“From 14 deep to 16 strong.”
A video presentation rang out these words to describe the additions of the Texas Longhorns and the Oklahoma Sooners to the Southeastern Conference at the beginning of the 2024 SEC Football Media Days in Dallas, Texas.
Shortly thereafter, inside the Omni Dallas Hotel, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey took to the podium to give his annual address to begin the media day event and describe the accolades, progress, and future plans of the league.
“16 is our today and 16 is our tomorrow,” Sankey described about the aforementioned additions. He doubled down, even when asked about the possibility of future expansion beyond the borders of the Southeast portion of the United States.
“We’re focused on our 16.”
Sankey also mentioned the regionality of the league as a positive, especially given the departure from that model within many of the other conferences around the country after the most recent round of realignment.
“We know who we are, and the Southeastern Conference, we’re the one conference at this level where the name still means something, the southeastern part of the United States, where when we expanded, we actually restored historic rivalries while adding only 100 miles to the longest campus-to-campus trip our student-athletes will experience.”
While it is clear that Sankey is confident in the current status of the league, he did reference the need for change across the board in collegiate athletics.
“It’s time to update your expectations for what college athletics can be,” Sankey stated about the vastly different environment of today.
“We as leaders are responsible for navigating what really are for us in college sports uncharted waters of change,” he added.
Some of those changes are fairly simple. For instance, he announced that the conference will be partnering with Apple to bring iPad usage to the sidelines. That will allow players and coaches to better utilize in-game video, and improve the performance of student-athletes, Sankey suggested.
Other changes, however, are more complex. Sankey acknowledged how difficult it is to compete, win, and succeed with the expectations and ever-changing climate that schools, coaches, and players have to operate in.
“We’re doing so at a time when the pressures to recruit, to win, to draw people in are just as high as they’ve ever been, but we’ve added a set of external factors, the litigation that presses in, state-level legislation, conversations with Congress, and the emergence of the next great idea that is sold or pitched as something that will quickly and fully resolve the issues currently faced in college sports,” Sankey said to describe some of these challenges.
Despite all of the challenges and change associated with college football, it is clear that Sankey still feels that the sport can bring great moments to the fans, players, and media associated with it.
“On Saturdays in this country, for decade after decade, people come together.”
And while change continues to happen, Sankey and his conference seem hopeful that they can continue to make Saturdays in the fall a place for people to join each other.
ESPN Southwest Louisiana’s SEC Media Days coverage is presented by Beal & Hebert.