Greg Sankey has introduced a new SEC logo just in time for the start of the new college football season.
The commissioner of the SEC and arguably the most influential man in college football posted an updated conference logo on his Twitter page Thursday night with a caption, “Greetings from That Other Conference.” This was a not-so-subtle nod at comments made by Penn State head coach James Franklin at Big Ten Media Days on Wednesday.
Franklin, speaking about his perceived need for schedule uniformity throughout major college football, referred to the SEC as “that other conference” rather than directly calling out the league by name. Maybe that was purely benign. But Franklin did it enough to erode whatever plausible deniability may have existed. Either way, Sankey took advantage of the moment to score some points.
At the heart of the current SEC-Big Ten quarrel is what to do with the College Football Playoff.
Alabama (along with Ole Miss and South Carolina) were left on the outside looking in on last year’s 12-team field in favor of an 11-win Indiana team that was soundly and summarily stomped by the 2 best teams it played. SEC coaches this spring expressed support for an expanded Playoff that featured a 5+11 model. The Big Ten wants 4 guaranteed spots for itself and for the SEC.
At Big Ten Media Days in Vegas this week, league coaches championed commissioner Tony Petitti and pointed to consecutive national championships won by the Big Ten. At SEC Media Days in Atlanta last week, coaches regularly spoke about how grueling the SEC schedule is.
On Wednesday, Franklin referred to the SEC as “that other conference” on more than one occasion, perhaps underscoring an air of contempt for the SEC that runs through the Big Ten’s coaching fraternity.
“That other conference, when they have their [spring] meetings, there’s essentially a press conference every single day at the end of the meetings,” Franklin said. “It keeps people talking about that conference at a time of the year that makes them relevant. We’re not doing that.”
Surely Sankey got a nice laugh out of that.
Now, he just needs to commit to the bit. Make “TOC” the official Week 1 jersey patch. Imagine the theater if Texas walked into the house of the reigning national champ and won with a troll job stitched onto its jersey.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
