponsor of the Protect College Sports Act, was at SEC media days, another sign the SEC and Big Ten’s efforts on revisions could eventually get them on board.

But if the bills does fail, Sankey said he and his staff have been directed to study what he called “conference-led decision making. What can we influence on our own.”

That includes things like an SEC-only salary cap, luxury tax or even collective bargaining agreement.

“Sure that’s been identified,” Sankey said. “Now it has to be done within certain structures. But there’s some level of flexibility.”

All of this, Sankey cautioned, is only part of the ongoing conversation within the SEC, but not the conversation. Breaking away is not imminent, with other sources around the conference emphasizing to The Athletic this week that there are so many unknowns — details, logistics, legalities — rather than some master plan ready to be unleashed if federal legislation fails.

“I think it’s safe to say that there is a lot of work to be done in order to find a more stable environment,” Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin said this week. “And whether a bill passing creates that, or a conference doing something on its own creates it, at this point it’s all conjecture because there is still work to be done to see what those worlds will look like in reality.”

Florida powerbrokers have been openly discussing some of those possibilities. A task force formed by the state university system hasn’t mentioned an SEC breakaway directly. But at an April meeting in Tampa, officials questioned how and whether they could form a compact between states in the same conference. Such a move could be a precursor to self-governance and a different path to antitrust protections.

The most drastic step — a complete breakaway from the NCAA and the SEC holding its own playoff in every sport — is very, very unlikely. There are ties to other schools in the NCAA and their own footprint, and there’s a reluctance to risk blowing them up.

Sankey also alluded to political realities, hinting at state governments that wouldn’t be pleased if one SEC school did something that harmed other schools in the state.

“In all of our states there’s more colleges and universities in Division I beyond just our SEC members. We also have Division II and Division III members whose championship support structure doesn’t exist without March Madness in Division I happening,” Sankey said. “March Madness has an American culture expectation of automatic bids, of Cinderella stories and upsets. I don’t particularly like the upsets anymore because we’re on the short end, but that’s part of the ethos, right? And that multiplies into college baseball, where there’s a breadth of access. I think we have the largest amount of HBCUs in our footprint. Those relationships, that’s important.

“So all of that was explained in response to how do we think about something that’s dramatically different, which produced the recommendation that (breaking away) shouldn’t be our focus.”

So there is a push to do something more modest, such as the SEC making its own rules but staying within the existing NCAA structure. That could range from rules on hot-button rules such as eligibility and tampering to even thornier subjects, such as paying players and enforcement.

Ultimately, this is about SEC people trusting their own conference to make and enforce rules, Sankey agreed. He’s more supportive of pursuing that than completely severing the SEC’s connection with everybody else.

“You want to be the big fish. But you also need some to compare it to show you’re the big fish,” Sankey said. “But there are real frustrations. That doesn’t mean this notion of doing something else is a top agenda item. But has it been a conversation? Yeah.”