Talking season is well underway in college football. That’s continued with SEC Media Days, where Georgia Bulldogs Kirby Smart made headlines on Tuesday.
Smart shared that he’s ready for the SEC to break away from the NCAA. This comes after SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey set the tone by talking about that possibility himself.
“Yeah, I’ve actually been there for a long time,” Smart said, via On3’s Brett McMurphy.
This comes at a point of massive change for college athletics. With revenue sharing, NIL, and the Transfer Portal, the NCAA has seemingly had less power over its member institutions than ever before. Of course, the NCAA itself is made up of institutions that choose to be a part of it and have it govern them, but shifting away from that model would still be massive.
This also comes when a bipartisan bill was introduced called the “Protect College Sports Act.” However, the SEC has expressed major concerns about aspects of that bill.
There has been some talk about a super league in college football. That would likely see more than just the SEC break away to form a new level of the sport. That includes the Big Ten, Notre Dame, and potentially other major programs.
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey is Ready to Break from the NCAA
GettySEC Commissioner Greg Sankey
Kirby Smart was following the lead of the SEC Commissioner, Greg Sankey. Amid all of those building frustrations, he made it clear that the future isn’t clear, and that the league is looking at a possible split from the NCAA.
“They’re real,” Greg Sankey said, arguing this wasn’t a ploy in negotiations. “The frustrations (for some) that bring them to the point of saying we should look at something significantly different.”
The SEC is clearly unhappy with the direction the NCAA has taken in recent years. However, the coaches and administrators still want to see guardrails put into place and regulations followed. That means rules, which have to follow the law and not violate antitrust. Then, it requires enforcement, which the NCAA has been struggling to do. In other words, the SEC would still need to be governed by someone, be it the league office or another organization.
On a national level, the SEC has seen a downturn in success on the football field. From 2014 to 2023, there was a four-team College Football Playoff. During that time, the SEC won the national championship six out of 10 seasons. However, in the last two seasons, the CFP expanded to 12 teams. In those two years, and in the final year of the four-team field, the SEC failed to even play for a championship.
Paul Finebaum Warned of Roadblocks to an SEC Breakaway
GettyPaul Finebaum
Despite the SEC arguing that these are real talks to break from the NCAA, not everyone is buying it. In fact, Paul Finebaum of the SEC Network recently pushed back on the idea that it’s happening soon.
“I think that’s what they would like to do,” Finebaum said on Get Up. “The issue there is litigation for antitrust. If the Big Ten and the SEC suddenly formed a Super League, they would get destroyed in court, and that’s really the issue because all these players are going to court for their sixth, seventh, and eighth year of eligibility. We saw Sorsby do it in the gambling case.”
It comes down to the anti-trust laws. Until there’s an exemption, and by no means will there ever even be an exemption, Finebaum believes they’re in a difficult legal position.
“So I think everyone has to stay on their own terms: The Big 12, the Big Ten, the ACC, but I think they can create their own rules. But without Congress giving them an antitrust exemption, which the major sports leagues have, as you all know, they’re still vulnerable, and that is really where we are right now,” Finebaum said.
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