So Sankey should have left it alone.
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Q: I’m so sorry, I’m going to ask you another Saban question. This issue is too serious and too relatable to all to be vague and delicate.
Sankey’s first “state of the SEC” speech at media days last July served as more of an introduction of the newly minted commissioner than it did as a platform for change.
That’s sympathetic, but this was an ideal time to introduce a program to educate.
Maybe he’s just not the direct type.
And that’s where Sankey, by all accounts a capable administrator so far in his tenure replacing Mike Slive, found himself Monday afternoon. Guess he expected us to pick up on what he was trying to say. “The fact that we come to Media Days, and there maybe are a few more headlines is not new …”
Probably more than any player interviewed on Monday or will be over the next three days, Burks spent less time talking about his game or his team’s prospects and more about the world around him, one that’s been frightening and contentious.
Though Sankey was opening SEC Football Media Days at the the Hyatt Regency-Wynfrey Hotel, he said it was important to honor the SEC’s most accomplished women’s basketball coach nearly two weeks after the Tennessee legend’s death and days before the celebration of her life Thursday at Thompson-Boling Arena. They are engaged with conversations with campus leadership. “I won’t predict outcomes”.
Has Sankey forgotten about what happened in Missouri when the football team went on strike about racial injustice that led a major shakeup with the university president and chancellor quitting?
Sankey is the most powerful man of the most powerful conference in all of college sports. This year, deep into a summer again tarnished by nationwide violence, Sankey opened his remarks with words of condolence and solidarity for the recent tragedies in Baton Rouge, La., Falcon Heights, Minn. and Dallas, Texas. Not every athlete will speak out publicly.
The Auburn rush end said he didn’t want to talk about now and maybe he will “10 to 15 years from now”. “I don’t see myself any less”. Burks called it a “safe space to talk about issues, be a strength for each other and dispel negative stereotypes”. Show you relate. Show some humanity. When “it means more”, one needs to expect to have to do more to confront those realities.
And then finally: This line of question makes me wonder, do you feel like the SEC has an image problem right now?
“I do look and observe that individual’s act, and it is hard to sometimes predict the actions of individuals”, Sankey said. “Becomes a hard question because I interact with people of all races, backgrounds and colors, yet you’re reminded that the answer is likely not”.
Mason closed out day one strong, possibly boosting his approval rating in the SEC and in Nashville. That can be said for any situation in our society.
So those shootings hit home because of his connection with the city.
“We hope both of the current matters are completed in a timely manner”, Sankey said. We wouldn’t trade these experiences and opportunities for anything.
Sankey said the league created a working group this offseason to help the SEC work towards meeting the NCAA expectations while “avoiding integrity compromises that challenge our entire mission”.
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► “I think Coach Mason is one of the greatest defensive minds in the nation, so it’ll be just a matter of us learning his scheme”. And since a significant amount of the student-athletes who play in the top revenue-generated sports – football and men’s basketball – are black, this was a ideal time for Sankey to let it be known he feels their pain and hopes they’re safe out there.
