GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
DESTIN, Florida – Before the Southeastern Conference can do anything other than hold meetings and talk about college football issues, the SEC’s front office, its coaches and athletic directors need to agree on what they want to do.
So far, many of the players involved can’t agree, and the key player – SEC commissioner Greg Sankey – can’t seem to get his feet out of the sand or the sand out of his mouth here at the SEC Spring Meetings at the Hilton Sandestin Beach Resort.
Case in point, on Wednesday, LSU football coach Brian Kelly actually spoke in specifics and with some personality and clarity about how the SEC coaches want to play Big Ten schools in the regular season. This is partly because the Big Ten has taken over college football from the SEC with national championships the last two seasons, much to the chagrin of Sankey and his “SEC Just Means More” slogan that is growing tired and obviously means less than it once did.
LSU FOOTBALL COACH BRIAN KELLY SAYS BRING ON THE BIG TEN
Kelly said that he and the other SEC coaches want to play nine SEC games and one game a season against a Big Ten program. SEC football teams have been playing eight conference games since the league went to 12 teams in 1992 and to two divisions. The SEC went to 14 teams in 2012 through 2023 and kept playing eight league games. And in 2024, the league went to 16 teams and got rid of divisions, but kept just a half schedule of eight games.
“I don’t think you have anybody in our room that is not willing to play more SEC games and cross over and play the Big Ten,” Kelly said Wednesday. “Look, our first goal would be wanting to play the Big Ten as coaches. I can speak for the room. We want to play Big Ten schools. But you’ve got to get a partner (from the Big Ten).”
Asked to clarify that he meant nine SEC games and one Big Ten game a season, Kelly said yes.
The Big Ten, which went to 18 teams last season, has long played nine league games in football. So, naturally, if it is going to “partner” with the SEC in scheduling, it wants the SEC to play nine games. And it makes sense for the SEC to play nine games. They’ve been talking about it for 10 years anyway. This is why Kelly said the scheduling model he and the other coaches have been discussing features a nine games against SEC teams and one against the Big Ten.
LSU athletic director Scott Woodward also backed the nine-game schedule on Wednesday, and thus backed the one game a season with the Big Ten.
“We believe in the nine-game format,” Woodward said. “But there are a number of other schools that want to stay at eight. Everything is on the table. There are multiple factors.”
So, Kelly may not have been speaking for the room as much as he thought he was. But it’s really hard to read any rooms here.
For example, new Texas A&M athletic director Trev Alberts and Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin are pushing hard for automatic qualifiers from the SEC into the playoffs along with a nine-game league schedule. But Georgia coach Kirby Smart and Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin wants just the best teams, based more on Strength of Schedule rankings with no lock-ins.
Interestingly, though, Kiffin, had trouble last season with his Weakness of Schedule opponents, losing to Kentucky (4-18, 1-7 SEC for 15th place) and Florida (8-5, 4-4 SEC).
Arkansas coach Sam Pittman, meanwhile, told reporters that he would like to stay at eight SEC games. Naturally, he would. Pittman has not won more than three SEC games since going 4-4 in 2021. He is 4-12 the last two seasons. But Pittman did say he would like to play one Big Ten school a season, if the SEC stays at eight.
Sankey has told people he wants to add a Big Ten game to his teams’ regular season schedules, but only if the SEC remains at eight games. And Sankey was quick to “correct” Kelly from saying nine SEC games and one Big Ten game to eight SEC games and one Big Ten game on Wednesday. But that was more of an agenda adjustment by Sankey to Kelly than a correction. The nine-and-one makes more sense, particularly with the SEC up to 16 teams.
More and more, it seems that Sankey seems to be in an ego contest with Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti, instead of improving the SEC, college football and the College Football Playoff at this critical time.
The SEC has been talking about playing nine league games for more than 10 years. Former Alabama coach Nick Saban had been for it from the beginning. Why isn’t Sankey embracing nine games? Perhaps because the Big Ten wants him to play nine? And is this a pissing match?
At least Kelly and Woodward are talking clearly. Sankey can’t seem to get the sand out of his mouth to say anything concrete about anything. He just talks around things, often void of any clarity or specificity, and drones on about how much he has talked about things.
“Recall our past conversations. There’s a segment of our membership highly focused on going to nine games,” Sankey said. “Is that an asset or a liability?”
Well, do your business or get off the pot, at this point.
“The CFP selection leans more towards liability,” Sankey continued.
If you want to talk about liability, stop playing the SEC Championship Game. That has hurt your teams as much as it has helped as far as reaching the playoffs. And lately it is hurting more and will continue to hurt more, considering there are 12 teams in the playoffs now instead of two or four and about to be 14 or 16 in 2026.
It’s easier to get in the playoffs now, so the SEC title game is not needed. When it was two or four, it made sense. Now, it’s one more often unnecessary game to have to survive before the real playoffs. It was a bridge to the playoffs, yes. But the bridge has been crossed. Yes, it makes the SEC a lot of money, but the SEC could make up that money by putting more teams in the playoffs, which would happen more without an SEC title.
But Sankey doesn’t want to talk about that. He did talk about playing nine games – sort of.
“There’s a segment who says, ‘You know what, we’ll play the games.’ We’re going to be successful and we’ll be fine,” Sankey said. “You’re taking a game per week of non-conference games, where there could be 16, boiling that down to eight if you go to nine. We need some clarity around CFP direction, though. I think that becomes the most prominent issue on the list of evaluation points.”
Greg Sankey needs some clarity around his speaking direction. In other words, what is he talking about? It is getting harder and harder to dissect what he’s saying. He too often doesn’t speak English and sounds more hellbent on parliamentary procedure than getting anything specific said or done.
Remember, much of his work before becoming SEC commissioner in 2015 was with NCAA compliance. Perhaps this is where he learned all the mumbo-jumbo and delays.
What Sankey needs to remember is that the Big Ten and Petitti has most of The Hand now, as George Castanza would say. And as Brian Kelly said Wednesday.
“Look, the Big Ten right now holds it on the SEC,” Kelly said factually and candidly. And you know that rankled Sankey’s suit.
“They won the last two national championships, OK,” Kelly rankled on. “That’s the reality of it.”
And if the Big Ten wants nine games, it should get nine games. The Big Ten is bigger than the SEC in football, and has been better the last two seasons. It also has two more programs with 18, and most of those have significantly higher enrollment than in the SEC. The Big Ten is also in bigger cities for the most part with more population and money.
And the Big Ten coffers have for decades doled out more profit money annually to its member institutions than the SEC.
And Tony Petitti, the former chief operating officer of Major League Baseball, has long moved in bigger circles than Sankey.
The SEC and Sankey are just going to have swallow their egos and go along with what the Big Ten wants at times on a variety of issues, if it is going to do what’s best for the SEC.
But as usual, Sankey is pushing things down the beach. He said early this week that he doubted a scheduling plan would be decided upon for 2026 by the end of this week. So, what are you doing here other than talking?
“It’s like an algebra problem,” Woodward said. “There are multiple factors.”
And if you really do the math, there are too many meetings. Sankey’s next meeting should be with only Petitti, and he needs to make some decisions quick before Petitti beats him again.
Because, at the moment, the Big Ten just means more.
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