The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is one of, if not the most powerful, conferences in college sports.
During the recent SEC Media Days in Tampa, Commissioner Greg Sankey was asked if there were serious discussions about the conference breaking away from the rest of the association.
"They're real," he said. "People have talked about that. They've opined about the frustrations that bring them to the point of saying, 'We should look at something significantly different.'"
"I do not believe that is a leverage point," he added. "I think that's just honest communication. That national organization must function in a healthy manner, otherwise, that simmering will continue."
To understand whether the SEC could really leave the NCAA and form its own governing body, one must understand why the conference would even consider such a thing. On that note, Sankey acknowledged the SEC's unhappiness with Congress' handing of collegiate sports, including the proposed Save College Sports Act and the new five-year eligibility rule.
The SEC and the Big Ten, the oldest Division I intercollegiate athletic conference in the United States, have publicly pushed back on the Save College Sports Act with a 10-point paper on changes they would like to see to the bill.
Also, with the recent Brennan Sorsby saga showing the NCAA's inability to enforce its own rules, it seems like the conferences are the ones who hold most of the bargaining power over the national organization.
ESPN'S Josh Pate told "The Rich Eisen Show" that he does not see the discussions as a bluff.
"I spent the entire spring going around multiple conferences, SEC included, and a lot of off-the-record conversations sort of sounded even more colorfully in the same vein that Greg Sankey's on-the-record comments sounded," the sports analyst reported. "That's from everywhere from [athletic directors] to university presidents."
He said the SEC and the Big Ten recognize that the NCAA needs them, but he is unsure what the line in the sand will be.
