Greg Sankey takes shot at non-contiguous Big Ten during SEC Media Days

Greg Sankey saw what the Big Ten did alright and took at shot at them during SEC Media Days.

While the Big Ten sought to be a nationwide conference with the additions of USC and UCLA, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey sees his contiguous conference being at a place of strength during the first day of SEC Media Days 2022.

The SEC is expanding from 14 teams to 16 once Oklahoma and Texas arrive, hopefully sooner than 2025. Though an earlier departure from the Big 12 is not up to him, Sankey does take great pride in all of his league’s member institutions being geographically and philosophically aligned. If your school is below The Mason-Dixon Line and prioritizes college athletics, you are in the right place.

Sankey does not see this as a time to panic, as the SEC is not experiencing an identity crisis: “We know who we are.

Texas was already in the SEC’s geographical footprint after last decade’s expansion efforts to include Texas A&M, as well as Missouri. Oklahoma shares a southern border with Texas along something known as the Red River.

Interestingly enough, if we are entering the age of two mega conferences, what other contiguous states’ schools could be joining the SEC in due time?

Greg Sankey takes a not-so-subtle shot at Big Ten during SEC Media Days

The SEC has so many things going for it. Not only does it have an elite television partner in Disney (ABC, ESPN, SEC Network), but the best high school prospects typically hail from its region. With pro sports not making it to the south until the late 1960s, the passion behind SEC football is unrivaled in North American sports. The only real equivalent would be the English Premier League.

As far as potential expansion beyond 16 teams in the SEC footprint, keep an eye on the usual suspects (Clemson, Florida State, etc.), as well as adjacent states with major college athletics (North Carolina, Virginia, etc.). Adding the North Carolina Tar Heels could be massive. You would get all of Charlotte, as well as the research triangle in nearby Raleigh. Virginia has teams as well.

And you want to get really crazy, adding the likes of Oklahoma State, Nebraska and West Virginia to an already football-bonkers conference would set up the zaniest game of College Football Risk you will ever see. Regardless, Sankey and the SEC will remain methodical in how it best positions itself for future expansion efforts. For the time being, Sankey and company hold all the cards here.

The amount of cash the SEC will be able to print after adding Oklahoma and Texas will be absurd.

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