With college sports at tipping point, one thing is clear: The SEC and Big Ten are in control of the change that awaits

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The two most powerful people in college athletics shared a room here Thursday after an unprecedented joint meeting of their school athletic directors.

Seated at a nondescript table before a dozen media members, commissioners Greg Sankey of the SEC and Tony Petitti of the Big Ten answered questions for nearly an hour about the ballyhooed gathering of their top leaders.

They couldn’t have looked more dissimilar — Sankey, in his blue-checkered sport coat, white-collared shirt and dress shoes; Petitti, in white Nike kicks, a sweater pullover and black ankle socks.

Their competing fashion styles aside, their similarities brought them to this place: the Grand Hyatt in the busting capital of country music, where administrators of the nation’s most powerful and richest leagues gathered for a somewhat historic meeting.

While no decisions were made, all of the topics expected to be discussed at this seven-hour summit Thursday were discussed: the future format of the College Football Playoff; a regular season football and basketball scheduling arrangement between the two leagues; and a post-House settlement governance and enforcement entity.

Over the near hour-long meeting with reporters in a second-floor conference room, the two men shared details of the talks as their athletic directors hustled out of the main lobby entrance below.

Sankey and Petitti assured the country that, no, their conferences are not planning to separate from the rest of college athletics. They sharply criticized several outside proposals that would reshape college athletics. And they will wait until after the completion of this year’s inaugural expanded CFP before making real decisions on playoff format, scheduling partnerships and postseason bowls.

But what was left unsaid here is perhaps more jarring than anything said.

Put…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-10-10 22:42:58

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