SEC considers nuclear option: If you want it fixed, do it yourself
MIRAMAR BEACH, FL – The problems couldn’t be more clear, the answer now quickly coming into focus.
If you want something done, you better do it yourself.
“I’ve said this for a long time to our president,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “If we can’t find rules that everybody plays by, then we should play by our own.”
And then, as the first day of the SEC spring meetings in this Gulf Coast resort town ramped up, Smart left a stink bomb the size of the state of Texas for all of college sports to deal with.
“I’m not afraid to break away and say that our conference is strong enough to go out and play,” he said.
By itself. Head-to-head. With its own rules, and its own playoff.
With its own calendar and enforcement, pay structure and player movement, and — clutched your pearls, baby — maybe even its own collective bargaining agreement with players.
Look, desperate times call for the biggest, baddest conference in college sports to lead or get out of the way.
Late last week, Georgia president Jere Morehead — the most powerful president in college sports — said essentially the same thing. On Monday afternoon, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey didn’t exactly shy away from the idea of going it alone, though couching it by saying the league “talks every spring” about rules they could make and and follow alone.
Yeah, I ain’t buying it. This has more legs to it than anyone here admits.
The SEC has the biggest, strongest television network (ESPN) as its exclusive partner. The SEC generates the largest television numbers — by far — of any conference in college sports.
The SEC sends more teams to the football, basketball, baseball and softball tournaments — the revenue-producing sports — than any other league in college sports.
Money, everyone, isn’t the issue. Or as one SEC athletic director told USA TODAY Sports, “Could it work? You better believe it could. But at what price? Are we stewards of college sports, or in it for ourselves?”
But when you can’t even control schools within your league because everyone plays under the rule of the larger NCAA umbrella, there’s only one logical move. When schools in your own conference refuse to follow rules that everyone agreed to, and face little to no consequences because the NCAA is an unwieldy mess afraid of its own litigation shadow, what’s the alternative?
There’s a reason Morehead said the SEC would move to take care of logistical problems on its own if it couldn’t get help from Congress. Blaming a more dysfunctional group than the NCAA isn’t exactly earning sympathy points, but you get the gist.
"I'd say we're in a worse position now than a year ago," Morehead said Tuesday on the Paul Finebaum show. "We're close to anarchy. Time's running out on us."
The SEC is tired of dealing with unintended consequences of — take your pick — private NIL, free player movement, enforcement, judge shopping and academic integrity. Much less a new punt rule.
That’s right, a punt rule.
Want to know how utterly ridiculous this unruly mess has become? Long story short: NCAA approved a new punt formation rule this spring, and coaches complained — some coaches who were on the committee that sent the new rule to the NCAA in the first place.
“Maybe they find a local judge that will allow them to use the formation they want,” quipped Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz.
This is where we are in this nonstop trip down the rabbit hole. Every month brings a deeper fall into the abyss of nothing works ― so screw it, why follow rules?
But if there is an SEC breakaway, rules are set, enforcement is clear and if you want to be part of the most successful conference in college sports, you’ll follow our rules. Period.
If you want a conference that’s run like a multibillion dollar business and not a Friday night frat party, you’ll follow our rules. And if you don’t?
You’re punished quickly and efficiently, and multiple infractions results in expulsion. Because there’s always someone willing to take your spot.
The days of the NCAA pandering to everyone and prioritizing no one are over. You can’t shop for judges to avoid rules, you can’t recruit players enrolled in another school, you can’t circumvent a salary cap or collective bargaining agreement.
Then watch the most powerful conference in college sports grow beyond anything anyone could’ve imagined. The NFL has its own rules and enforces them with extreme prejudice, and is the most successful professional sports league on the planet.
If you want something done, you better do it yourself.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: SEC must break away from rest of college football, enact lasting reform
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