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Greg Sankey relishing Texas’s, SEC’s underdog status at Cotton Bowl: ‘It’s refreshing’
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Greg Sankey isn’t used to this.
The 60-year-old has been the commissioner of the SEC for a decade, and it’s mostly been a decade of decadence for the conference in football. Of course, the SEC’s football dominance stretches back long before Sankey took the job. But few very times during his tenure has Sankey attended a big football game that involved an SEC team that wasn’t the favorite — or even a big favorite.
Well, count Friday night in Arlington, Texas, as one of those rare instances.
Texas was about a +6.5 underdog against Ohio State as the second semifinal of the College Football Playoff kicked off. Forget about an SEC team getting to the national title game and taking down Notre Dame. In this case, oddsmakers don’t believe the Longhorns will still be around on Jan. 20 to face the Fighting Irish. Instead, they believe red-hot Ohio State will continue its Playoff run right into the title game in Atlanta.
And Sankey loves the doubt.
Sankey was on the Texas sideline before the game began and told ESPN’s Pete Thamel with a smile: “I relish being the underdog again. It’s refreshing. We enjoy being under-estimated.”
By the time the dust settles on Friday night, we’ll know how much the Longhorns themselves took their underdog status to heart, playing in their home state no less. But clearly Sankey is enjoying the different view of things for his perennial powerhouse conference.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
