The SEC spring meetings concluded Thursday, and it’s safe to say more questions remain than have been answered.
You didn’t expect this whole mess would be cleaned up in 3 or so days, did you?
There’s a lot to talk about, so let’s just jump right in. Here are 5 things we learned from this year’s SEC spring meetings in Miramar Beach, Florida.
1. Can’t spell ‘secession’ without S-E-C
Perhaps the most intriguing quote to come out of Miramar Beach this weekend was uttered by Georgia head coach Kirby Smart. Here it is:
“I’ve been a huge advocate that if we can’t find rules that everybody plays by, then we should play our own,” Smart said. “I’m not afraid of that. I’m not afraid to break away and say that our conference is strong enough to go out and play. If we could actually function financially, it would make our programs more stable. We could support things financially. I’m talking about all the sports and do our own rules — I’d be all for that.”
That’s quite the statement. Smart was far from the only coach, athletic director or president entertaining this line of thought, too.
Georgia president Jere Morehead said the system is “close to anarchy,” arguing a sentiment shared by many at the meetings who feel the Wild, Wild West approach to athlete compensation and transfer portal prevalence has reached an unsustainable level.
If this week’s spring meetings told us anything, it’s that the SEC appears unafraid to make a change if the league’s members feel it’s necessary. That could mean breaking away from the NCAA altogether or focusing on self-governance for rule-making and enforcement while remaining a member.
Tennessee Chancellor Donde Plowman, for example, is of the opinion that the SEC needs to start by focusing on itself if no congressional help is agreed upon soon.
“The first thing we start with is governing ourselves and not worry about what other leagues are doing and establish what we think is right,” Plowman told Yahoo! Sports on Thursday. “I’m not afraid to look at collective bargaining. If we don’t get help from Congress, that will be out there.”
2. The SEC is (still) against pooling media rights
The “help from congress” Plowman refers to most recently comes in the form of the Protect College Sports Act, revealed this week by Senators Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell.
The bill aims to provide much needed regulation by admitting student athletes one transfer per career, introducing the “Lane Kiffin rule,” which prohibits coaches from leaving or being hired during the regular season and many, many more proposals. Notably, among these proposals lies the option to pool media rights if 75% of 138 FBS schools agree.
The SEC, simply stated, is not a fan of that last idea.
Here’s the statement SEC presidents and chancellors released regarding the proposal, which essentially says, “we appreciate any attempt to regulate this mess, but we’re not turning our media rights over to a third-party.”
While distributing the statement to reporters on-location, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey added, “Those who advocate [for pooling rights] have represented things to me about how revenue would be distributed generally, and I think they have no idea how hard those conversations would be. No idea.”
3. A 16-team CFP format remains the preference, but the league isn’t in lockstep
Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko gave an answer that was surprisingly candid on Wednesday. I use the word “surprisingly” not to discredit Elko, but because his answer was so far from the typical response to the question.
When asked about his preference for College Football Playoff expansion, Elko replied by saying he’d like to see the Playoff expand to 40 teams, because if that were the case he’d never get fired. “None of us are answering for the good of the sport,” he added. “We’re answering for the good of ourselves.”
Keep that in mind when sorting through some of the stances from this week.
The Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC have all made it clear they prefer 24-team CFP expansion. Opinions around the SEC were varied.
For some, expansion is long overdue.
According to Florida head coach Jon Sumrall, some coaches reportedly felt misled by the addition of an extra conference game when that 9-game schedule was not paired with expansion to a 16-team Playoff this year. Because of this, the SEC is almost certain to take a hit as 8 teams across the conference add a guaranteed loss in place of a near-guaranteed win from a non-conference buy game.
When meetings concluded on Thursday, Sankey told reporters no official decisions or votes were taken on CFP expansion. His comment reaffirmed a statement he made on Wednesday:
“No decisions have been made, so we default to where we’ve been, which is 16.”
4. Sankey: ‘This league stands alone’
The SEC certainly does not lack confidence, but it remains to be seen if that confidence is good for the sport of college football — or for the SEC itself.
When asked about the current state of the conference when compared against the Big Ten on Tuesday, Sankey pointed to the league’s depth as the catalyst for the SEC being the “most competitive, strongest (conference) in football by far.”
“This league stands alone,” he added.
While Sankey was raked over the coals for this comment online, it’s a pretty fair statement.
The Big Ten owns 3 straight football titles and currently boasts the best of the best in the sport, but the league is top-heavy while the SEC is more balanced. From a talent perspective, NFL GMs drafted 87 former SEC stars compared to 68 former Big Ten stars in 2026.
Three Big Ten teams reached the Playoff last season compared to 5 SEC teams. A hypothetical 16-team Playoff last season, simply taking the next 4 in the final CFP poll, would have included 2 more; Texas and Vanderbilt alongside Notre Dame and BYU.
5. Cupcake Weekend is no more
Cupcake Weekend lies smashed and broken in front of us, and I can’t imagine too many are sad to see it go.
The penultimate weekend of the regular season, a spot on the calendar where SEC teams typically schedule G5 or FCS teams, will now look a little different. The league’s athletic directors voted to play conference games during this week moving forward amid the implementation of a 9-game conference schedule.
“That’s the end of Cupcake Weekend,” Sankey said, smiling.
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Ethan Stone is a Tennessee graduate and loves all things college football and college basketball. Firm believer in fouling while up 3.
