NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The leaders of the two most powerful conferences in college athletics made clear Thursday they have zero interest in ceding any of that power to third parties like private equity.
In the aftermath of a historic meeting between Big Ten commissioner Tony Pettiti and SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, the two were in lock-step pushing back on the value of allowing outside entities into their world. In recent weeks, groups like “Project Rudy” and the College Student Football League have generated media attention around super league concepts.
“It’s no coincidence they ramped up their public relations schemes around our meeting,” Sankey said.
Pettiti strongly pushed back on the value of allowing those private equity-backed groups to wrest control of college football, saying that nothing about the concepts he’s seen have featured anything proprietary. The Big Ten commissioner believes everything those groups have pitched can be done by the college sports leaders themselves.
“The notion that college football is broken is just not right,” Pettiti said. “You cover our game on a weekly basis, you see the interest — speaking of the Big Ten and SEC — the size of the audience, the passion, the quality of play, all of it. Are there things that we can do better? Of course, but that’s our responsibility to do that.”
Amid tremendous change within the college sports ecosystem and only days after the House vs. NCAA lawsuit settlement was preliminarily approved, Big Ten and SEC leaders — including athletic directors — met at the Grand Hyatt hotel in downtown Nashville to sketch out how the two power conferences can help shape the future. The in-person meeting was the result of months of work after the initial formation of a joint advisory committee earlier this year.
The group discussed the College Football Playoff, the $2.8 billion House settlement, NCAA governance issues, scheduling more games between the two conferences and much more Thursday in meetings that stretched a little more than six hours.
The two conference commissioners have quickly developed a strong working relationship since Pettiti took over the job in May 2023. Sankey and Pettiti’s predecessor, Kevin Warren, didn’t see eye-to-eye on many issues, limiting the opportunities for college sports’ two most powerful conferences to team up.
But Pettiti and Sankey, two native New Yorkers, recognize the power in combining their influence. It started with a push for a bigger cut of the College Football Playoff revenue, resulting in more money for both. Combined, the two conferences will receive more than 50 percent of the CFP revenue payout starting in 2026.
In Nashville, athletic leaders discussed the CFP selection process, mulling what the format could look like in 2026 and beyond. Sankey said the two conferences don’t “unilaterally” control the future format, whether that’s expanded the number of teams or the amount of automatic qualifiers. They do, however, “have a defined role” in that process.
Both conference leaders were mum on any future format changes, insisting they’d like to see what will happen in the first year of the 12-team playoff first.
“I want to see the selection process how it works, how the seeding works, how they evaluate and compare teams,” Pettiti said.
Heading into the Nashville meetings there was a conversation around what a team-up between the Big Ten and SEC could mean long-term. Some in college athletics who believe it is setting the path for an eventual Big Ten and SEC breakaway from the NCAA. Sankey pushed back on those narratives Thursday, but his frustration with the NCAA couldn’t have been more clear. The SEC commissioner bluntly called for changes to the NCAA governance model, citing its inability to keep up with the fast-changing landscape of the sport as the reason for these talks between conferences in the first place.
“The (NCAA) Division 1 Council doesn’t work given what’s changing around us,” Sankey said. “I think the board of directors at the Division 1 level has to change, and has to change rapidly.”
If it can’t do so, it was clear Thursday that the Big Ten and SEC are ready use their bully pulpit to enact change themselves.
