(AP) New Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey used his first state-of-the-league address to praise the league for leading the way in athletics as well as on social issues, invoking the lyrics of a Bob Dylan song to make his point.
Standing in front of three huge video screens at SEC Media Days Monday, the 51-year-old Sankey quoted Dylan’s “The Times They Are a-Changin'” to describe the league’s ongoing evolution as one of the college game’s dominant forces.
Sankey touted the rapidly growing SEC Network, which helped the league earn record revenue last year. He also praised leadership at schools in South Carolina and Mississippi, which have issued statements in support of distancing their respective states from Confederate flag imagery.
Sankey replaces Mike Slive, who resigned June 1 after a 13-year tenure.
In many ways, Sankey’s personality on stage was reminiscent of Slive — personable yet soft-spoken. He inherits a league with ample power in college sports and unprecedented revenue thanks to the launch of the year-old SEC Network.
But the challenges facing Sankey are also daunting as the SEC — along with the other power five conferences — begin an era of compensating players with cost of attendance on top of their athletic scholarships.
The league also agreed on new legislation over the summer that prohibits its schools from enrolling any athletes who have been subject to “serious misconduct” at their previous college institution. The league defined serious misconduct as “sexual assault, domestic violence or other forms of sexual violence.”
Sankey acknowledged that his first address as commissioner was “a bit of a moment for me.” The veteran college administrator is very familiar with the league’s inner workings since being hired in 2002. Over the past three years, he’s been officially in charge of the league’s day-to-day operations.
Despite that power, Sankey was mostly anonymous over the previous decade, often watching from the back of the room at SEC Media Days while Slive publicly discussed the league’s challenges.
Now, Sankey is the man front and center.
