Someone is finally trying to figure out how to fix college sports. Hint: it’s not the NCAA.
According to Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellinger, the SEC and the Big Ten are planning on creating a joint advisory group to “find solutions and steer college sports into the future.” Additional reporting from ESPN’s Peter Thamel suggested the two conferences would “look at the entire college sports landscape and solutions within it.”
“Pressures are mounting,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey told Yahoo Sports. “We are not going to be status quo.”
The SEC expanded on the news in a statement released Friday. The conference noted this move was done as a leadership move “in developing solutions for a sustainable future in college sports.” The group will consult student-athletes and other key leadership bodies within the conferences.
“The Big Ten and the SEC have substantial investment in the NCAA and there is no question that the voices of our two conferences are integral to governance and other reform efforts,” Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti said, via the SEC’s statement. “We recognize the similarity in our circumstances, as well as the urgency to address the common challenges we face.”
Additionally, the advisory group has no authority to act independently or as anything other than a consulting body.
The landscape of college sports has drastically shifted over the course of the last calendar year. With the collapse of the Pac-12 and the mass exodus of the Big 12 the SEC and Big 10 have expanded to include some of college sports’ most iconic and influential names. With the early period of NIL and the transfer portal, the landscape is in the midst of massive flux. The two biggest conferences hope they can help lay the architecture for the next few decades of college football.
