LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Greg Sankey doesn’t want to be cast as the villain.
That was clear Monday as the SEC commissioner opened his league’s spring meetings with a few carefully aimed grievances -- and a not-so-carefully disguised defense of his role in reshaping college sports.
“I don't need lectures from others about good of the game," Sankey said. "I don't lecture others about good of the game. And coordinating press releases about good of the game, you know, OK, you can issue your press statement, but I’m actually looking for ideas to move us forward.”
The statement requires some unpacking. But the friction in college football today starts with this: Follow the “forward” path Sankey is paving, and it leads to a place where the richest conferences hold the power, write the rules and lock in their advantages — with just enough consultation to keep up appearances.
Welcome to the college sports oligarchy. And Sankey is one of its prime architects.
It’s not an overstatement. Oligarchy, by definition, is rule by a powerful few, especially for their own benefit. That’s precisely what Sankey and his Big Ten counterpart, Tony Petitti, are steering the sport toward — a model where media revenue and brand equity carry more weight than anything that happens on the field. (And, let's face it, have a role in dictating what happens on it.)
The latest example is the evolving structure of the College Football Playoff, where Sankey and Petitti are reportedly backing a 16-team format that grants eight automatic playoff bids to their leagues, regardless of how the season plays out. Four for the SEC. Four for the Big Ten. Two each for the Big 12 and ACC. One for the top Group of Five team. Three at-large bids.
This isn’t a playoff model. It’s a shareholder agreement.
And while the model hasn’t been finalized, Sankey and Petitti already have the power to make those changes — as long as they engage in “meaningful consultation” with the others. Which is to say: they can listen politely, and then do whatever they want.
(Sankey, for the record, says he's not committed to any playoff format, but acknowledged that the 16-team format has "more traction" within his conference than others.)
Sankey bristles at suggestions that he’s acting in self-interest. He rejects the idea that the SEC is unwilling to compromise. And he seems especially put off that commissioners from the ACC and Big 12 had the nerve to issue public statements that, while endorsing a straight-seeding model for the playoff, also expressed hope that future decisions would be made based on “what’s best for the sport.”
The Big 12 insists the statements weren’t coordinated. They didn’t need to be. The message was obvious: some leagues are still trying to protect the sport. Others are protecting their stockpile.
How deep does this separation go? Sankey said this week that some voices in his own league are openly questioning whether the SEC still belongs in the NCAA at all. You don’t say that quietly — and you don’t say it if you still see yourself as part of a shared enterprise.
It’s not that Sankey is wrong to advocate for his members. That’s his job. But there’s a difference between advancing your league’s position and rigging the postseason structure so that more of your top teams don’t even have to earn their way in.
The SEC and Big Ten already have the most money, the most fans, the most playoff wins. Do they need to have the rules tilted in their favor too? Not unless the goal is to formalize what’s long been unofficial: college football now operates under a two-league rule.
And that’s where Sankey’s image problem becomes more than a PR nuisance. Because as much as he wants to be seen as a thoughtful steward of the game, the rest of the country — and now parts of Congress — are starting to see something else.
Monday night, Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania took to the social media site X to fire off this warning:
“Let me state this as clearly as I can: the [Big Ten] and [SEC] should be very, very careful about some of the decisions they are about to make. Because they appear hellbent on ruining major college football. I think they need congressional hearings into their collusion.”
It’s easy to dismiss political noise. But Sankey and others have spent the last three years asking Congress for help — for antitrust protection, for NIL guardrails, for relief from the employer-employee model that could upend the entire economic structure.
You can’t beg Congress to save the system on one hand, then dismantle it for parts with the other. Or maybe you can. These are strange times.
Greg Sankey may not want to be the bad guy. But you don’t need a black hat to act in your own interest. Just enough leverage, a TV contract, and a playoff model that protects your place at the top.
And if he still doesn’t understand the criticism, someone might want to send him a dictionary.
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