The Dave Pasch Podcast - Greg Sankey

board was clear that comes twenty six. Their clear expectation as we have a twelve team format to the extent it's possible we could go early. We've got some conversations over the upcoming weeks that may move us to that conclusion, to that finish line, but I'm not really clear that that still can happen. There's there's still work to be done. Greg has spent a lot of time here in Arizona.

He cites one of the early championship games at State Farm Stadium as being a springboard to the current success of SEC football. We are presented by BETMGM, the official sports betting partner of the Arizona Cardinals and by Hila River Resorts and Casinos get ready for a football season like never before with betmgm, an official partner of the Arizona Cardinals. Sign up today using code cards one thousand and get your first bet risk free up to one

thousand dollars. Visit betmgm dot com for terms and conditions twenty one and over Arizona only. Please gamble responsibly. Gambling problem called one eight hundred. Next step. All right, now it's time for our conversation with the Commissioner of the SEC, Greg Sankey. Well, first of all, Greg is somebody who, like me, has ties to Central New York. He went to grad school at Syracuse. Tell me about I know you're probably pretty busy and don't get a chance to

watch a lot of NFL. Obviously, you guys have turned out a ton of players into the NFL, including here in Arizona. Who's your NFL team, the Bills. So back when I was young, you could watch the Giants, Suggets, and the Bills. None of them were very good in the seventies, at least at that point, and I went with the Upstate New York team, which you know, people in like New York City consider where I'm from an

upstate New York, Canada close even further so. I'm a Bills fan, which was great for those four Super Bowls, except they lived in Dallas, which made it more difficult going to Super Bowl watching parties. Since two of them, two of the four ward against the Cowboys. They might be the team to beat this year the way Josh Allen is playing. No. They you know, they got to win over Kansas City this week and I didn't see

any of it. Last year, I watched exactly one full NFL game, and it was the game against Kansas City in the playoffs, which was heartbreaking. I don't I don't end up emotionally invested in a lot of football sent I usually have multiple teams playing, and that was the one and it went the wrong way. Yeah, if you're going to pick one to watch, it was a great one to watch just as a fan. But at the same time, if you're a Bills fan, yeah, I totally

get that. As somebody who spent time at Syracuse, you know, when you graduated from there and you got your masters, I think the year was ninety three, what did you think you would do? You've been at the SEC now for two decades and commissioner since twenty fifteen. What did you think you'd do when you left there? When I was born and raised in central New York, so I grew up about twenty miles from campus towards the west,

outside a little town called Skinny Atlas. And when I finished my undergrad degree, like my horizon that I could see towards was about, you know, Aubany to the east, Buffalo to the west, down to Binghamton, maybe a little bit further north than Syracuse, but not much because of the lake effects snow. Kind of working in teaching and coaching,

that was my idea. And then I was at Syracuse for my grad school because I was a full time employee Utica College and they paid for my grad school, which is great and at the end, which is really where your question started, but the lead up was I

had to complete an internship to graduate. So at the end of my actual class work, I could have stayed up there and worked in like summer camps about there's some basketball camps if you remember the Empire State Games, if they were around when you were at do some of that work. And I just decided to see if Division one athletics was something where I could find an opportunity.

And my wife and I were just married. We've been married like three or four months when I started sending resumes out and we're about to celebrate our thirty fourth wedding anniversary. And just said to her, you know, I'd like to find out if I could work in college athletics at the Division one level, and if I can, how far might go? And you know I've clearly answered that, Ques yes to the top. You're one of the most powerful people in college sports and you're running the top

football conference. A lot of people say to me and others that work for ESPN, you guys are biased against the SEC. Bias is the wrong word, because that has a negative connotation that somehow it's unfair. But the SEC is the best, that's the best football, and we've seen a lot of players come through the Cardinals that played in the SEC, and we're great players in the SEC and have gone on to become great players here with

the Cardinals. You're pretty active on social media, and one of the things you've you've tweeted over the years has been your love affair with Marathon, something that I can't say that I share with you. You've run over forty and is it true that you ran a marathon per month for a year? I did. Yeah, that was my midlife crisis. So it's like cheaper than a sports cars, morally objectionable, and so many other outlets that people explore,

and it was I enjoy the running. Obviously there are the cardiovascular benefits, but the mental aspect, the mind clearing, the ability to just kind of get away and think and deal with the challenge had a lot of meaning for me. And once I started. The first marathon I ran was actually in nineteen eighty eight, the Sunday morning after my wife and I were married on a Saturday night, so I've i've like introduced the level of her tolerance

and patience of my career explorations and running. And then I was in my early forties when I ran my second one, and since it's been so long, I decided, a since I'm in shape, I'll just kind of keep going a little bit like the Forrest Gump movie. And I think it was oh eight, I realized if I had thought about it, I would have run one a month for that year, and I became intentional about doing so.

I think I actually ran sixteen consecutive months I ran a marathon in and there was one of those months where I ran back to mac marathons with about eight days one week basically apart, which I don't recommend actually based on how the second one went. How do you train for that? How much sleep do you have to get? How much running do you do as part of the training. I'm assuming you gotta stay hydrated. What do you eat like during that training period? I would I had a

route in. I didn't follow a rigid training plan, kind of listened to my body. I knew that my peak preparation run would be twenty miles, which is its own adventure. And I live now in Birmingham, Alabama. When I trained for the first one, I ran in Utica, New York, and between the hills and kind of a running community there that was that was pretty easy. But where I lived in Birmingham, I had about a six to eight mile route around our neighborhood and then I was on

the shoulder of a state highway. As I told people what I was doing, they thought I was like out of my mind. But I could run the grass and this is not like the sophisticated elite training plan. But I had I had on my route any number of convenience stores where I could go out and get a gatorade. And it was really about doing the distance in total.

And I wasn't worried about, you know, pace. So if I ran an hour, grabbed the gatorade, walked a half a mile, then re engaged, that really prepared me pretty well. You know. Again, I wasn't elite. I'm six two way probably two hundred and five pounds at the time, so I was in the Clydesdale division. My best time was a three hour fifty three experience, which is pretty good. And I got to the point where I could control my pace pretty well through the entirety, right around four

hours a little bit under. And again the mental challenge, I was always nervous at the beginning. I had a whole routine. You know, I wouldn't eat much while I was actually running, you know, I'd be careful about what he ateh the night before, I will confessor a couple of times, eight ribs like the day before. And I still made it through. But the experience for me and I did New York, I did Boston, Zoula, Montana. One of them was up in Prescott, Arizona. At altitude. It

was a pretty neat experience. It was kind of like nine miles uphill, then four miles down the other side, then four miles back up and nine miles back down, and one of those memorable experiences. Speaking of Arizona, you've been out here for Fiesta Bowls and national championships. Just your thoughts on State Farm Stadium obviously the home of the Cardinals, and your experience is here in the Phoenix area. Yeah,

the first one out there, I remember. So the stadium was relatively new, the Florida Ohio State National Championship game, which really set off our string of successes over the last fifteen or so years. I walked in to the stadium kind of down to where the stadium floor was, next to Senator John McCain. And as I'm walking by myself,

Senator McCain's there. He's got a couple of staffers, and I'd just like, I'm going to introduce myself to him, just out of respect for who he was and how he led and what he what he did over his lifetime. The POW experience, and so I said hello. I told him my name. I told him I worked for the Southeastern Conference. He said, you guys are gonna feel good tonight. You're you're gonna get this one. And remember this wasn't at the end or in the midst of an area

of era of dominance. This was the beginning. LSU had won a couple of years before, and then we've got a couple of years without having a team in and I would say it was one, Florida was two. And I said, well, you know, I hope you're right. I'll have to play really, I said, no, the difference will be the defensive line speed that Florida has. And if you remember the game, that was a huge factor. And

I've often thought about that. Either he paid a lot more attention than I would have thought, or he had a staff member brief him. And I've had enough conversations with senators that they pay a lot of attention to this. So I've credited him for knowing and he was exactly right. And then my first National championship experience as commissioner was in January of twenty sixteen. You know the Clemson Alabama game. Remember the onside kick that Alabama executed so well, we won,

which was a really fun experience. And on a personal side, in my family and I have been into Phoenix and then driven down south the Tucson to Sells, Arizona and done some work through a church group there. So we've had any number of experiences in the state, but have really enjoyed the successes when the National Championship Game has been held in the Phoenix area, Well, you've done a tremendous job. The SEC is on top of the sports world in college and in particular the college football world.

What will the addition of Oklahoma and Texas mean for the SEC and do you still see the SEC East and SEC West in the future or do you think eventually you will get rid of the divisions as it relates to the meaning. You know, the cliche that we use is it will just mean more. And I think the addition of those two may have us like really typing in big letters in bold print that tagline because uniquely for expansion of members we restore rivalries. Obviously we'll

be able to maintain the Oklahoma and Texas rivalry. A lot of folks us on Texas A and M and Texas playing again. But the history of the Arkansas Texas games is really quite spectacular and has deep meaning for both universities Oklahoma and Missouri. I've actually had conversations about their wrestling teams and you know how that plays out. You know, might that be something we could explore via the SEC network because of the success and prominence that

both of those teams have. We don't have that as a sport sport, but it speaks to the relationship Oklahoma and Missouri had through their Big Eight membership in twenty five percent of the old Big Eight will soon be part of the Southeastern Conference, and then as you think about you big brands in the level of competition, that

will just be magnified. And as it relates to scheduling, my observation upfront when we added the tour, announced the addition of Oklahoma in Texas was that we kind of engage in blue sky thinking like big pictures, step away, remover straints, think about all the options, but we also want to see our teams come through our campuses more frequently, you know, particularly in football. You take Missouri played at Auburn this year as an example that game has not

been played in Auburn before. George is not played in collegation, and we have that in our current configuration, the crossover games, it may be ten or twelve years before those teams meet up, and so we want to see that happen with greater frequency. One of the ways we can do so is to have a single division format that has become the focal point. That doesn't mean it's a done deal, but if we are in a single division, the question will be are we going to play eight or nine games?

There's mixed views on that, and it's about being able to maintain some rivalries that will be prominent games in either eight or nine games. Allows us to cycle everyone through home and away over a four year period of time, so being able to see Texas and Georgia play home and a way that would happen twice in four years. You know, Texas m playing Florida, it happens later on in this year's schedule. It happened every other year in that new format, and you can multiply that for it.

So we think that's a smart strategy. We still have some decisions to make, but the fundamental is, let's see, our big brands are big teams and there are going to be sixteen of those moved through all of our campuses with greater frequency. Do you see adding more schools or is sixteen a good number for the SEC? My view is sixteen's a very healthy number. At our media days was very intentional to say we're not on their recruiting trail. We're confident in our decision making. We're comfortable

with who we are as a conference. We know our identity, we understand our fan base, and we don't think it's necessary to just shoot for a number when we made the decision around Oklahoma and Texas. We have philosophically aligned athletics programs that want to provide incredible experiences for young people who seek to compete at a national championship level on university campuses that are on the cutting edge and among the leading universities in the nation, and we've done

that in a contiguous way. We don't have some of the travel that our colleague conferences face. And I don't just mean that about the Big Tens move, but some of our other colleagues have very distant trips. Our longest trip when we go to sixteen will be Columbia, South Carolina to Austin, Texas, which is eighty or ninety miles longer than the College station to Columbia, South Carolina trip. And if there are changes that happen around us, we're

certainly mindful of the chatter that exists. Will be prepared if there are more pieces of the puzzle that are moving. But we're not ones that are looking at a number, are looking to be the recruiter, if you will, in this conference membership movement. Sure. Sure. In terms of expansion of the college Football Playoff going to twelve teams in twenty twenty four, how optimistic are you that that's going

to happen? What has to happen, and what are the financial benefits of getting it done sooner than twenty twenty six. I know that's a multi pronged question there. Well, my sense is that there's a desire to facilitate early onset of an expanded playoff. Your question about the likelihood, I think that really remains to be seen. There are a number of realities in front of us that don't just go away because we want to make it work. The will, though, is there to make it work, and you know one

of those issues is dates for first round games. We focused on on campus sites. There's a lot that happened around campuses across this country with final exams, the end of semester classes, December graduation. You have an NFL schedule that's expanded its number of games, which means it's it's covering more weeks. That creates some challenges. And so those are just two that are top of mind. I think the board was clear that come twenty six, their clear expectations.

We have a twelve team format for the college football Playoff, and to the extent it's possible we could go early. We've got some conversations over the upcoming weeks that may move us to that conclusion, to that finish line, but I'm not really clear that that still can happen. There's there's still work to be done. Can you elaborate on some of the things that are hurdles or obstacles to

getting it done sooner? Greg? Yeah, Yeah, Well one is, you know, we introduced an idea, and we spent a year not really acting on the details because we had conferences that were just opposed. And this summer some circumstances changed and the presidents regathered and now we have a twelve team format. Expectation The reality is the loss of the time to deal with the issues comes at a price, and that price is we're trying to move rapidly and we still have to be thoughtful on our decision making.

So I'll go back. You know, we've got championship games scheduled that first weekend in December. That's our tradition. Where do you fit in first round games, some of which are with teams who may have played in playoff are achieving in conference championship games? So how do you provide for rest, recovery and preparation. You have that campus conflict.

Where do you place games for TV windows? If in the NFL tradition is at that point, like the third week of the season, there are games on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, Well, that creates window limitations for college football playoff expansion. You then go forward to the bowl games. We have agreements with six bowl games that extend through the twenty five season, which is part of a twelve year contract cycle. There has to be work done to adjust those dates. It's not simply saying we were going

to play your bowl game on a different date. Cities have to adjust, hotels have to adjust. I think you to my earlier comment, Dave, there's a will to move that forward. We also have to adjust the back end the semi finals and championship gate date timing and where

those games are played and when. Even though it's a couple of years out, you know, there's a lot of demand for hotels and convention space and planning and preparation around those citywide type activities that are important revenue drivers and economic engines, and those elements have to be adjusted. And then you go back to kind of the small ball type issues are in the weeds. The details of

campus hosting is brand new to college football. So we host games every week, but in the postseason we're used to neutral sites generally hosted in bowl games that have great experience and a wide array of support. And so we're talking in about twelve days to go to some small college towns with enormous competitive experiences, and we need to we need to make sure that we've got the ability to support those games and the most positive way possible.

So that's a quick list with high level headings, and you can unpack that, and we could probably put people asleep. If I get well, and I know you're pressed for time, as well, but a couple more we'll let you go. How realistic is it given what you said about the NFL extending its season on the back end, with regular season games ending January eighth now instead of the first of the year, moving up college football a week, so Week zero becomes week one, and then you have two

weeks of college football essentially before NFL starts. Is that realistic? I don't know, As the honest answer, it's an idea that has been identified previously. The NCAA has a Football Oversight Committee. That committee looked at this issue a few years ago. At that time with the idea that you'd have a standard fourteen week season and everybody would have two weeks, two open weeks embedded in their season. Ultimately, the view of the bowl subdivision representatives, it was not

to advance that moved back to week zero. I expect that will be reconsidered, particularly as we look towards the twenty sixth season. I'm not necessarily an opponent or an advocate. I'm a realist to know that the conversation will take place. That brings me back to the honest answer, as I don't know. There were reasons that we collectively did not move to week zero when it was explored previously. We'll

have to consider those reasons. We'll have to look at the fit of the preseason, practice period, the regular season itself, it's conclusion then leading into a playoff, to see if the structure might be supported and if you will defend it in a positive way. Knowing we've got summer school, we have varying start dates for fall semester classes or

in some circumstances, fall quarter classes. All of those things play into the decision, which again was considered not that long ago and ultimately not advanced sure in terms of men's basketball, women's basketball as well NCAA tournament expansion, I believe the quote was you said, fresh look is something that you want to explore, and Jim Phillips, the ACC Commissioner,

just recently touched down that as well. Can you elaborate on what expansion of the NCAA tournament like look might look like and would there be a rewarding of regular season champions that would be involved in that. My entry into this conversation has an entertaining backstory. I was in the middle of an interview with Pat Forty and he

asked me about you know, NCAA championships. I cod share a transformation committee's have been labeled for the nca And I said, look, Pat, because I've been through a set of meetings where people were all concerned about things being taken away, I said, look, I don't want to make headlines. And Dave, when I learned is when I say to someone I don't want to make headlines, I should just shut my mouth. Whatever follows is going to be reported. And that's you know, Pat, like, what's kind enough to

call back and said, hey, that's news. And what I said was, there's so much, if you will, tension in Division one about things being taken away like access to championships. But why don't we change flip the script and talk about growth? And have I thought about what the growth might look like? Uh? You know generally, yes, Do I have a plan or do I demand that this take place? I don't, But I do know that we've watched the men's tournament grow from sixty four to sixty eight to

facilitate a few more teams. We've seen some of those teams advanced as far as the final four that played in Dayton. That we're part of this this at large edition, and I think it's a relevant conversation. Some people will say you should go to eighty or ninety six. I can be flexible around the number. I am comfortable with conference champion access continuing what I've learned, and my example is was really Texas and them being left out this

year when they were playing really high level basketball. NET was good, but not good enough. You know Oklahoma had an even better NET was left out. When you look at Old Miss. In baseball, when's the College World Series, is generally recognized as the last team in and you wonder about the first team out. Wow, if the last team in is that quality, and you've seen in men's basketball teams advance out of that eleven seed spot playing each other in Dayton to the final four, perhaps we

should think differently, and that's what created the introduction. I think there are a variety of different formats that can be explored. My view is we should be more thoughtful than just thinking that we're stuck, and we should overcome the fear that something is being taken away. We have

opportunities to add and likely even enhance the level of competition. Well, if it was up to my college basketball broadcast partner Bill Walton, every Pack twelve team would get it in, so you would have to expand you would have to I've heard that advocacy or two above many other interesting things. That may be one of his Duller observations. I had him on this podcast Greg last year and he told a story about how Wilt Chamberlain threw a ball a

football ninety yards underhand on a rope somehow. Either that's a true story and there was some enhancements involved to get to that point or build misary members well that we're in the entertainment business. Either way, it's still entertaining, right, and last question for you, and certainly in my mind, the most important question that I've asked today. The picture that you tweeted out with a Delirian was that the real Delirian from Back to the Future. I was in Atlanta.

It was two in the morning when I pulled next to that car. It was at something called Dragon Con, where people spent three or four days in Atlanta on Labor Day weekend dressed up as their favorite characters from Star Wars to some things I don't even know and can't even imagine what they're supposed to be, and I pulled up and there's Doc Brown's DeLorean. I'm not certain that one could get up to eighty eight miles per hour and cross into I guess the past or in

the future. I don't There was no certificate of validity. I think somebody is passionate about Back to the Future, more passionate than me, and I would rank in in one of the great movies of all time when you look at the irony involved in the connections and the guest appearance by Huey Lewis himself. Oh yeah, I mean that was huge. Yeah, the I think that was just a fan and that was his stick. And there was

a parade. So I rolled in there Thursday night late actually Friday morning, and Saturday there was a parade with all kinds of things like that involved. I also feel like that was the first time. Now it's all over the place because of social media, but that was the first time in my childhood I remembered where a rock star and a and a football Hall of Famer were great friends. And you saw Huey Lewis at all the forty nine er games because he and Joe Montana were tight.

Now it's everywhere, but that to me was my first recollection. Anyway, Well you can you can appreciate my Central New York routs. I saw them in uh eighty five at the Wheat Sports Speedway and Weed Sport, New York. Nice, which you know what summer when they're rocking at weed Splace. Oh yeah, then you tagline back in the day. Yeah, yeah, those are those are good things. Well, listen, man, I really

appreciate the time. Greg. You're great to talk to. You do a phenomenal job, and I know you do a lot of these and you probably asked a lot of questions that at this point you can't answer. But I appreciate you being as candid as you possibly can. And uh, best to luck the rest of the season. Always enjoy

calling your games. Well, happy to do so. I I didn't expect the DeLorean question, and I will just say, if you're able to lobby those at ESPN to assign you to a Labor Day weekend game in Atlanta, you ought to take it and go just sit and watch the scene that plays out because it is it is high level interesting. You know. I missed it then because we did the Monday night game. We did the Clemson Georgia Tech game in Atlanta. I had no idea what was going on. I must really go to the highatt

and sit and watch. Oh man, I missed all right? Greg? Thanks again, Bud, Take care, take care. We covered a

lot there with Greg. Really appreciate how candid Greg was given, how many questions he's been asked, and at this point, how much we really don't know about a If the College Football Playoff Committee will vote on expanding the twelve teams prior to twenty twenty six, will the SEC go to just one sixteen team division when Oklahoma and Texas men and then also with regard to the NCAA men's basketball and women's basketball tournaments, will they expand into how

many teams? Also, just Greg's great stories on being a marathon runner and his love for Huey Lewis and the news, which I think if you grew up in the eighties, you have to love Huey Lewis and the news. We are presented by bet MGM, the official sports betting partner of the Arizona Cardinals, and by Hila River Resorts and Casinos. You can follow us on Twitter at pash Pot. Thanks to Commissioner Greg Sanky from the SEC, and thanks to you for listening to another edition of the Dave Pash Podcast.