ATLANTA — It’s good to be back.

Back in Atlanta, back at SEC Media Days and back talking about actual football.

Oh, wait. There wasn’t a whole lot of that Monday at the College Football Hall of Fame. There were seemingly far more discussions about NIL, realignment, the transfer portal and all of the other changing parts in the sport.

To be fair, it’d be weird if we were talking about Mizzou’s 2-deep instead of discussing if the sport is doomed because of billion-dollar TV contracts. It makes sense that Brian Kelly wasn’t fielding a million questions about his starting guards when we’ve got questions about Congress regulating NIL.

It’s serious business. Well, most of the time.

My SDS colleague Chris Marler did fire this question at Kelly about his “Southern” accent.

And I asked Lane Kiffin about how frequently he signs mustard bottles these days (he signed one while he was in Atlanta and added that golf balls were also in the rotation of autographed items).

Yeah. Serious business only.

Here’s everything (else) that I found to be interesting on Day 1 of SEC Media Days:

Greg Sankey wants you to know how little he cares about the Big Ten’s moves

We knew that the SEC commissioner was going to be asked about expansion. Sankey shared that he was at his lake house when he got the news last month that the Big Ten was adding USC and UCLA. “So much for summer vacation,” Sankey joked.

What we didn’t necessarily know was how strong of a stance the SEC commissioner was gonna take when it came to discussing more expansion in the near future. Not surprisingly, Sankey didn’t mince words.

“There’s no sense of urgency in our league, no panic and reaction to others’ decisions,” Sankey said. “We know who we are. We are confident in our collective strength, and we are uniquely positioned to continue to provide remarkable experiences, educationally and athletically, along with world-class support to student-athletes.”

This wasn’t necessarily a stunning development. Our own Matt Hayes broke the news last week that the SEC planned on staying at 16.

Let’s think about why that would make sense. As of right now, the ACC schools are locked into the conference until 2036 as long as the grant of rights contract exists. Who would the SEC ideally add? Ideally, programs like Clemson, Florida State, Miami and UNC would be at least part of that conversation. As of now, they don’t have anywhere to go. Hence, Sankey’s stance.

Sankey later used the word “panic” again when asked about potential expansion.

“Again, we’re comfortable at 16. There’s no sense of urgency, no sense of panic. We’re not just shooting for a number of affiliations that make us better. Could they be out there? I would never say they’re not. I would never say that we will.”

Ah, and there’s the key caveat. The door for expansion isn’t slammed shut long-term. That’s a different conversation than what the Big Ten did, which was reacting strictly because the SEC added Oklahoma and Texas.

For now, though, it appears the SEC’s expansion plans are on the back burner.

Brian Kelly can deny his Alabama realization all he wants … but there’s some truth in there

When Kelly left Notre Dame for a 9-figure deal at LSU, dots were connected. As in, he couldn’t get over the hump with the talent that he had in South Bend — coaching a program with 2 wins against AP Top 5 teams since 1999 — so he left for a place with more talent and resources.

Kelly was asked Monday about whether losing to Alabama in the title game in 2012 and in the Playoff semifinal in 2020 impacted his decision to leave.

“That wasn’t part of my decision-making,” Kelly said Monday. “Those were really good teams. They both won the national championship. I thought we played Alabama better than anybody in that last Playoff. Their talent was unbelievable on the offensive side of the ball that year. So that wasn’t like, ‘I’m taking the LSU job, Alabama is so much better than us.’ That was not part of the process for me.

“It was timing. It was this place at LSU. It was the administration and the opportunity to bring this program back. It really had nothing to do with the Alabama game.”

OK, sure. Maybe it wasn’t specifically the Alabama game that served as the epiphany or that “aha” moment. Lord knows Kelly had no shortage of frustrating run-ins with elite foes. Since 1999, Notre Dame has those 2 wins vs. AP Top 5 teams … compared to 21 losses … 14 of which were by at least 3 scores. One of those was obviously the 31-14 loss to Alabama in the 2020 semifinals.

Still, though. Kelly is one of the winningest coaches in college football history who is on the other side of 60. Any ounce of truth serum would reveal that Kelly’s reasoning for leaving Notre Dame for LSU was rooted in his desire to win his first national title.

Brian Kelly is focused on other things than Notre Dame joining a conference

I bet the new LSU coach thought that he’d escape questions about the Irish at SEC Media Days. To quote the great Lee Corso, “not so fast.”

Kelly was asked about whether he thinks Notre Dame will remain an independent.

“It’s probably not been high on my list of things to think about,” Kelly said. “I’ve been trying to correct a slice for the last couple of weeks, and I haven’t had much success with that. So I’m going to go back to my day job.”

Kelly added that Notre Dame “is still is a coveted university in terms of what conference would want them,” and that athletic director Jack Swarbrick “knows what he’s doing.”

Kelly knows what he’s doing in avoiding that question. Surely he mastered that better than his slice.

OK, you don’t care about Kelly’s golf game. Moving along.

(CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd reported on Monday that Notre Dame is targeting at least $75 million annually in media rights revenue from NBC to remain an independent. In other words, stay tuned for updates on that from non-Kelly sources.)

Lane Kiffin probably delivered the best jab of the day, and it came at the expense of the Big Ten

If you weren’t listening closely, you might’ve missed what the Ole Miss coach said in regards to his former USC squad joining the Big Ten and the transition that awaits them, as well as UCLA, Oklahoma and Texas.

“I mean, I just say how it is. I don’t know that there’s a huge jump into the Big Ten. I think going to the SEC is a whole ‘nother animal,” Kiffin said. “I think the draft picks, national championships prove that coming out of the SEC.

“I just said, it’s a different world. Said it for a long time: The SEC just means more. And it does. It’s different, it’s ahead of the game. Now, over the last 5, 10 years, the players started coming that didn’t used to come from the Northeast and West Coast very often at all. That transition I feel like started with Alabama especially, and now they’re coming to the SEC.”

Kiffin’s right.

The Pac-12 takes the short end of the stick because it hasn’t had a Playoff team since 2016, but the Big Ten has only had 1 team win a Playoff game (Ohio State). Compare that to the point Sankey brought up. Three different SEC programs have won the past 3 national titles. And that isn’t even the conference’s most impressive feat of the 21st century because it had 4 different programs win titles from 2007-10.

USC and UCLA’s biggest transition is geographical. Texas and Oklahoma are going to a conference that has actually won a Playoff game. Kiffin is correct in his assessment that the SEC is a different kind of beast to conquer than joining a conference that had just 1 program play for a national title in the 21st century.

Eli Drinkwitz regretted the Dan Mullen “may the force be with you” troll 

I spent some time with Drinkwitz on Monday afternoon before he took to the SEC Media Days stage. I found out many things. He’s big into Eric Church and Luke Combs (don’t forget the Appalachian State connection). He’s in favor of the 3-6 model and doesn’t care about Texas getting to play South Carolina. He took a 7 1/2-week break from Diet Coke and is now down to no more than 2 cans per day.

Also? Drinkwitz regretted the way his Mullen jab played out.

In case you need a little refresher, here’s the rundown. In 2020, Dan Mullen started a brawl at halftime of the Mizzou-Florida game. He then showed up to the postgame press conference (on Halloween) rocking a Darth Vader costume. A year later, Mizzou got revenge on Florida with a dramatic, walk-off 2-point conversion. Drinkwitz then concluded his postgame press conference by flipping up his hood and dropping a “may the force be with you” line … with a lightsaber in hand.

It was a Steve Spurrier-like move. But the fact that Mullen was fired a day later didn’t sit well with Drinkwitz.

“If I had known what was gonna transpire in the next 48 hours, I would’ve never done that,” Drinkwitz told SDS.

Yeah, that makes sense. Even Florida fans had to tip their cap, though.

To be clear, Drinkwitz isn’t calling a ceasefire on good banter between SEC coaches. He longs for the days of Spurrier and Houston Nutt. He believes that SEC coaches have become “too buttoned up.” He also admitted that he avoided the prepared jabs at SEC Media Days, unlike last year, when he mentioned Mullen’s propensity for complaining.

Oh well. At the very least, we can hopefully still count on Drinkwitz to stir up the pot in a post-Mullen SEC.

Takeo Spikes is coming to your SEC living room

I reported early Monday afternoon that former Auburn great Takeo Spikes was set to replace Gene Chizik (now the defensive coordinator at UNC) as an analyst on SEC Network’s “SEC Now” and “SEC Football Final.” That news was official by day’s end.

The 1997 SEC Championship MVP has been in the media world since his 15-year NFL career closed in 2012. He was the author of Takeo Spikes Presents: Behind the Mask, which was developed into a podcast series that provided postgame analysis on all things NFL.

Spikes will replace Chizik, who had 2 separate stints with the network after it launched in 2014. From one Auburn defensive mind to another, Spikes will become a mainstay of SEC Network studio programming alongside fellow former SEC greats Chris Doering and Roman Harper.

We can only hope that Spikes brings the heat like has with his past TV appearances:

Let us not forget that during the ESPN 30 for 30 “Roll Tide/War Eagle” documentary, Spikes stared into the camera and let out the most passionate “War Eagle” in human history.  (Yes, there was another word sprinkled in there, but this is a PG website.)

Something tells me Spikes will feel right at home back in the SEC.