Jeez, how the man didn’t get laughed out of the room after saying this yesterday, I don’t know.
The commissioner of the SEC used his opening remarks at SEC Media Days to stress that his league would always try to ‘do the right thing.’
“… Our institutions are expected and will continue to handle these matters with integrity,” Sankey said. “We hope both of the current matters are completed in a timely manner. We understand there are issues that arise. That’s why the expectation for integrity is so high. And as we move forward together, we can’t have any more of those issues arise.”
Tennessee recently settled a Title XI lawsuit to the tune of a $2.48 million dollar settlement while Mississippi is currently in the middle of an NCAA investigation centered on allegations of players receiving impermissible benefits.
“The central thought must be, must be, we never have a team return a championship trophy, never vacate any wins, and never have one of our teams precluded from postseason competition because we either can’t follow the NCAA’s rules or can’t meet the expectations for academic success,” he added. “We have made enormous progress.”
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.”
Your league is doing a bang-up job with that integrity thingy, Commish.
He added that it’s imperative the league must understand the high expectations placed on it when it comes to the personal conduct of each of its players.
“Young people need to understand the serious consequences associated with their behaviors, and our leaders need to make certain the laws and expectations of society are unquestionably followed,” said Sankey. “As leaders, we have to hold ourselves to high standards so that we are the example for our student-athletes.”
Oy.
Get The Picture 
It’s relative.
Relative to the tOSU, UNC, PSU, and Baylor scandals, SEC issues look like very small fish in a very big pond.
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Really? UT’s problem looks small next to Baylor’s?
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Judging by media reaction: yes.
Not saying it’s right.
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You always instruct us to move along if your opinion is not appreciated. Maybe you should do the same with Sankey. Thanks for the blog but it may be helpful to smile occasionally.
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Absolutely not. Nobody gets bounced for having a different opinion from mine.
“Move along” applies to someone who repeats the same comment over and over, regardless of the topic introduced in the post.
If you don’t want to read about Greg Sankey, there’s a pretty easy way to do that.
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To be fair, sometimes they do get it right. I seem to recall the conference dealing with oversigning when there were doubts (not from me) that they would. They’ve also dealt with accepting dismissed players recently, again because they were forced to by the actions of certain members (looking at you Bama.)
I certainly agree that individual schools can be pretty shady, but in comparison the conference does a reasonable job with what it can control. In short, I’d have a different reaction if these sorts of quotes were coming from certain member institutions.
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“Young people need to understand the serious consequences associated with their behaviors,…”
Read, the SEC could lose money if you screw up!
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He should really just call these teams out by name. We know who they are, and by hiding behind corporate talking points, he’s doing no one a favor.
Coward.
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Penn Wagers would like to comment.
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“The commissioner of the SEC used his opening remarks at SEC Media Days to stress that his league would always try to ‘do the right thing.'”
The Jims – Harbaugh, Delany and Bonnie – react to Greg’s stand up act
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All and all I thought the Commissioner put on a great performance. He, like any good C.E.O., accentuated the positives and eliminated the negatives. In other words he BS’ed his way through in righteous fashion. That’s why they pay him the big bucks.
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