Hill: SEC flexing its muscles, but other conferences must fight back

Much was made this week of a snarky comment from SEC commissioner Greg Sankey during the league’s spring meeting in Florida’s panhandle that was directed at the commissioners of two rival conferences.

“I don’t need lectures from others about the good of the game,” he said, clearly addressing the concerns of leaders from the Big 12 and ACC who had spoken out about the SEC’s posturing for more power and money from the College Football Playoff system at the expense of the sport’s overall health.

But there was a far-less-publicized part of that same media session that truly gets to the crux of the battle over the future of college football specifically and college sports in general.

“We actually can take our ball and go home,” Sankey said.

While he denied a report during the week that he had been preemptively granted permission from his members to break away from the NCAA, he didn’t totally discount the idea either.

“I don’t have the authority to just depart,” he said. “That’s not been voted upon. I’ve shared with the decision-making working group — I have people in my room asking, ‘Why are we still in the NCAA?’”

It’s not the first time he or someone affiliated with the SEC has said something like this. It’s a reference to the idea the SEC could at some point simply pull away from the NCAA and the CFP and run its own playoff. Such a move could also involve the Big Ten or even some larger group that includes some schools from the ACC and Big 12.

The idea of “Project Rudy,” which essentially is a breakaway 70-team college football league, has been floating out there for quite some time. There is also the chance the SEC could just make a clean break and host its own playoff each year.

Either way, it’s all been a great bargaining chip for the league. The SEC and the Big Ten were granted an oversized share of the decision-making powers as part of an agreement with the Big 12, ACC and Notre Dame that included a vow to have “meaningful consultation” with those entities and their TV partners as part of the process.

That meaningful consultation basically being, “Here’s what we’re going to do. Accept it or we’ll leave you behind.”

Not an empty threat

So those two leagues will have a huge say in how the College Football Playoff is structured going forward. Or they will start their own league.

Right now, the SEC is deciding whether it’s better for the conference to give itself four automatic bids to a 16-team field or support a proposal for the bracket to be made up of five auto berths and 11 at-large invitations. Or it will start its own league.

They want the ability to stage multiple play-in games within the SEC that could generate a massive amount of money, or add a ninth conference game with less risk because of the auto bids. Or it will start its own league.

Soon, it will be requesting direct byes to the championship game while still being paid an outsized share even for early-round games the league doesn’t have teams participating in. Or it will start its own league.

Look, it’s not an empty threat. The SEC is absolutely capable of doing just that, should it desire. There would be great ratings and a ton of money for the football playoffs.

There would also be plenty of problems created by such a move.

What would the basketball tournament look like, much less some of the Olympic sports?

What steps could Congress potentially take, particularly representatives from states that have competitive football programs that are left behind?

‘Be very, very careful’

This becomes even more intriguing considering upper-echelon football programs have been lobbying for an antitrust exemption that may be a far more difficult sell if many states, obviously including Nevada, are left out. Or, and this is important, elected officials who are alums of schools left out of the process.

“Let me state this as clearly as I can: The (Big Ten and SEC) should be very, very careful about some of the decisions they are about to make,” U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., a Notre Dame alum, posted on social media. “Because they appear hell-bent on ruining major college football. I think they need congressional hearings into their collusion.”

The SEC at some point is either going to break away or be a part of a larger group that forms its own system. That’s basically inevitable.

But it knows its best course of action right now is to keep that threat open for as long as possible to use it as a bargaining chip at every step in the process.

It’s smart and shrewd. Give Sankey credit.

The rest of the college sports world would be wise to tell them to either rip off the Band-Aid and leave now or cooperate in good faith.

Otherwise, the most powerful leagues will just continue to consolidate power and money and become even more rich and powerful without ever having to actually take the risk of following through on their threats.

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on X.