A collection of answers from Day 1 of SEC Media Days in Atlanta on Monday that featured Commissioner Greg Sankey and representatives from LSU, Ole Miss and Missouri:
“We’re comfortable at 16. There’s no sense of urgency, no sense of panic. We’re not just shooting for a number of affiliations that make us better. Could they be out there? I would never say they’re not. I would never say that we will. We’re going to be evaluating the landscape. I’m not going to speculate. I actually am watching a lot of this activity operating around us, more so than impacting us directly.”
- SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey on expansion
“I walked into one of the first meetings when we were looking at the format and said, ‘If we want to expand to eight teams for the playoff with no automatic bids, I’ll have that conversation. But moving to an eight-team playoff and granting what were going to be six automatic bids, reducing at-large access, is unwise.’”
- Sankey on expanding College Football Playoff format
“It’s probably not been high on my list of things to think about. I’ve been trying to correct a slice for the last couple of weeks, and I haven’t had much success with that. So I’m going to go back to my day job.”
- LSU coach Brian Kelly when asked if his former employer, Notre Dame, might join a conference
“I think first and foremost, making sure that you evaluate the entire state of Louisiana. I think that means make sure you extend yourself. It’s not just New Orleans and the greater Baton Rouge area. You have to get up north, all the way up through Shreveport, up to Monroe, all into the state of Louisiana. Now, that doesn’t mean you just take a kid from Louisiana because he’s from Louisiana. If he’s not rated as high, can you go out of state? Sure. But you better know the players in the state of Louisiana. That means the entire state.”
- Kelly on recruiting the state of Louisiana
“It felt great being off that plane and being in Georgia. I loved seeing that ‘Welcome to Atlanta’ sign as I stepped off. Being able to represent my family and LSU here is a feeling unlike any other.”
- LSU’s BJ Ojulari on being back in his home state
“Well, the first question is the keys to NIL and how do you well with that. You have really good boosters. That’s how you do well at it. I’ll say what other people say, as you know. It’s like a payroll in baseball. What teams win over a long period of time? Teams that have high payrolls and can play players a lot. We’re in a situation not any different than that. I’m sure other people said it. I said day one, you legalize cheating, so get ready for the people that have the most money to get players. Now you have it. It is what it is.”
- Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin on NIL
“I’m good now, blessed to be back on the field. It’s always frustrating having an injury because you know you work hard all season. It was kind of hard being out because it was right before the Alabama game. We had been looking forward to it all season. I had to put my head down and just pray about it. I knew God was going to put me back on the right path and get me healthy.”
- Ole Miss wide receiver Jonathan Mingo, who missed much of last season with a broken foot
“I’m all for it. I think I said up here earlier that I think the beauty of college football is the rivalries that we have. I think it’s the shared traditions and pageantry of the game. I think we got to be careful that we don’t miss that or lose that in search of better TV contracts or better TV exposure. We’re going to lose the basis of who we are. I’m for playing consistent games. I’m for playing consistent opponents, building a consistent level of expectation that these are the teams that you need to beat, these are the teams that you need to be comparing yourself against.”
- Missouri coach Eliah Drinkwitz
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