Greg Sankey
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey speaks during the Southeastern Conference NCAA college football media days, Monday, July 13, 2015, in Hoover, Ala. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)
(Butch Dill)
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey held an hour-long interview with reporters at the Associated Press Sports Editors Southeast region meeting at UAB this afternoon.
Sankey spoke at length about the NCAA's recent ban on satellite camps and the SEC's role in making it happen, the conference's efforts to improve in men's basketball, the SEC's "serious misconduct" policy, FCS games, controversial state legislation across the SEC footprint and more.
For Sankey's comments about satellite camps and the SEC's "serious misconduct" policy, check out AL.com's coverage of those topics.
Below are highlights excerpts from the rest of Monday's interview, which touched upon football instant replay, improving SEC men's basketball, the impact of controversial state laws in the SEC's footprint and more.
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Word association: I say 'Harbaugh,' you say?
"I move on. It is unfortunate to me because I tried to explain a timeline; it has nothing to do with another conference. It's unfortunate that this conversation has become hat specific. That's incorrect in understanding the full scope of our discussion about recruiting tours."
What are the SEC's plans for its centralized football instant replay review?
"The ability to, if you will, to centralize or collaborate is what we've said in replay is permitted only for football at the college level. If you go back into February, the football rules committee announced the ability for conferences to use that collaborative process on an experimental basis and that's very much been a conversation we're having. I'm not going to make predictions for the future yet. We have talked to other conferences, we'll continue to do so, but we are working with the idea that there is a process by which we could collaborate from a centralized location with an in-stadium replay official to seek, not perfect outcomes, but certainly the best outcomes on plays.
Who will be in charge at the central review location? SEC director of officiating Steve Shaw says he is removing himself from that process.
"We have that plan but we're working to perfect it in our workshop. A little bit of tinkering here and there and when we run to that goal line, if I can use the sports metaphor here, we'll share it, but Steve (Shaw) did make that observation, so part of our effort has to been to make sure we develop a process that allows him to fulfill his role as the overall officiating coordinator, yet provide quality collaboration on replay issues in football through some other personnel."
Is there much interest in getting rid of FCS games?
"It's a conversation piece, but we have not eliminated those. Our schedule is set up across the season, rather than toward the end, so each conference is allowed to have its scheduling philosophy. Sometimes you have to fit pieces in where there are openings to play games. There's relatively speaking a limited number of those FCS games. Some of those are quite challenging opponents, relatively speaking. But we have not had a hard and fast discussion about eliminating those opportunities."
On improving SEC men's basketball:
"If we can just kinda bottom-line it: We have a greater level of expectation of ourselves than three teams playing in the NCAA Tournament. You might say, why do you feel that way. Well, look at every other sport that we sponsor. Women's basketball had nine; I think there are 10 in baseball that are viable for postseason, probably the same in softball; volleyball, soccer, go down the list. So, if that's the bottom line and I don't think that's the only determinate of success but that's certainly a key factor: we have not met our own expectations. So, let's take a step back and say what's happening? Well, early in September I go to Arkansas and they have a brand new practice facility for its men's and women's basketball programs; Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, those facilities are being built. I forget where I was where they're talking about renovating their practice facility. So, you want to make the facility commitment and make that a piece of how you improve.
"We had four notable coaching hires, which I think can be overshadowed. Last year we added Bryce Drew, who established a track record at Valparaiso and comes from a family with great basketball success. And so I think there are five additions in the last 12 months viewed positive. I also look at the coaches presently in place in the conference and a piece of the puzzle, I think, is selecting the right coach, having them continue for a long period of time because stability can promote success. Sometimes you have to have patience initially and allow that program to be built, so that it can sustain success over time. And so I think the combination of our coaches is very much positive for the future of this conference, where very shortly I expect to not be talking about having only three in, but a much more significant number. We saw incoming freshmen from a talent level progress. The trend was positive as far as how those young people are perceived athletically, basketball skill wise and hopefully that's an incoming student-athlete trend we see.
"I think those are indicators of success. And then you look at the scheduling piece I referenced. We had some programs play remarkable non-conference schedules, which has been the mantra Mike (Slive) had started three or four years ago. Particularly Florida, Georgia. Vanderbilt benefited from its selection from a tough non-conference schedule. We need to continue that improvement appropriately across the conference but we also need not just schedule those games, we have to win those tough non-conference games. Those are all elements of continuing to improve the men's basketball success, which, again, I think it's into a bottom-line discussion about NCAA Tournament access."
On the role of Mike Tranghese as a consultant for men's basketball...
"I just felt it necessary to broaden our conversation, particularly for myself and Mark Whitworth, the associate commissioner for men's basketball, and Mike has a breath of experience. He sat in the commissioner's chair. It's been a while but he's been on the NCAA committee. He's kept his finger on the pulse of men's basketball. When you're kind of cycling through things, it's been three out of four years where we've had three teams selected to participate in the NCAA Tournament, sometimes you just need to shift the conversation. I think Mike will help us shift the conversation. My goal is to see improvement, which is already there in men's basketball, but the conversation can help facilitate that improvement in an even greater way."
What do you mean by change the conversation?
"Well, we've talked a lot about scheduling. But college basketball is not about schedule. It's about recruiting. It's about how we think about our officiating programs. It is about how we communicate with our coaches. It is about scheduling and how we set those expectations. Those are elements of how you just communicate the conversation beyond simply selection to the NCAA Tournament."
How does Mississippi's Religious Liberty Accommodations Act impact its ability to host SEC postseason events?
"The first thing I'd say is both of our universities in the state of Mississippi, their presidents, issued statements about the fact that their campuses are places of diversity and welcoming campuses to all. I have said that as well on social issues. What I've also said, and what our policy has been, is that we make decisions about championship sites, we'll take into account a variety of issues and state issues like the state flag issue in the past. And this is one that is now emerging that would be part of that conversation as well."
What about the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act in North Carolina, where the SEC Network is based?
"That is a bit of a different issue than where we locate championships. We're learning a bit more about these state legislative issues and we'll be attentive as we go forward."
How closely do you follow the Title IX lawsuit against the University of Tennessee? What conversations are happening at the conference level about how universities handle sexual assault accusations against student-athletes?
"We have a transfer policy that we references earlier. That was a conversation that has occurred in this league. We have a working group looking at student-athlete conduct, so it is a conversation that is occurring.
"It is not appropriate for me to comment on lawsuit that in obviously involving a university. There's a legal process for that and appropriately so.
"Separate from those conversations, we are attentive to federal law in providing resources and information. Our campuses do very well at having resources and ... information and education on those issues on a regular basis."
What do you think is the next big issue facing the SEC?
"The time expectations that we place on student-athletes is front and center right now. So I'm going to elevate that at a national level. We had a conversation in Jan. prompted by three pieces of legislation that I think were well intentions but needed more development. The NCAA is engaged in a research effort right now and we'll see results and will have additional dialogue on the appropriate structures around student-athlete's time and their time expectations. As I've traveled the campus and I said I've been on campus probably three or four times on each (SEC school), I've had the opportunities to talk to the student-athletes. I've really had good feedback about experiences. I've said that we do things really well - but we're not perfect so don't misinterpret that - but we talked about where they have days off during the season or a day of, how it works on a consistent basis, all of which is done without legislation. How soft tissue recovery might work in football, the timing of travel.
"One of the things that seems to be top of mind for young people are internship opportunities, student-teaching with your student-athlete, co-ops. We've seen stories on an ad hoc basis of that happening in the Southeastern Conference now, but I think nationally that probably needs to go right up to the top of that time expectation. Now how do we facilitate it?
"Obviously there's a great deal of litigation, it's probably a list I could have cited a year ago but that requires a great deal of attention. I was asked about media agreements and there's just an evolution happening around how content is consumed. Probably some of you watched The Master's on phone and iPads yesterday. We've seen increasing activity around the WatchESPN app and the population of SEC Network-plus games on the WatchESPN app. We're attentive to those; CBS is attentive to those changes. You can watch online that way and that has to be a top of the line type issue.
"We've made it through some pieces from a year ago that would have been in here - the location of our football championship game was on that list a year ago. We'll be in Atlanta for a long period of time in the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium."
How far are we from the next conference realignment?
"Oh, I don't know that one. That's one of those hypotheticals and I've jokingly said that I don't answer hypotheticals. We're doing well as the Southeastern Conference with 14 members and the SEC Network. We'll look at maximizing our strength each and every day."
More schools are selling alcohol in premium seating areas, are there discussions for expanding sales throughout SEC stadiums?
"We've had that ability for a long, long period of time. That piece has been a conversation. No conversation about expanding it throughout the stadium at this point. We've got a longstanding policy that there can be access in private or overseen areas, and that piece is a point of conversation, but not necessarily the broader availability. We want to be careful about crowd management, game control, those issues. It obviously is a topic because you seem to see almost weekly across the country other programs that have made alcohol more widely available, which does prompt the question and provoke some level of conversation."