Greg Sankey kicked off the week as he does every year with his State of the Union for the SEC. This year’s transcript was a little different than years past. There was plenty of boasting about the accomplishments from the last calendar year in the conference.
The SEC won a conference record 13 team national championships (out of 22 total sports). The previous record for the league was 10. He also pointed out the television numbers, as the SEC became the second most watched sports property in television trailing only the NFL.
Still, the tone of the speech was different than it’s been in the past and felt much more subdued. Sankey was playing with house money for a while with these speeches when the SEC was winning football national titles every year. The three-year drought and the overwhelming amount of issues facing college sports felt like a bit of black cloud hanging over him.
It’s easy to fill 30 minutes of material when you’re on top. Which, for what it’s worth, is still where the SEC is according to Sankey. His 2026 speech was focused on finding solutions to problems that are reaching a tipping point that could fracture the sport forever. That’s not hyperbole. That’s the genuine feeling you got after hearing him talk.
Imagine someone told you five years ago that Greg Sankey would spend a third of his annual address urging Congress to step in and help save college sports.
“One of our greatest responsibilities is to establish a sustainable national framework for college athletics,” Sankey said. “The changes we’ve suggested are both achievable and reasonable. There are four principles that should guide this effort. The first is about national standards that would be enforceable. Second, the framework should be truly national. It should replace the patchwork of state laws. Third, transparency and accountability are essential. NIL rules are only effective if they can be enforced. Fourth, federal law should establish consistent standards (for each conference).”
There was a palpable sense of growing frustration from Sankey. Everyone is exhausted. And, everyone is without a clear direction of where to point the finger. YYou get the sense that three straight years without a national championship have caused people to question the SEC’s leadership and its ability to solve college sports’ biggest problems.
That’s wild considering six years ago Sankey’s leadership was the primary reason we had a college football season at all during COVID. It wasn’t as if Sankey was less poignant or correct in any of his points he made. It just felt less powerful.
After the talk about Congress and our favorite sport being run into the ground from the lack of leadership in it, he answered questions.
Auburn media immediately jumped at the opportunity to bring up officiating. Tell us you’re not over the Oklahoma and Georgia games without telling us you’re not over the Oklahoma and Georgia games. The frustration over SEC officiating isn’t limited to Auburn fans, by any means. It’s a constant issue with actual validity that needs improving. The questions were fair, but they were proposed in a vacuum about football.
Sankey was quick to point out how innovative and ahead of the curve the SEC has been in regards to transparency with the introduction of the ABS system at the SEC baseball tournament.
