There are sporting events that produce news and there are sporting events that produce news before the sport has started, which is the specific achievement of SEC Media Days, now underway at the Tampa Marriott Water Street in Tampa, Florida, where Greg Sankey is addressing whether the Southeastern Conference plans to break away from the NCAA, Lane Kiffin is holding a press conference, Arch Manning is making his first media day appearance as Texas Longhorns starting quarterback, and Michigan is simultaneously attempting to steal the spotlight by announcing a decision about Athletic Director Warde Manuel, which is what a Big Ten program does when the SEC is in Tampa getting all the attention.
Sankey, the SEC commissioner who has navigated the conference through expansion, the College Football Playoff, NIL legislation, and a year of Congressional hearings over college sports governance, addressed breakaway talk today, per Fox News’s OutKick coverage, in a framework that stopped short of confirming or denying the specific plan while acknowledging that the conversation is real and the conference has options. The SEC has 16 member schools, more than $900 million in annual revenue, the country’s most-watched college football games, and an ongoing dispute with the NCAA about governance that has produced Senators Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell jointly pushing legislation, which is either a sign that college sports governance has become genuinely important or that there is nothing else to do in the Senate this summer while the Iran war continues.
Manning, 22, is the nephew of Peyton Manning and Eli Manning, the grandson of Archie Manning, and the quarterback who was so heavily recruited in high school that ESPN hired someone specifically to track his recruitment decisions. He redshirted, he developed, and he is now standing in Tampa talking to reporters about his expectations for the season, which is what SEC quarterbacks do in July. The expectations are significant. The question is whether he meets them. Lane Kiffin held a press conference, which he will be quoted from extensively because Kiffin at a microphone is one of the more reliable sources of quotable material in college football, which is not a field short of quotable material.
The football season begins in September. The breakaway question will not be resolved by September. Both are expected to produce significant coverage.
When the SEC commissioner is addressing breakaway talk, Arch Manning is at his first media day, and Lane Kiffin has a microphone, what exactly is college football doing in July?
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