Decoding what Tony Petitti, Greg Sankey actually meant throughout Huge Ten, SEC summit: Warning shot at CFP committee

In a present of power and unity, the 2 strongest leaders in faculty athletics sat side-by-side and made clear to the remainder of the ecosystem that any main change will run via the Huge Ten and SEC shifting ahead. 

Huge Ten commissioner Tony Petitti and SEC commissioner Greg Sankey answered a litany of questions throughout a 45-minute media session following the historic assembly between the 2 conferences. The 2 native New Yorkers have constructed a robust rapport since Petitti stepped in because the Huge Ten’s commissioner in 2023 and that was on full show Thursday in how they described the assembly’s goal. 

However two shrewd leaders like Petitti and Sankey aren’t going to disclose all the things about their grand plan to a bunch of reporters. It’s a must to learn between-the-lines, mixed with speaking to different knowledgeable sources, to determine what all of it means.

With that in thoughts, we’re breaking down some key quotes and what they actually imply following Thursday’s Huge Ten and SEC powwow in Nashville. 

What they mentioned: “I’ve but to see a single factor in any plan that I’ve realized particulars about that incorporates issues that we could not do ourselves and do with different colleagues,” Petitti mentioned. “I do not see something that is proprietary that anyone holds, that we would want, that another person controls to do what they’re speaking about.

“It is mainly schedule extra good video games, and reorganize the way in which you play these video games, like by way of simply tiering or going throughout and redoing divisions. Some say conferences can survive. Some say you do not want conferences. On the finish of the day, I believe there is a sturdy dedication that we’ve got the flexibility to do all of this ourselves.”

What it means: Again off, non-public fairness. Petitti and Sankey had been very forceful of their feedback that there’s zero have to cede energy to exterior entities which have garnered consideration in current weeks like “Challenge Rudy.” Whereas there may be curiosity in these concepts on the college degree inside these conferences — Tennessee AD Danny White is even an “ambassador” for the School Pupil Soccer League — Sankey and Petitti have zero need to willingly fold their royal flush palms for another person to financially capitalize. Even when they beloved the Tremendous League ideas, which they most definitely don’t, what incentive do the Huge Ten and SEC must embrace them on the convention degree? Nobody willingly provides up energy that was hard-earned. 

Teams like Challenge Rudy have some energy gamers behind them and seemingly actual cash to throw round, however to Petitti’s level, what are they doing that the conferences and their TV companions could not do themselves? It was harking back to the well-known Moe Inexperienced quote in “The Godfather”: “I purchase you out, you do not purchase me out.”

Besides, in fact, this time Petitti and Sankey are the Dons of the game. 

What they mentioned: “The (NCAA) Division 1 Council would not work given what’s altering round us,” Sankey mentioned. “I believe the board of administrators on the Division 1 degree has to alter, and has to alter quickly.”

What it means: Sankey has been unafraid to voice his NCAA frustration within the final year-plus. There are too many individuals concerned within the course of who haven’t any enterprise making selections that affect energy conferences just like the Huge Ten and SEC. The facility conferences are barely represented on necessary committees, and it reveals within the complicated selections that come out of them. 

It is more and more clear in Sankey’s public feedback and his actions — like gathering a gathering with the Huge Ten in Nashville — that he’s going to get what he needs, a method or one other. He’ll apply the general public stress of the 2 strongest conferences in faculty sports activities and if that does not work, there’ll at all times be the breakaway escape, although Sankey pushes again exhausting on that narrative each time it comes up. Regardless of Sankey’s denials, the concern is actual amongst different faculty sports activities leaders that that’s the place this might land. The Huge Ten and SEC are performed enjoying good and simply accepting dangerous selections that come out of the NCAA governance mannequin. The best way issues are trending, the NCAA might deal with championships and never a lot else. 

What they mentioned: “The query is there a construction the place the 2 league workplaces work collectively to create extra of these matchups?” Petitti mentioned. “We had a fairly large dialogue in regards to the path to play one another extra — see in the event you can determine how one can truly do it; determine what video games you need, what number of — however that is a broad dialogue.”

What it means: There must be extra Huge Ten and SEC video games, however there are issues nonetheless to be labored out. Whether or not in common season like Michigan-Texas, which Sankey referenced Thursday, or the Rose Bowl final 12 months between Michigan and Alabama, when the Huge Ten and SEC meet one another on the sector it means huge curiosity and large TV scores. There was some hope that the Nashville assembly might result in a scheduling association between the 2 conferences, however the two play an unequal quantity of convention video games (9 for Huge Ten and eight for SEC) and there are different non-conference rivalry video games constructed into annual schedules like South Carolina-Clemson and Kentucky-Louisville. It will take somewhat planning and creativity, however as the 2 conferences turn into increasingly more carefully aligned, getting extra video games between them is smart. There might be a better curiosity, too, if there is a CFP format shift to extra computerized qualifiers. 

What they mentioned: “This simply has to go extremely properly,” Sankey mentioned in regards to the first 12 months of the 12-team playoff. “This needs to be a profitable launch. This is not the time to speak about governance in ’26 or the format in ’26, however rapid implementation is in entrance of us.”

What it means: In case you mess this up, we’re taking extra management. Sankey mentioned Thursday the Huge Ten and SEC did not have “unilateral” management over the way forward for the playoff format, however did have an outlined position in shaping it shifting ahead. Everybody within the sport is aware of that the Huge Ten and SEC might staff as much as host their very own playoff and it might do monster TV scores. Having a trump card like that permits the conferences to turn into more and more emboldened of their calls for. They already bought a much bigger reduce of the playoff TV income and shaping the quantity of groups and the way they’re picked is the logical subsequent step. 

The Huge Ten likes the thought of extra computerized qualifiers for it and the SEC. The SEC can be good with all at-large bids. There are egocentric pursuits driving each these positions because the Huge Ten may benefit from a assured quantity of groups whereas the SEC has lengthy been bullish it might stack the sector if there have been zero computerized qualifiers. However it’s clear that the 2 are holding a detailed eye on what the choice committee does this 12 months with the 12-team format. “I need to see the choice course of, the way it works, how the seeding works, how they consider and examine groups,” Petitti mentioned. The religion in that group to get it proper is not excessive, to place it mildly, regardless that each have been properly represented within the earlier four-team playoff mannequin. 

If it would not go properly, the Huge Ten and SEC have signaled they’re in lock-step and are able to take extra management shifting ahead.