This past summer, while you were sitting by the pool deciding whether or not to have another mai tai, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey was doing, well, everything. Given the mammoth changes impacting college sports (Name-Image-Likeness, renegotiated rights fees, conference re-alignment and (oh right) the COVID pandemic), Sankey can be forgiven for eschewing a little downtime. Here are five tweets taken from his recent interview with the Sports Business Journal.
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Managing through the pandemic:
"I think our responsibility from the conference office starts with our team, the participants, the coaches. We've had protocols adopted last year redeveloped, given that we have vaccines. Our vaccine rates are at the highest of any cohort in the country."
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Expansion of the College Football Playoff:
"If we're going to change, 12 makes the most sense. I think we have to be thoughtful in our movement regardless of what happened in the summer around membership transition and that's my expectation, but I think the format makes a lot of sense for everyone. "
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Revising the NCAA Constitution:
"We need the decision-making authority for our athletic programs given our unique circumstances. We have colleagues that are vastly different than the majority of D-I. It's a few weeks in, but we need some clarity at the national level about real expectations."
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Adding Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC:
"[It's] a reflection on a vision that I discussed with our presidents and chancellors back in 2015 ... that we want to achieve a level of success athletically and we want to see the continuing progress of our universities. "
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Summer Vacation:
"I have to relearn what summer vacation means."