Greg Sankey on possible expansion, Texas joining SEC

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey kicked off the SEC Media Days with an opening press conference, answering questions about possible conference expansion and what it means to have Texas join the conference. Hear his answers as Craig and Cam are joined by Mike Hardge live from the SEC Media Days!

Episode Transcript

(00:05):
It's the Craig Way Show with thevoice of the Texas Longhorns in Hall of
Fame broadcast here Craig Way, allright, continue here from Big Twelve Media
Days. Excuse me, SEC Mediais. I had to get that one
out of the way there. Sowe were just talking about with Greg McClory

(00:26):
about the SEC versus Big Twelve.So, uh here at SEC Football Media
Days. All right, So MikeCars, let me ask you something here
before we hear from the commission.The other big thing. What's going on
in this area? Uh? MajorLeague Baseball's All Star Game is tomorrow night.
The home run Derby is going ontonight. This morning, I heard

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you on Hard Jannock's Life. Youwere you're all fired up for Adolis Carcia,
right, Yes, that would bemy guy. It's a hometown pick.
It's somebody that understands the ballpark toits fullest. He takes VP here
every day, so he might knowcertain areas to drive the ball. He's
gonna have his picture that is herewith him, so he's in a good
spot. So we'll just see what'shappening. Another player that I'm excited to

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see is Bobby wid Junior, obviouslybeing back in the area as father being
a former pitcher here at for theTexas Rangers, and it's an important time
for baseball to be able to showcasesome of these young stars. Thirty four
first time All Stars moving into it. This is something that is trying to

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change the dynamic of Professional Baseball MPURanger fans Corey Scheeger got added to the
roster yesterday. There you go,so there's more Texas Rangers. Representation of
the All Star Game itself is tomorrownight. There are those of us who
are still trying to wrangle away toget the tickets to and we'll see how

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that all works out. Should havefilled out our media national probably should have.
The SEC Football Media Days began thismorning with the Commissioner Greg Sanki,
and among the questions he was asked, he was asked by a local television
sports reporter here in Dallas about whatwas the motivation about getting this event to

(02:21):
Dallas as it was just Texas andOklahoma's eventual entry into the league, and
what do those two teams bring tothe party. All of that on the
table, asked of the Commissioner Gregsanking A few things. One we actually
made an effort to move here intwenty eighteen with media days, thought that
Dallas might be the right first place. We have an incredible alumni population in

(02:46):
the metroplex, and we did someresearch on that back to twenty eighteen.
I didn't have to go back andconduct that research again. It's one of
the most accessible cities in the country. The variety of ways you can travel
here allows you to run a fifteenK and Munich in New York and be
here for dinner by the end ofa Sunday, like I did yesterday.

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Our move in twenty eighteen was arecognition that we had moved west with Missouri
and Texas A and m with theborder states in Arkansas and Louisiana with LSU
made it sense not just to beat one if we're not going to be
If we're going to be at morethan one location, how do you touch
the perimeters. We had a basketballtournament in Saint Louis, Missouri, back

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in twenty eighteen, if I hadmy dates right, and so we were
used to that movement. We've hadthree years to prepare for expansion, which
is I think a record a longtime. And as we went through the
expansion that made Western events more andmore important for us, and we pretty
quickly decided to move media days.We looked at Houston, looked at Dallas,

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where the two that were our biggestfocus here the transition from No Carman
the Columbia Missouri Fayetteville, Arkansas Collegestation in Austin, Texas. You know
that movement's really easy, and weare a big part of Texas. Texas
is a big part of us now. I've always seen coaches traveling here during

(04:14):
my own travel. We've had abold game affiliation here for a long long
time, and all of those relationshipscombined to make it the right move for
us. And I encourage you tohave fun fitting that into a small sound
bite. Yeah, okay. Iencourage you, commissioner, to try to
find a quick way to get fromColumbia, Missouri to Dallas. It's not
like it's the easiest thing in theworld. You're either driving one hundred and

(04:38):
twenty miles to Saint Louis or onehundred and twenty five to Kansas City,
where you catching a commuter puddle jumperand changing planes in either of those two,
or you're driving nine hours. Soit's not like it's next door,
but I understand his point. TwoMissouri to birmingham's farther or in the case

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of next year, which he announcedAtlanta, and no big surprise there that
it's going back to Atlanta with aCollege Football Hall of Fame there and all
that they went, they went,They went Atlanta, Birmingham, Nashville,
Dallas, and now it's going backto Atlanta next year. So no big,
no big surprise there. I figuredfirst year getting Texas in uh at

(05:23):
Oklahoma in it's a good welcome into have it here. And like he
said, he's not that far fromArkansas or Oklahoma or A and M.
Thank you should be coming to you. Four directions that should be that should
be a thing here. Now he'sprobably taking a private jet to the most
stops, but on the road heneeds to go to you. Let's hear
some more from the commission he wasasking them. These were there were a

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sequence of three consecutive questions asked himabout the specter of conference expansion. This
started from a question about the schoolsfrom the ACC, exploring legal aviat news
and possibly getting out of the ACCto move forward to whether it be the

(06:05):
SEC or the big ten or youknow, wherever it might be. And
so he was asked about if he'sfollowing the Florida Florida State Clemson situation closely
in the ACC and what are theramifications if they are successful in leaving.
I pay attention. As I said, we're focused on our sixteen. I've

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said before in media days, I'mnot a recruiter. My job is to
make sure we meet the standard ofexcellence that we have for ourselves on a
daily basis that attracts interest. It'sdone that with the two universities that we've
added this year. They're not theonly phone calls I've ever had. But
I'm not involved in recruitment. Ourpresidents have been clear that I am not

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going to entangle us in litigation aroundexpansion, and so I pay attention,
but I'm not engaged in those conversations. In fact, as I understand,
you know, the issue is agreementshave been signed, the decisions have been
made among a conference, and thequestion is are those going to be honored
as they've they as they were established, And apparently that's for a court to

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decide. Now the broader implications obviously, if things change, then there's a
new level of uncertainty. It alreadycreates speculation that I think is counterproductive.
But I don't spend an enormous amountof my time thinking about it. I
certainly don't spend any time engaged inthat recruiting activity because we're focused on our

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sixteen and I want to be respectfulof the difficulty that's currently faced with that
issue, that set of issues withinthe ACC. And my colleague Jim Phillips,
all right, So there was that, and then the very next question
was, since we're talking about thepossibility of those cools where they were going
to try to opt out of theACC or whatever, would the SEC consider

(08:05):
the movement on outside the Southeastern realm? Because he did say in this opening
twenty seven minute address to open thething that he was they liked the footprint
of the SEC of the sixteen inthe southeastern portion of the United States,
and really even adding Oklahoma, Texasonly added one hundred miles to the longest

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commute for any school to play inan SEC opponent. So he was quite
proud of that. So you canimagine what his answer was going to be
when he was asked would they considerbranching out of the Southeast region to add
more schools. We're focused on oursixteen period. You've seen how we've made

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decisions over the last decade plus forcontiguous states to join. I think that's
incredibly wise, provides remarkable strength,and I'm not going to guess about what
happens next. Okay. So thenthere was another question Andrea Adelson of ESPN,

(09:11):
who I really like her work.I found it interesting hearts that she
talked about. There was a hemade a statement in that twenty seven minute
address that sixteen is our is ourtoday, sixteen is our tomorrow. Tomorrow

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can be a nebulous term. Doestomorrow mean July the sixteenth, or does
it mean July the sixteenth of twentythirty six? What does tomorrow mean?
And so he was asked what exactlydid he mean about sixteen is our today
and sixteen is our tomorrow. Sothe last three questions are part of the

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reality, which is I've responded nowthree times where our focus lies. Our
focus is on our sixteen members.I have a responsibility to pay attention and
I'm certainly not going to fuel speculationon what happens next. We can certainly
remain at sixteen for a long longtime and be incredibly successful. That was

(10:16):
something I tweeted out there that hehad said we could remain at sixteen and
be very successful there for the future. So uh, we'll agree more.
Yeah. So I mean you sitback and you look at it. The
options now is everybody's looking. Hesaid, I'm not a recruiter, that's
not my job. But if somethingwere to come up in a situation it's

(10:37):
presented properly, then anything can happeninto it. There was a lot of
things in speculations before Texas and Oklahomagot into it. For what we knew,
they were headed toward the PAC twelve. Yep. Now they're in the
sec in life and they're now notlooking back. So there will be some
options if other people decide that they'regoing to make moves. We talked about

(10:58):
it before, Craig. There's onlytwo teams in the PAC twelfth. Two.
There has to be something to givebecause there's nothing there, yep.
So there's gonna have to be someadjustments one more time, and I believe
it is gonna happen sooner than later. I like how they kept their bowl
alignment so they get to play inthree bowl games. Apiece, you know

(11:20):
something like that, all right,coming up? We do have inconceivable even
from here. Uh so we'll havethat coming up, and uh well,
we'll hear more in the three o'clockhour. Like I said, Kayo Gundy
from the Animal in Oklahoma City andthe former Oklahoma Sooners quarterback. We'll get

(11:41):
his thoughts on the who Oklahoma viewpointof all of this, his perspective on
Oklahoma being involved in this move andwhat it means for UH Sooner athletics and
Sooner football and specific we'll hear fromhim about that. So we've got a
lot more still to come as wecontinue here from SEC Football Media Days here

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in Dallas on sports Radio AM thirteenunder the Zone and the iHeartRadio app.