Tim Brando is a longtime broadcaster and one of the leading college football broadcasters for FOX. On Monday, he reacted to the SEC’s decision to play 8 league games during the 2024 season.

In an interview for Crain & Company, Brando shredded SEC commissioner Greg Sankey for his appearance at the league’s spring meetings. Brando particularly noted Sankey “did not look like a commissioner” while at the spring meetings due to Sankey’s unwillingness to publicly comment on a desire to move to a 9-game conference schedule.

“He did not look like a commissioner last week in Destin. Look, if you’re telling me this guy’s the most powerful man in college football, I have great expectations,” said Brando. “And Greg Sankey is a good man. He wants to play 9 games, but he won’t even say it publicly. He wanted 9 games and everybody knew it.”

Brando even directed his rant at Paul Finebaum, saying the SEC Network host would not ask direct questions of Sankey “for fear (Finebaum’s) Bat-phone was going to ring.” At the end of the day, Brando claims the decision over the SEC schedule came down to the league’s media deal with ESPN and a desire from the SEC presidents to get more money out of the network.

According to Brando, that deal with ESPN was a misstep by Sankey as a deal that was done too early by the SEC.

“I couldn’t get over the frothing at the mouth that was going on on Finebaum’s show, because Paul couldn’t ask the direct questions either for fear his Bat-phone was going to ring,” said Brando. “So he’s asking all these guys from websites to tell him what he already knew. And that is the SEC presidents had their hand out wanting more money from ESPN. Why should ESPN pay them more money? They have a $300 million deal… Are you kidding me? Here’s what happened and no one wants to say this: He made that television deal too early.”

It’s not every day you see a broadcaster include a fellow media member in scathing remarks like Brando’s. Then again, with Brando working for FOX and Finebaum a member of ESPN, this could simply be a case of rival networks clashing publicly.

We’ll see if Finebaum delivers any sort of response on social media or via The Paul Finebaum Show later on.

Here’s the clip of Brando’s comments from his Crain & Company appearance:

Main photo via Crain & Company (@CrainCompany) video on Twitter.