SEC, Big Ten meet, show united front against private equity

Nashville, Tenn. — After an “unprecedented” meeting between the SEC and Big Ten on Thursday, commissioners from both conferences addressed a series of pressing issues facing college athletics and pushed back strongly on recent pitches from private equity groups to help offset increased costs. The NCAA’s expected House settlement will result.

It was an important united front from two of the most powerful men in college sports, as any drastic changes that would include private equity are unlikely to garner national support without the backing of the SEC and Big Ten.

“I have yet to see one thing in a plan that I’ve learned the details about that includes something that we ourselves and our A4 colleagues couldn’t do,” said Big Ten Commissioner Tony Pettiti. “At the end of the day, there’s a strong commitment that you have the ability to do it all on your own.

“… The idea that college football is broken — what we do is broken — just isn’t right.”

In February, the SEC and Big Ten announced the formation of a joint advisory group, and this one-day meeting at Grand Hyatt was a continuation of that — though both conferences attended with legal counsel to make sure no boundaries were crossed. This can be considered a distraction.

“Our legal counsel is very skilled at this point in defining the boundaries of what we can talk about and what we can’t talk about,” SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said.

With the SEC now at 16 teams and the Big Ten expanding to 18, they are now the nation’s largest, wealthiest conference. And Sankey and Pettitte have most of the control over the future format of the College Football Playoff through 2026 and beyond.

Even with the optics of Thursday’s meeting — and the written guarantee of a separation of both power and resources in the new CFP contract — Sankey said the SEC and the Big Ten are walking away from everyone else in college athletics with this partnership. He said he realized that “both of us There was a lot of commentary about the meeting”, but he reiterated that both leagues would “take the lead”.

“We talk regularly with our other two colleagues in the autonomy group,” he said, referring to Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark and ACC commissioner Jim Phillips. “Should we put everyone together? It was hard enough for athletics directors to schedule two conferences. I can’t imagine trying to schedule four.

“We will share with our colleagues from this. This is the beginning of a conversation for us. I don’t think the perception is consistent with the conversation we have today, where we recognize that we are part of a larger ecosystem, but we’re what we can achieve together.” Also interested in.”

With all 34 athletic directors from the supersized conference gathered in a meeting room, the conversation focused largely on the looming House settlement, which recently received initial approval, but also the interest of both leagues in finding a way to schedule more football games against each other. other

“Is there a way for us to be intentional about our schedule?” said Sankey, who was in Ann Arbor last month to watch Texas at Michigan. “Just an incredible experience, and you’re standing on the sidelines before kickoff thinking, can we do more of that with our non-conference games? We respect where we have state competition in our non-conference scheduling, but we had a real what in football and basketball. -Common Conversations About Ephs.”

Pettitte said part of the discussion is to schedule those games through conversations with athletic directors organized on campus.

“The question is is there a structure where the two league offices work together to create those matchups?” Petty said. “We had a pretty big discussion about ways to get each other to play more — see if you can actually figure out how to do that; what games you want, how many — but it’s a broad discussion.”

Sankey said some of the athletic directors in the room noted that some of the games to be played this year were scheduled a decade ago, “almost a point of encouragement to say, ‘Let’s not wait that long.'”

Leaders from both leagues also discussed pending roster limits and the future of the NCAA rule, Sankey said “it has to change.” At a recent Division I council meeting, Sankey said he told the room that “the Division I council doesn’t work considering what’s changing around us.”

“The board of directors at the Division I level needs to change, and it needs to change fast,” Sankey said. “That’s the view of my conference membership, our president and chancellor. I share that view, but I don’t think we’re alone. I don’t think it’s just two conferences that share that.”

Sankey and Pettitte agreed they both want to see the 12-team CFP field unfold before making any decisions about what might change when the next contract begins in 2026.

“It should go incredibly well,” Sankey said. “It has to be a successful launch. This is not the time to talk about the regime of ’26 or the format of ’26, but the immediate implementation is before us.”

Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione said the meetings were productive, focusing “a fair amount of time” on implementing the House settlement.

“It was an opportunity to learn from each other and have important conversations,” Castiglione said. “It was good to get in a room and compare notes with other athletics directors who face common challenges.”