By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey may need a vacation at a beach soon, but maybe not at Miramar Beach in the Destin, Florida area – site of the just-concluded SEC Spring Meetings.
Sankey basically got sand kicked in his face throughout the four days of discussion of College Football Playoff expansion, the new nine-game SEC football schedule, the Protect College Sports Act and the Big Ten’s domination of his once king football league.
There is dissension among his member football coaches as some are saying they were hoodwinked last year with the move to a nine-game league schedule with a promised increase to 16 teams in the College Football Playoff. There are nine league games this season, but still the 12-team playoff.
NEW: SEC coaches say they were "misled" about 9-game league schedule. They were told playoff would expand to 16 teams if they agreed. It didn’t 👀
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) May 27, 2026
"They felt misled," Florida's Jon Sumrall said.
The latest from SEC spring meetingshttps://t.co/3ypnRlLmGt
“They felt misled,” Florida coach John Sumrall said.
Auburn coach Alex Golesh, meanwhile, criticized the all-talk, little-do element of the SEC Spring Meetings that has happened frequently with Sankey.
"I thought we were gonna solve all the problems on the first day here…I'm the last guest on your show today, and we haven't solved a thing!
— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) May 26, 2026
-Alex Golesh on SEC Spring Meetings in Destin pic.twitter.com/YwEIJ5vvJC
And Georgia coach Kirby Smart and Tennessee coach Josh Heupel have come out in favor of a 24-team playoff, which is what the Big Ten wants, and Sankey vehemently doesn’t want. Say Big Ten around him, and he kind of bristles.
Sankey also doesn’t like the part of the Protect College Sports Act bill from Senators Ted Cruz (Republican-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (Democrat-Washington) that calls for the Big Ten, SEC and other conferences to pool their television rights with third parties as in the vastly more successful and unified NFL. Sankey had a statement about that fired off on Thursday.
“The SEC must retain the ability to act in the best interests of its membership,” a statement from Sankey’s SEC office said. “As such, the SEC does not support assigning the media rights to a third party and remains firmly committed to independently conducting its own media negotiations.”
Unfortunately, Sankey and the SEC office do not get a vote on that bill. Once you invite Congress (the fox) into the henhouse, as the SEC and other leagues did as they continue to fail to make their own decisions, the foxes can take over.
“It’s pretty rich for these people who created the problem in the first place to say that all of a sudden they have the solution,” said Texas Tech board of regents head Cody Campbell, who helped author the bill to fix college sports’ mess. And that bill has an excellent chance of becoming law.
But Sankey’s biggest loss of the week was to a sportswriter – one of the best and brightest on the scene of late in Blake Toppmeyer of USA Today.
Toppmeyer asked Sankey a simple question this week. Why the Big Ten has surpassed the SEC in college football?
But before he could finish, Sankey, who is usually overly courteous, interrupted. And that was a tell, showing he was shaken and likely still in denial about the Big Ten. Then he asked for the “metrics” behind his question.
Toppmeyer then slam dunked him with ease, mentioning the three straight national football championships by Big Ten schools – Michigan in the 2023 season, Ohio State in 2024 and Indiana last season. And the Big Ten is 4-0 against the SEC in head-to-head playoff games the last three seasons. Any questions?
Greg Sankey has lost it in metrics overload. Great job, Blake.
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) May 28, 2026
And Sankey then sounded like he had truly been out in the sun too long.
“If you look at the entirety of our league, we are by far the most competitive, the strongest league by far,” he said.
Really?
And Toppmeyer soon wrote where Sankey can put his blessed metrics.
The SEC's got 'metrics.' The Big Ten has trophies.
— Blake Toppmeyer (@btoppmeyer) May 28, 2026
If Greg Sankey can't see this is a problem for the SEC, then he's brainwashed himself.
Column: https://t.co/tvTfCMijyB
Remember when the SEC used to bang that slogan, “The SEC just means more” over everybody’s head and constantly list or picture all their national championships everywhere the eye could see? The league did win 13 national championships from 2003 with LSU to 2021 and ’22 with Georgia. And it’s all anyone heard about.
Now, Sankey’s talking about “metrics” and being “most competitive?” He didn’t talk about that while his league was winning national championships. Is he coaching a Little League team now? Is he going to start giving out participation trophies?
What’s next? Arguing that the SEC has the most balance? They don’t give the trophies for that. They also don’t give trophies for toughest schedules.
Criticize the Big Ten for having easier schedules all you want. I call that smart scheduling. When you have a playoff, particularly up to 12, 16 or 24, you don’t need to have a tough schedule. LSU doesn’t need to be playing Clemson any more.
What other metrics will Sankey be studying? The SEC has the best uniforms? The prettiest cheerleaders. The best weather? The league has the best worst teams in the country?
You know what the best metric is? A trophy. Or a ring. Or a banner.
And Sankey just kept on trying to explain to Toppmeyer and anyone who would listen – or pretend to – just how good his league is.
When you have to explain why you think you’re winning, it means you’re losing.
And if Sankey doesn’t learn that and start thinking about the big picture of college football instead of sounding like some SEC sports information director, the Big Ten is going to continue to smoke the SEC on the field and off the field even more than now.
The SEC – It Just Means More, Even When You Don’t Win.
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