HOOVER — Greg Sankey had plenty of jokes on Monday.
The Southeastern Conference Commissioner had some fun at the expense of the media when discussing future SEC Media Days sites during his state of the union address on Monday.
“I am please announce it will be in Las Vegas,” Sankey dryly said on the second floor of the Hyatt Regency Birmingham-Wynfrey Hotel. “Just kidding.”
Sankey said he made the joke to “make sure we were paying attention.”
The SEC Commissioner did make the announcement that SEC Media Days will be on the move the next two years.
“I am pleased to announced SEC Football Media Days in 2020 will return to Atlanta to the Chick-Fil-A College Football Hall of Fame,” Sankey said. “Media Days will stay on the move in 2021 at a new destination, as we head to Music City and the new Grand Hyatt Nashville.”
From 1985 to 2017, SEC Media Days were held every year in the Birmingham-Hoover area. That all changed in 2018 when it was held at the College Football Hall of Fame/Omni Hotel in Atlanta where it returns in 2020.
Sankey took a far more serious tone when it came to sports gambling.
“We are mindful of the changing dynamics being presented to our conference and to all of college sports,” Sankey said. “The SEC Presidents and Chancellors have expressed strong support for NCAA national office efforts to seek federal legislation that will regulate sports gambling.”
Sankey further added, “Ideally, there would be uniformed practices applicable across states throughout the country governing gambling on college sports, particularly eliminating specific in-game betting and proposition bets on college sports.”
Sankey kept a serious tone when it came to officiating, including the conference deciding to add a sideline monitor to its replay review process and launching a website (SECsports.com/officiating) giving the public information about the league’s officiating. The SEC Commissioner did try to keep things light when it came to two incidents involving officials from last season.
The first was referring to the brawl between Mississippi State and Ole Miss during last year’s Egg Bowl rivalry game (which saw four players ejected) as a “flagrant personal fouls” instead of a fight as the reporter framed it.
Sankey further stated that he and the athletic directors of both schools though have had “healthy conversations.”
Sankey then responded to a question about targeting, in particular the controversial call on LSU linebacker Devin White from last season that caused him to miss the first half of the following Alabama game.
Sankey simply said, “I hadn’t heard about the controversy.”
Sankey though did quickly further elaborate in a far more serious tone about the rule.
“The reality of targeting is it’s a well-intended rule that is difficult to officiate and controversial even when applied correctly, which we communicated on that play,” Sankey said. “It was in fact, by rule, applied correctly. That doesn’t mean it’s not controversial. I am encouraged by the willingness to update the rule of the year. Because we had one of those conflicts. It seemed, where the charge to the official on the field is, when in doubt, you put the flag down.”