Thanks to SEC and Big Ten, college sports is doomed for showdown with Washington | Opinion
For more than a year the most powerful man in major college athletics has told people privately that his desire is for the ACC and the Big 12 to remain exactly where they are, intact, and a part of the current major conference model.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey wants the Arizona States, Kansas States, TCUs and Stanfords to be a part of big time college football. The vibrant cultures and traditions of all of those schools give college football is distinct color.
“Commissioner Sankey is genuine in that regard; he is a fan of college football,” former Ole Miss and Duke head coach David Cutcliffe told the Star-Telegram last week. Cutcliffe is currently a Special Assistant to the Commissioner for Football Relations with the SEC. “If we did this (major conference) separation, we would be leaving college football and essentially become a minor league system for the NFL and it would all be about pay.
“All of that is above my privilege of knowledge, but there are issues that have to be solved. And there is no one source to solve them.”
As Sankey espouses this “compassionate” position, his counterpart at the Big Ten, Tony Petitti, has been more for reluctant to even rhetorically remote agree on this point. He wants what he believes is best for The BigSEC10, and to hell with the rest.
And then there are the faceless TV network executives, who are far more complicit in this restructuring, and guilty, of playing God with dozens of universities, and indirectly thousands of employees and students. All of them have blood on their hands, and no amount of soap can clean it off.
That the Big Ten, SEC, Notre Dame, ESPN, NBC, and Fox have been allowed to do this to college sports is borderline criminal, but this is where we are. The conflicts of interest are too many to count, and while proving collusion or even a monopoly will be hard it won’t stop people, and lawyers, from trying.
The leaders from the major conferences are meeting at expensive hotels this month, and at stake is the current future of college sports. Meanwhile, in Washington D.C. a few powerful people keep hope that men like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, and Texas Tech booster Cody Campbell and a few others will come up with federal legislation to ostensibly preserve what’s already intact.
Other than some changes to the college football playoff, don’t expect anything major to be announced soon, but the tension throughout major sports should be measured with a seismometer.
D.C. versus the SEC and Big Ten
The last development that either the SEC or Big Ten wants is any “help” from politicians, even if NCAA president Charlie Baker has openly welcomed any assistance to his besieged organization that currently thrives at losing in court.
President Donald Trump had said there were plans for a college sports commission, which reportedly was going to include former Alabama coach Nick Saban, Campbell, Cruz and former Texas Tech coach and current Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville. The hope was for federal legislation that would supersede the more than 30 individual state laws that have made governance in college sports nearly impossible.
There is some thought that this ambition is dead, while others insist it’s moving forward.
The Big Ten and SEC want no part of it. Those organizations want to police themselves, and have gone so far as to have a meeting earlier this year to lay down the rules to the NCAA at how that organization will govern those two top leagues.
It’s the equivalent of Pablo Escobar building a jail and telling the Colombian government that he would come and go as he pleased while he was “incarcerated.”
Every other party in college sports wants help against these two bodies to have a decent shot at continuing to play, to win, and to remain employed.
The hope among legislators is to draft something that will allow student athletes to make money through NIL, re-structure a transfer portal that has made following college sports more difficult than learning ancient Greek, and to create a scenario where they can grow revenues. All the while acknowledging this must be done within the narrow confines of allowing the biggest brands in the sport to remain just that.
Campbell has gone on record, in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, is it his desire to preserve women’s sports, and to keep as many opportunities as possible for young people through college athletic scholarships.
There is genuine desire to get out of the model that currently has teams flying all over the country, at great cost, to play conference games that have no appeal beyond a league being present in every time zone for broadcast partners.
The reality is passing any type of legislation will take forever, even if it has the support of the White House.
Living in the SEC and Big Ten’s world
Schools in the Big 12 and ACC operate with the fear/understanding that the “super conference” is inevitable, and it’s a question of whether they make the cut down to 40 or so universities that will be in the highest tier of college sports. This sort of development has been discussed for decades, and it does not mean it will happen. Does not mean it won’t. It just feels closer than any other time.
The consequences to this cut line would be catastrophic to the universities not included, which could lead to congressional hearings, lawsuits, etc. Sankey and Petitti want no part of the sitting in front of motivated Senators and members of congress who are looking to create a viral video clip of a politician gelding a rich old white guy.
Congressman Brendan Boyle (D Penn.) wrote on Twitter this morning, “Let me state this as clearly as I can: the @bigten 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.”
He’s a Democrat, which in this current landscape won’t help, but there is momentum in D.C. to act.
Add all of this up, and it’s a reason why Sankey has privately expressed to college officials that he wants the Big 12 and ACC to be a part of their special club.
What this comes down to is, of course, cash and who gets more of it. The SEC and Big Ten, which have grabbed the biggest brands in college sports, want the vast majority of it while dismissing the rest, but Notre Dame, with a, “Be glad we let you lose to us.”
Nothing has officially happened yet, but the tension is disturbing with the consequences potentially devastating.
This story was originally published May 27, 2025 at 12:07 PM.
