The accelerating separation of the SEC from the rest of college sports is becoming even more stark as commissioner Greg Sankey has taken several fresh shots against two other power conferences—as well as the broader status quo.

Amid ongoing discussion about a potential further expansion of the College Football Playoff and a move to a straight-seeding model for 2025, Sankey criticized the Big 12 and ACC, which both supported the shift. 

“I don’t need lectures from others about the good of the game … coordinated press releases about the good of the game,” Sankey said at the conference’s spring meeting in Florida. “I’m looking for ideas to move us forward.”

Sankey, however, then went even further, also suggesting a governance model in college sports in which the SEC, along with the other three power conferences, would have even more control.

“[The] SEC has asked for more autonomy for the four [power] conferences,” Sankey said. “I don’t have the authority to just depart [the NCAA]. I’ve shared with the decision-making working group that I have people in my room asking, ‘Why are we still in the NCAA?’”

The Big 12 rejected Sankey’s suggestions regarding the CFP.

“There was no press release from the Big 12—let alone a coordinated one with the ACC—regarding straight seeding,” said the conference’s VP of communications and strategy, Clark Williams, in a social media post. 

The public back-and-forth, however, shows the mounting pressure to land coveted CFP slots—which have been worth $4 million to conferences for each first-round berth, an $8 million guarantee for those receiving initial byes, and then another $6 million for each school that reaches the semifinals and for each school in the national championship game. The 2025 model will see the four highest-ranked teams earning first-round byes, but the conferences with the four highest-ranked champions will still pocket the automatic $8 million payout, even if their champion is not ranked inside the top four.

Momentum continues to grow toward a potential CFP expansion to 16 teams, something that Sankey said “has had more traction in my league than I would’ve anticipated.” Within that is a much-discussed model in which the SEC and Big Ten would each have four automatic bids, while the ACC and Big Ten each get two, leaving just four for the rest of college football. 

The football situation additionally parallels what’s already happening in men’s basketball, with the SEC recently landing a record 14 spots in March Madness, including eventual champion Florida, with a similarly unprecedented $70 million haul from the tournament. The March Madness situation created an absurdity in which an ultimately declined NIT invitation was extended to the SEC’s 20-loss, last-place South Carolina.

Political Attention 

A move by the SEC and Big Ten to separate further from the rest of college sports is already ringing alarm bells among some lawmakers. While concern continues over the many implications of the proposed House v. NCAA settlement, Rep. Brendan Boyle (D., Pa.) threatened further inquiry. 

“Let me state this as clearly as I can: the Big Ten and SEC should be very, very careful about some of the decisions they are about to make,” Boyle said in a social media post. “Because they appear hellbent on ruining major college football, I think they need congressional hearings into their collusion.”

The Caitlin Clark Effect has been a net positive for the WNBA and all its teams. But with the star guard expected to miss a minimum of two weeks, the league will see the flip side of her impact. And there are already initial data points.

The Indiana Fever will play two road games during the coming two-week stretch—both of which were moved by their opponents to arenas with a larger capacity—and the ticket prices have drastically dropped for both games since Clark’s injury was announced Monday.

Wednesday’s Fever game vs. the Washington Mystics at CFG Bank Arena in Baltimore has a get-in price of $22, down 47% from the $41 minimum ticket price before the announcement, according to TickPick. CFG Bank Arena holds about 14,000 fans, significantly more than the around 4,000 that fit the CareFirst Arena, the Mystics’ usual home.

A Mystics spokesperson told Front Office Sports on Monday that the team is “not planning to make changes to tickets.”

Get-in tickets for the Fever’s rivalry game against the Chicago Sky on June 7 are down 71% from $86 to $25. The game will be played at United Center, the home of the NBA’s Bulls, which seats close to 21,000, the largest capacity of any NBA team. The Sky typically play their games at the Wintrust Arena, which seats about 10,400.

Clark, who has yet to miss a WNBA regular-season game and played in all her college games at Iowa, could potentially miss more than two weeks. The Fever’s next game is a June 10 road matchup against the Atlanta Dream, which will be 15 days after Monday’s injury announcement. The average purchase price for the five Fever games until June 10—including two Indiana home dates—is $80, down from $137 before Monday.

The get-in price for the Fever’s game vs. the Dream remains high at $147, though the game will be held at the Dream’s Gateway Center Arena, which has the smallest capacity in the WNBA at 3,500 seats.

The Fever have five remaining road games in June after the two-week mark of Clark’s injury, including the Dream game on June 10, and the get-in price for each game still exceeds $100 on TickPick. Those games include a pair of milestones: the Fever’s first game at the Chase Center against the Golden State Valkyries on June 19 and the first game between Clark and Paige Bueckers and the Dallas Wings on June 27.