Greg Sankey doesn’t see the need for a college football commissioner.
In the current era of college football with NIL, the transfer portal, and conference realignment, many have speculated about adding a commissioner over all of college football, similar to Roger Goodell in the NFL.
Sankey has been suggested to fill the hypothetical role, but the commissioner is making it known he doesn’t endorse the sport having a commissioner
During a recent appearance on the Triple Option podcast, Sankey said he didn’t want to “dumb down” the SEC by centralizing power in CFB.
“I’ve studied it a little bit and I come back to, I don’t want to dumb down the Southeastern Conference to be a part of some super league notion with 70 teams that some people speculate would happen,” Sankey said. “They want to be us and that’s on them to figure it out, not on me to bring myself back to earth.”
SEC commish Greg Sankey on the idea of a CFB commissioner: “I’ve studied it a little bit, and I come back to I don’t want to dumb down the Southeastern Conference to be a part of some super league notion with 70 teams that some people speculate would happen. They want to be us,… pic.twitter.com/m972PjgIwQ
— Brandon Marcello (@bmarcello) October 2, 2024
College football is undoubtedly changing, but Sankey thinks there are more important issues to focus on that adding a commissioner wouldn’t solve.
“I think there’s probably more of that [commissioner] possibility happening now because of the disdain for what’s happened in some compartments, but just having a commissioner wouldn’t solve the transfer portal and legalities around that,” Sankey said. “It wouldn’t solve the name, image and likeness issues. It wouldn’t resolve lawsuits. So we have to deal with what’s in front of us.”
It’s no surprise that Sankey feels this way. The SEC has been recording record profits, and forming a super conference would likely hurt the bottom line for Sankey’s conference.
As more and more teams switch conferences, this topic will keep reappearing. However, Sankey is making it clear that he’s not on board.
Bryce Lazenby covers college football for Saturday Down South. A Nashville native, his previous stops include FanSided, Dimers, and The Leaf-Chronicle.
