Mr. Sankey
Hi! My name is Jerry Hinnen. I'm a college football writer with CBSSports.com, and I'm writing to congratulate you on your first official day as SEC commissioner. So ... congratulations! I'm sure you'll do a great job!
Of course, Greg – can I call you Greg? Great! – the honest truth is that after Mike Slive's tenure, I wonder if you even have to do a great job. As everyone's said, Greg, filling the shoes of arguably the most influential man in college athletics won't be easy. But with expansion completed, new TV contracts signed, the SEC Network launched and thriving, a seven-year run of BCS championships cementing the league's status as the highest-profile conference in college athletics' highest-profile sport, the hard work seems done. You don't have to fill Mr. Slive's shoes, Greg! Flop around in them like my four-year-old in her mom's heels! Just keep the money machine humming, herd a few cats when the league's optics make it necessary, rattle a few Slive-like sabers for the league's good now and then, and you're golden!
Here's the thing, though, Greg: just because it's not necessary to do a great job doesn't mean you can't, either. You don't have to be Mike Slive, but you can still be Greg Sankey – and make being Greg Sankey mean just as much as being Mike Slive has to this point. Assuming you're in the office for anywhere near as long as your predecessor, you'll likely have an opportunity to make a Texas A&M- and Missouri-sized decision somewhere along the line. But even if not, making a series of smaller choices that boost the bottom line for fans and athletes – the ones, after all, that are greasing the wheels of that money machine in the first place – might matter just as much.
"Now wait just a minute, Jerry," you're probably saying. "What kind of choices did you have in mind here?"
I'm so glad you asked Greg! Here are a few humble suggestions that could kick off your tenure with a bang:
Bump the league's conference football schedule to nine games. I know your coaches much prefer the current "eight league games-plus-a Power Five nonconference game" setup to a full nine-game league slate, and I don't blame them. The heavyweights get to keep playing their recruiting-friendly blockbuster neutral-site games (and still have room for three scheduled wins at home), the lighter weights get to aim for the lower rungs on the Power Five scheduling ladder (and bowl eligibility) without embarrassing the conference, everyone maintains far greater scheduling flexibility, there's one less potential loss on the schedule, etc. I get it.
But it doesn't mean that, from the fan's perspective, I like it. Where football is concerned, Alabama and Georgia -- or Florida and Auburn, or LSU and Tennessee -- aren't really in the same conference. Practically speaking, they're nonconference teams with a firm "let's play twice every 12 years" scheduling agreement. Especially with the playoff ensuring that a loss -- and maybe even two losses in the right season -- isn't all that damaging to a team's playoff hopes, it's time to buck up, add another cross-divisional rotating spot, and make the SEC whole again. Even in your league, Greg, the fans need the occasional carrot to keep shelling out for ever-more-expensive tickets, and I have to think your TV partners would be giddy at the thought of having options like Gators vs. Tide or Tigers vs. Bulldogs or Gamecocks vs. Aggies far more often than they do currently.
Your coaches won't like it, but given what they're being paid these days, they'll live somehow. The Pac-12's do, anyway.
Take the lead in developing better officiating. Whether you're a coach, player or fan, there's not a much worse feeling than the sense a critical game was decided -- whole or in part -- by shoddy officiating. The good news, Greg, is that SEC football officials aren't nearly as bad as many league fans seem to believe; at the very least, since the nadir of the infamous unsportsmanlike conduct flag against A.J. Green in 2009, they've been less obtrusive than some of their peers in other conferences.
But there is, as the saying goes, always room for improvement. The replay system can be streamlined, its rulings made more consistent. The extra official experiment should be continued. It's likewise worth experimenting with whether (as in the NFL) the umpire is better positioned behind the offensive line-of-scrimmage.
Most importantly, the SEC should take the forefront in officiating transparency. Make the head official available to the media afterward; catalog every call made in the closing moments of a close game, a la the NBA; continue admitting fault and even publicly disciplining officials when calls are missed, but also publicly credit the crew rated to have the best performance in a given week. Yes, all of that will shine a brighter spotlight on officials, but it might also help humanize them; in my experience, fans can use the reminder they're not watching black-and-white striped robots. (A lot of this same transparency would go a long way in other sports, too.)
Of course, Greg, you probably have your own ideas about how to address this issue. Suggestions on how to improve officiating have been around for as long as the officials themselves have, and frankly I would expect your ideas to be better than mine. You're the commissioner! The important thing is recognizing that even if better officiating doesn't generate much offseason buzz, come the fall, it's going to matter far more than the controversy du jour -- and that the SEC will be ready to put its best possible foot forward in this area.
Sponsor more sports. However you slice it, Greg, your league and its schools have as much money to toss around as anyone. So why do they field fewer teams than anyone? The SEC sponsors just 21 sports across men's and women's athletics, the fewest of any Power Five conference*.
Much of this responsibility lies with schools, naturally – if they want to butter their football-lovin' donors' bread with Mothratron rather than start a fencing program, it's tough to tell them they can't – and many athletic staples in other parts of the country (lacrosse, field hockey, wrestling, etc.) don't have the same foothold at the high school level in SEC country.
Still, at this point, most schools could fund men's soccer or women's rowing with the money found in their metaphorical couch cushions, and each additional team means that much more additional scholarships to SEC schools for the deserving kids on those teams. Take the reins here, Greg.
Have the SEC Network show more classic SEC football games. I don't really know how much pull you've got here, Greg, but I for one would like to fall asleep on the couch to the strains of, say, 1995 Tennessee-Georgia far more often than I do.
That's all for now, Greg. Again, congratulations. Hope you like your new office! If it gets too hot in there in the Birmingham summers, I'd recommend one of those little desk fans.
Sincerely yours,
Jerry Hinnen
