There’s a no-live-streaming rule here at SEC Football Media Days, but it was broken right away.
By the new commissioner, no less.
Greg Sankey, who began his tenure as the SEC’s CEO on June 1, entered The Wynfrey Hotel by using his smart phone to “Periscope” his walk in from the parking lot. And he stayed with it, through the revolving doors, all the way up the escalator and into the lobby outside the Grand Ballroom.
Safe to say that’s something Mike Slive, his predecessor, never did.
As Sankey himself pointed out, being first up at the podium on Monday represented the first time since 1990 that somebody other than Roy Kramer or Slive has opened SEC Media Days. He clearly enjoyed the opportunity.
“None of them had a twitter account,” Sankey quipped as his handle, @GregSankey, was flashed up on the three giant video boards behind him. Also posted there was the now infamous picture of him working out with the giant truck tire.
Where Slive always tended to quote Dwight Eisenhower or Winston Churchhill at this function, Sankey quoted Bob Dylan’s “the times, they are a changing.”
Yes, it’s definitely a new day in the SEC. But the reality is, there might not be anyone in sports with a tougher act to follow than Sankey.
And Sankey knows it.
“This is a bit of a moment for me,” Sankey said in his opening remarks before a thousand-plus media throng. “I’ve typically stood at the back and watched Mike Slive here.”
During Slive’s 13-year tenure, he oversaw an expansion of the league that reached into the states of Texas and Missouri. He marshalled the development of the SEC television network, which netted the league’s 14 schools $31.2 million this past spring. And lest we forget, he was in charge as the conference claimed seven straight national championships in football from 2006-12.
Two months in, Sankey, 51, certainly appears progressive leader. As for his agenda, he said he has formed committees to address compliance and enforcement and student-athlete conduct and hired NCAA law expert William King of Birmingham as compliance chief.
“The hope is to never pull down a banner or vacate a championship because of NCAA sanctions,” Sankey said.
He unveiled that his mission statement for his first year at the helm is “Scholars, Champions and Leaders.” He said the goal is for every scholarship athlete to graduate from college, the league to win every championship in every sport and for graduates to go on to become champions of industry and change the world.
“Some of you may be saying that it’s simply not possible,” Sankey said. “But no great achievement ever produce by an attempt to be average.”
Sankey also talked about the importance of transparency with regard to the new cost-of-attendance legislation. That was motion pushed hard by Georgia, which falls in the middle of dispensation pool.
“It’s an effort for people to understand the methodology of what goes into it,” Sankey said.
Slive actually wasn’t far away Monday. According to some of his close acquaintances, he was just 10 minutes away at his home in Vestavia. From all accounts, he is winning the battle with cancer that impacted the end of his career.
Slive won’t be making an appearance here this week, however. But we’re told that he is following on social media. In that rehard, Sankey is showing him the way.
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