SEC commissioner Greg Sankey: 'No sense of urgency' for league to expand beyond 16 teams

ATLANTA — In his first public media appearance since USC and UCLA announced their intent to eventually join the Big Ten, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said on Monday his conference is in no rush to expand beyond 16 teams, but that the league will «be nimble» as it continues to monitor the landscape.

«There's no sense of urgency, no sense of panic,» Sankey told reporters at SEC media days at the College Football Hall of Fame. «We're not just shooting for a number of affiliations that make us better. Could they be out there? I would never say they're not. I would never say that we will. We're going to be evaluating the landscape. I'm not going to speculate. And I actually am watching a lot of this activity operating around us more so than impacting us directly.»

The decisions of two of the Pac-12's flagship schools to join the Big Ten on Aug. 2, 2024, elicited public speculation about what conference — if any — will make the next move. Sankey said he was at his lake house in New York, an attempt at a summer vacation, when he heard the news. He said he waited a week to gather the league's presidents and chancellors together to make sure he had all of the facts — but also to prevent any inaccurate reports that the meeting meant they were planning an immediate response.

«We wanted to be patient and wanted to communicate,» he said.

Sankey's comments came a week after the Big 12's media days, during which incoming commissioner Brett Yormark was candid in his comments about the Big 12 «exploring all options» regarding expansion.

«We're open for business,» Yorkmark said last week when specifically asked about adding schools from the Pac-12. «And optionality is good. And we're vetting through all of them. I think it's fair to say