Greg Sankey didn't like my question, but Big Ten titles beat SEC metrics | Opinion
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MIRAMAR BEACH, FL – The SEC’s got “metrics.” The Big Ten has trophies.
If Greg Sankey can’t understand why that dichotomy presents a problem for him and his conference, then he’s living in a state of blissful denial.
When I asked Sankey, the SEC’s longtime commissioner, this week about the Big Ten surpassing the SEC in college football, he pretended as if that hasn’t happened.
Sankey created an alternate reality in which the SEC rules the sport, even though it hasn’t had a team reach the national championship game for three straight seasons.
“If you look at the entirety of our league, we are by far the most competitive, the strongest football league by far,” Sankey said.
Never mind the Big Ten’s three straight national championships or its 4-0 head-to-head record in playoff games against SEC teams the past three years. The SEC is still the best conference, because Sankey says it’s the best, dadgummit.
The ol’ it’s true, because I say it’s true!
That line might work in front of the mirror. It sounds absurd to those of us who watched the College Football Playoff unfold the past three seasons — or, heck, to those of us who watched the ReliaQuest or Music City bowls last winter.
Greg Sankey says ‘metrics’ tell him SEC still rules. Trophies say otherwise
Let’s back up and set the scene.
SEC spring meetings function as a four-day forum where Sankey typically yucks it up with his favorite reporters, uncorks a handful of modestly funny one-liners, and unleashes SEC talking points and propaganda that goes mostly unchallenged by the assembled press.
So, Sankey became briefly taken aback when I broke script and asked him during a news conference about the Big Ten’s ascent to the football throne and what, if anything, he could do in his role to redirect the course. He interrupted my question to ask about the “metrics” behind my reasoning.
This is Rhetoric 101, a class Sankey aced. If you don’t like a question or don’t want to answer it, challenge the question or the questioner.
Unfortunately for Sankey, the “metrics” behind my question were obvious: Three straight championships by three Big Ten teams, plus that 4-0 record vs. the SEC in CFP games the past three years, including two blowouts.
Unable to defeat the premise of the question, Sankey answered by referencing some mysterious metrics that apparently tell him the SEC is still No. 1.
“The breadth, the depth of this league, this league stands alone,” he said. “In fact, we saw metrics out of the College Football Playoff presentation where there’s no doubt we’re the strongest league.”
Well, whoopdeedoo. The SEC’s got some metrics. I remember when it used to celebrate national titles.
I’ve stepped inside a number of gleaming football facilities throughout the SEC’s footprint and admired the trophies from yesteryear. I must have missed the hardware presented to the “metrics” winners.
Sankey: ‘If we win, you don’t ask me’ about losing. No kidding.
Sankey also said four head-to-head CFP games in three years is “a pretty narrow band” of evidence, then pointed out Georgia narrowly defeated Ohio State in a playoff game that occurred four years ago. He highlighted Alabama losing in overtime to Michigan in Nick Saban’s final game and Texas being competitive with Ohio State in a semifinal loss two seasons ago.
“The margins are so thin,” Sankey said.
He made brief reference to Indiana annihilating Alabama in the Rose Bowl, and no mention of the Buckeyes trouncing Tennessee two years ago.
“Why have they surpassed us? It’s an oddball,” Sankey said. “It’s bounced a couple of times the wrong way. Indiana was pretty dominant in the Rose Bowl last year. A lot of other games, you look, pretty close margins.”
“If we win, you don’t ask me the question,” he added.
True, if the SEC wins, its commish doesn’t have to answer questions about losing. He’d get to tout national titles. But, the SEC’s not winning playoff games against the Big Ten, at least not the past three years.
Sankey also noted Mississippi narrowly lost to Miami in a CFP semifinal. Miami isn’t in the Big Ten, but, in fairness, it must be hard for busy conference commissioners to keep up with which teams are in what conferences. He brought up a Fiesta Bowl from 10 years ago, a game most current athletes wouldn’t remember.
SEC football chest thumping turns to brainwashing
Sankey addressed performance problems head-on in the past. He inherited a men’s basketball clunker and prioritized elevating the SEC in that sport, including hiring two experts to help address the problem at a conference level. The SEC fixed its basketball issue. That became especially evident in 2025, when the SEC claimed a record 14 bids for March Madness, and Florida ended the conference’s national title drought.
The SEC’s current football performance gap isn’t so vast as the one Sankey inherited in hoops. Some margins are, indeed, small. But, the Big Ten’s ascent to the top is nonetheless real, and it demands the commissioner’s leadership.
“We’ve come up on the short end,” Sankey said, “and I can assure you everyone in this league is trying to figure out how to come out on top.”
The SEC used to thump its chest about winning 13 national championships during a 17-year span, an era dominated by Nick Saban.
Now, it’s no longer celebrating trophies. It’s trumpeting metrics.
If this is just standard Sankey propaganda, then OK. He’s effective at shaping narratives to favor his league. But, if Sankey can’t recognize his conference faces a playoff performance problem, then he’s brainwashed himself.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Big Ten rules college football, as Greg Sankey touts SEC’s ‘metrics’
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