SEC's Greg Sankey confident NCAA Division I can operate together - ESPN

DESTIN, Fla. — As the SEC spring meetings concluded on Thursday, commissioner Greg Sankey acknowledged that while college athletics is in «uncharted waters,» he believes the NCAA Division I schools can continue to operate together, and his conference is prepared «to take a leadership role» as they all navigate the historic change.

Sankey said the NCAA basketball tournament in March is what binds Division I together, but if it's going to stay together, «there are pressures that have to be recognized.»

«We've allowed Division I to grow,» he said. «We have conferences solving their membership problem by inviting non-Division I members in, but we haven't modified the bracket size. I think common sense says you have to dig into that. There are competitive issues, there are calendar issues, there are economic issues. But I do think that March can be kept together. That doesn't mean it stays exactly the same.

»We also have to recognize the differences that do exist within the group that pursue that brass ring of the tournament access opportunity."

The SEC has formed multiple working groups to help tackle the weighty issues looming after the House v. NCAA settlement, including one to look at conference rules that may need to me removed or implemented. Another group will take a deeper dive into the league's federal legislative efforts, and another will look into oversight and governance of the settlement itself.

There's also a group of athletic directors looking into roster structures, which is something Sankey said needs to move expeditiously. Conference leaders agreed, though, that one major next step will be to see a longer-form filing of the settlement, part of which will reveal how the plaintiffs plan to disperse the