SEC Coach Takes BIG Shot at Big 12 and ACC; But Is He Right?

The Protect College Sports Act may be falling apart before it ever reaches a vote. New disputes over the College Football Playoff calendar, bowl game contracts, roster spending and conference expansion have created even more hurdles for the bill in Congress.

What happens if the legislation does not pass by August 7? Greg Sankey has repeatedly warned that the SEC could pursue a different path, but the commissioner is now clarifying what an SEC “breakaway” would actually mean. We examine whether the SEC truly wants to separate from the rest of college football and why self-governance may be nearly impossible to enforce.

The bill could also create one final round of massive college football realignment. A proposed anti-expansion provision could cap conferences at 19 members and force schools changing power conferences to operate as independents for five years. Could that push ACC programs to make a move toward the SEC or Big Ten before the legislation passes?

Plus, new Florida head coach Jon Sumrall took a shot at the Big 12 and ACC while discussing the differences between Power Four conferences. Was Sumrall simply repeating the SEC company line, or did he make a fair point about strength of schedule and College Football Playoff access?

We break down the Protect College Sports Act, Greg Sankey’s latest comments, the possibility of SEC and Big Ten expansion, Jon Sumrall’s comments about the Big 12 and why the SEC continues to attack the rest of college football.

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#CollegeFootball #Big12 #SEC #CollegeFootballPlayoff #ConferenceRealignment #ProtectCollegeSportsAct #GregSankey #FloridaGators #JonSumrall #ACC

Transcript

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Well, in four days of SEC Media Days, you knew there would be something coming the ACC in Big Twelve's way. You knew the SEC was going to punch down at some point, and today it happened. Today it happened. We're going to talk about it. John Summerall is the latest to do it, the new head coach at Florida. Is he right in what he said about the Big 12 and ACC and the power two world that we seem to be living in? Plus, update on the Senate bill. I know some of you are probably tired of this by this point, but if you are, you might be getting your wish because things are not looking good for the Senate bill right now. This thing could be dead on arrival or dead before arrival to the Senate. We're going to discuss a quick live show tonight. I have got to get in and get out. I have a heart out at 6:30. So we're going to have some fun for the next 25 minutes until I do get out of here. And then I'm headed out of town this weekend. But I appreciate everybody who's hanging out on the live show. If you are listening to Open for Business, welcome in. I am John Kurtz, your host, uh taking a holistic view of college football here, not just from the Big Ten and SEC standpoint. Thank you to everybody who does subscribe. Like and subscribe. If you're listening on the audio platform, Spotify and Audio or Spotify and Apple, remember that this is a YouTube live show. And if you subscribe to the channel on YouTube and you click the bell, you get notifications every time it is that I am going live. Hello, Bracket Cat. Hello, Fongway. Thank you for hanging out here. The live chat should be fun. Hit the dollar sign below the chat box if you want to submit a super chat. Great way to support the channel. Also guarantee that your question or comment makes it on. If you're not watching live, John dash Kurtz-4 on Venmo, you can leave me a question or comment there. All right, let's get rolling. We got to get right into it. You just knew an SEC coach was going to take a shot at the SEC. Start that again. You just knew an SEC coach was going to take a shot at the Big 12 or the ACC. And of course, it did happen. This time it was John Sumerall, new head coach of Florida. Was he wrong to do it? Is he wrong in what he says? I'm actually going to cut him a little bit of slack here, which may surprise you. All right. But let me explain. It feels like this happens every year. And it's, by the way, not just the Big 12 and the ACC that the SEC takes shots at. It was everybody. Nick Sabin today gave a stump speech about why the Big Ten is in fact not actually better than the SEC. Uh in spite of the Big Ten winning the last three national championships and the SEC not even making a final. It's a nuanced debate. But this is where you gotta just take your medicine. It gets annoying. And SEC fans, like I I come here from a place of respect. But you do have to understand that when all of you get together for four days in it was Tampa this year. You get together for four days in the groupthink mentality of the SEC over there. Boy, the results of that can be a little bit nauseating for everybody else. You have to at least understand that. You can stand by your league, but you have to understand that. Some of it's very entertaining. Okay, some of it's very entertaining. I mean, Lane Kiffin had some very entertaining comments. He talked about getting off all of social media because of a bet with his son. Uh, but Lane Kiffin also debatably took a bit of a shot at the Big 12 as well. Lane Kiffin says the college football playoff selection committee needs to get to a point where they can actually look at teams and say the team that's nine and three with their schedule is a better team than that 11-1 in a different conference. This has definitely been the rallying cry of the SEC. And this, like, look, you can call this taking a shot. I would classify this more as the SEC trying to advocate for some level of special and preferential treatment. But like, I understand why they do this. I know we all roll our eyes. I know we get tired of it. This goes back to Lane Kiffin in 2024, tweeting through not being in the college football playoff. But if you were an SEC coach, I understand why you would do this. Especially if you're Lane Kiffin right now. Think about Lane Kiffin. He's taking over LSU in an absolute playoff or bust scenario. Playoff or bust. Man, if he doesn't make the playoff, Baton Rouge is going to want to run him out of town. Baton Rouge is going to want to run him out of town. Brian Kelly was winning, just not at the level they wanted him to. So they got rid of him. They paid a ton of money to get rid of him. They gave Lane Kiffin more money than anybody in the country in NIL to go put that roster together. You got to make the playoff. And so laying the groundwork for, hey, we do have a tough schedule because the SEC is certainly the deepest conference in America. I'm going to start laying the groundwork for, hey, if we have three losses, we should be in the playoff. So I understand why he does this. But you could also file it under the same thing. It's a bit of a shot at the Big 12 or the ACC, saying, like, hey, if there's an 11-1 team over there, if it's SMU, if it's BYU, we should be getting in instead. Also had Steve Sarkeesian, as you might imagine, going through his spiel about how, hey, if we would have played directional state instead of Ohio State, we would have been 10-2 and we would have been in the College Football playoff. Once again, at least in that case, it's his team. Like I can understand why he does it, even if that narrative and storyline has grown a bit old and worn and tired by this point. But this is the one that certainly will get Big 12 fans fired up from John Summerl, the head coach at Florida. So, first of all, please do subscribe to the channel. Helps me if you do, those who watch but don't subscribe, many of you there are. Just one click will help me out a lot. Here's John Sumroll. Uh Florida's John Sumrol tells Brett McMurphy he thinks there is clearly the power to in college football. Obviously, meaning the SEC and Big Ten. Quote, I'm not knocking any league. And then there's a couple behind that, the Big 12 and ACC, and then the Americans right there. Like last year's ACC champion was who? Duke. We beat him in Tulane. All right. So this is coming at you from both angles, if you are a Big 12 or an ACC fan, because some are all saying clearly there's a power too. Clearly the SEC and Big Ten are above the rest of you guys. And then saying, hey, the Americans right on your heels. This is the worst case scenario. This is if you are on Big 12 or ACC Twitter, this is not the person that you want to see out there who's going to clip you from both sides to tell you that the Americans not that far behind and the SEC and Big Ten are that far ahead. Now, do I think there are some flaws to this? Of course. Do I think there is some truth to this? Of course. In terms of resources, brand power, that there is clearly a line of delineation behind the Big Ten and the SEC and everybody else. I think it would just be ignorant to not acknowledge that. However, do we remember who played in the national championship game? Yes, Indiana won, but Miami is from the ACC and they played in the national championship game. And I, you know, back to Lane Kiffin's comments and Steve Sarkeesians continuing to whine about 9-3 Texas not getting in while Miami did. Miami went to the national championship game and came within an eyelash of winning the national championship. So this really feels particularly unfair to the ACC. Like, man, come on. And this is where I do have to, though, cut actually a bit of slack to Summerall here. Yes, there are flaws with this. Well, there is truth in it. But Sumerall is also the new guy on the block in the SEC. Like he is a new SEC coach. And while I think a lot of the flailing and some of the punching down you've seen, even from like Steve Sarkeesian this offseason toward Joey McGuire at Texas Tech, I attribute a lot of that to a league that is flailing, not knowing its place in the world now, having been rocked off of the top by the Big Ten and everything that's happened over the last three years in college football. I do have to say here, John Sumerall has not been involved in that, but he is the new guy on the block. So you'd think, like, why is Sumerall doing this? Because he's not a part of this conference that's flailing, like you said, John. He hasn't been a head coach in the SEC. Why is he joining the chorus of this? Because he has to. You got to fall in line. Man, I mean, you're seeing everybody else around you do it. First of all, you are the product of the environment you surround yourself in. Like, you're the product of what do they always say? Like the six people you spend the most time with. Well, if you're spending a bunch of time with SEC coaches, I mean, it'd be impossible to not adopt this type of a mentality. And if you're the new guy in Media Days, you're just stepping up and taking your turn to go do what everybody else is doing. So from that standpoint, I cut him a little bit of slack. I also cut him a little bit of slack in saying, I mean, he did beat some power four teams at Duke. And he went on in this article, if you read it at on three, he went on to say, like, hey, you know, we would play SEC teams. That felt daunting when I looked at them on the other sideline. When I played teams from other power four leagues, I'd look across the way and be like, we're gonna be fine. We're gonna be fine. Beat Duke, beat Northwestern. I mean, look, I'm a K-State guy. I can remember playing at Tulane a couple of years ago. K-State won, but they had to hold on. They had to hold on to do it. So I will grant Summerall that he put his money where his mouth is to some extent. Now he was not playing the best teams in the Big 12 of the ACC. I have a feeling, had they lined up against Miami last year, things may not have gone very well. But I will cut him some slack. I know you're tired of me saying that. Also, Texas Tech fans, there was, if you dig deeper into this article, there was a bit of a dig at Texas Tech too, where he would go on to say, let's not act like all Power Four teams are alike and all G6 teams are alike. They're all different. We've seen the likes of Boise and the Tulanes and whoever beat the Power Fours. Now have those teams to this point the 12-team playoff had success? No. Does that mean they can't have success? No. They can still have success. I've watched Power 4 teams get blown out in those playoff games, too. Which, you know, if you're reading between the lines, that would seem to be Texas Tech, Oregon, right? So some of this is you gotta take a dose of reality. Yes, that there are parts of this that are true. If you're not a fan of an SEC or a Big Ten school, there are parts of this also to pick apart and attack. The bottom line is we are just in college sports in such a tribal partisan place. It's crazy. And when you combine that with having these media days that are, especially the SECs, that draws on for four days and everybody is just talk, talk, talk, talk, talking, and you're amongst yourselves in the different leagues, stuff like this is just going to come out. So I'm not losing my mind about all this, even though uh I know that some on Twitter, some on social that have seen this uh certainly are. We'll see if John Summerall is going to be up to the task at uh at Florida or not. That may be one blast point here. If I were a Miami fan, I'd be real irked by this because it's like, dude, you're in state. You've been, we we figured it out here in state. You guys are still lagging behind us in state. We played the national championship game last year. Keep the ACC out of your mouth. I would definitely have that stance if I were a Miami fan. All right, so I've got, what do we got here? 14 more minutes with you? 14 more minutes with you. Quick live show tonight. Thank you to everybody uh for showing up here at an early time. I got a jet out. I got a flight tomorrow, getting away for the weekend. So no Sunday live show. There may be some content for you, depending on what happens between now and then. I'll stay ready. You know, you always got to stay ready to do some content. But I wanted to get in a little bit of a live show for you tonight because I will be gone. Those listening on Apple or Spotify, make sure you subscribe to the YouTube channel. And those who are here, make sure you subscribe to the YouTube channel, my friends. You ready for another legal update? Let me put on my hobby lawyer cap here. The Protect College Sports Act may be dead on arrival. There has been just hurdle after hurdle after hurdle. And I know some of you are saying, yeah, of course, John. Yeah, I know. I know. So is the SEC gonna break away if this thing doesn't happen? And is there still a shot at realignment dominoes falling in all of this? Because I would say the answer is yes, and Ross Dellinger wrote about it in his latest piece. All right, so let's let's tackle it all here. Like, remember, the original idea here was we might get a vote on the Protect College Sports Act in the Senate this week. What a quaint thought that was. What a time to be alive that was when we thought that might happen. It's not going to happen. Uh, and a big part of it is because we just have more and more hurdles to work through, starting with the latest of which I really was just like beating my head against the table when I saw this from Ross today. This was his latest column for on three. It's not even something about the SEC or Big Ten now. We have a different party, a different aggrieved party here, and that is the Bulls. The Bull system. Those who have scheduled out the playoff games and the Bulls. Because deep in the language of the Protect College Sports Act is language about the national championship game needing to take place by January 8th, no later than January 8th. On the surface, great idea. Like if you're at home and you're like, yeah, that'd be awesome, instead of like, we're going into like the last week of January before we get a national championship game, sign me up. I'm with you. We should. I I wish the season would just be would finish on New Year's Day. Dominate New Year's Day, have the national championship game that day. I know you want lots of games and all that. Just culminate with the national championship that day. Anyway, what do I know? Uh, that was a ridiculous statement at the end there. I'm thinking like you could have some bowl games leading up to the national championship game after you played some of the playoff to try and salvage New Year's Day. I just want something of that sort and not a national championship game being played on a Monday in mid to late January. But here's the deal: the bowl games and everybody in charge of the playoffs is saying we already have dates scheduled out for six years with hotels and venues, you know, the arenas, the stadiums where they're being played. So we can't do this. This would be like impossible if this happened. And so now another group ready to write their congressmen, ready to write their senators. Uh, the New Year's Six Bulls are preparing to send notice to the senators, their their local senators that they don't support this. You know, I mean, I read Ross's. There are other things here. If you did abandon New Year's Day in trying to accommodate this and make this happen, the NFL could slip in and take some of those slots and you would never get it back. Okay, that's a real threat. I get it. I get it. Um, but this is one where I'm like, this isn't even like SEC or Big Ten. It doesn't even seem that consequential. And now this is a hang up when you're trying to get this in before the deadline of August 7th for the August recess. And that's where all this starts. Ross Dellinger tweeted out today that is it Thune? Is that the guy who runs the Senate? Thune. I my apologies on the political knowledge. He says he doesn't expect it to be voted on before the August 7th deadline, which would take it into the recess. And they need to get it through the Senate basically by then, so that then in September it could go to the House if you want to have any shot of getting it through before the midterm elections. It's seeming less and less likely like that is going to happen, people, if you haven't caught up to that. And one of the other issues and hurdles here is this an update on the Senate bill. Lawmakers and conference commissioners remain in negotiations, notably over a provision to add a $25 million retention pool to the RevShare uh cap framework. So, what that means is basically we may get a $45 million cap out of this. Right now it's like around $20 million. We may get a $45 million cap out of this. They're talking about adding $25 million that you could use every year to retain your players. A specific pool just to retain your players, and then the Rev share money that's being used now, you could use that to go get players from elsewhere. And I will say with this, at least if it's this, and then you just take everything in-house, get rid of outside NIL, outside, I guess if you're getting like Adidas deals or whatever. But for the most part, get rid of the outside NIL, like there's the direct pay for play, and just say, bring it in-house, do it like this, have $45 million, split them into two different pools. That seems a bit more organized than what we have now. Like I could get on board with that, but I am just exhausted. I'm just exhausted by this point. And this is, I think, the biggest point in all of this. Something that I was a bit too naive to at the beginning of the process. I know many of you in the comments will be saying, Yeah, John, we tried to tell you. This seems to be what happens when you just have too many cooks in the kitchen on a bill, and you're you're trying to appease too many people with a bill. Like the SEC and Big Ten have these things they want now. The Bulls and the New Year's Six, like they have things that they need changed based on what's in the bill. There are too many people that you're trying to please. And that's where college football is in a place where it's wound so tight in such a weird way, unspooling it to do it in a sensical way is incredibly difficult. Incredibly difficult. I will again use the analogy that someone once gave me that I think is perfect. It's like the healthcare system in America, you would never design it the way that it's designed. College sports, college football, you would never design it the way that it's designed and structured right now. But a series of twists and turns and winding roads have gotten you there, and now it's like impossible to really just like unspool it. So you're you're kind of stuck. You're kind of stuck. And so here we are. Now, what's going to happen with the SEC? Because the threat earlier this week was hey, if we don't get what we want out of this, we'll just do our own thing. Well, Greg Sankey has again given you some actual good news. Please do subscribe to the channel, by the way. Many of you watch but don't subscribe. One click to subscribe does really help me. Here's what Greg Sankey says. Uh, does that mean the SEC intends to execute a full-fledged breakaway from the NCAA umbrella to only play itself, hold its own postseason tournament, and then if another league champion wants to duel play them in a neutral site game, Dean does the new national championship? No, Sankey says. No. But does it mean that the SEC is exploring a self-governing model to create and then enforce its own rules related to eligibility transfers and athlete compensation? Yes. Yes. So that is good news, everybody. Like this does not, it looks like at least not in the immediacy. It's not totally imminent that Greg Senke and the SEC would just be breaking away, total breakaway. He has continued to reiterate and pump the brakes on that. Remember, there could still be a realignment element involved in this too, and I will get to that in a moment. But if this bill is not going to go through, what the SEC continues to talk about is would we just say, well, we're not going to abide by NCAA rules, we will just enforce our own. The interesting part about that is that Sankey would go on to admit in this article, one of the complications with that is that it's really hard to even enforce your own rules, which is a great point in all of this. It's very nice to say, hey, we think we could do a better job just enforcing our own rules. Yeah, okay. I guess maybe, but SEC players have done a lot of legal battling over some of the NCAA rules. Three different quarterbacks, Joey Aguilar, Trinidad Chambliss, Diego Pavia. They've all been involved in some of these lawsuits. Like, you think they're just not going to sue you because it's the SEC instead of the NCAA? Dog, everybody's out for themselves. I don't know if you've been paying attention to this. Like everybody is wildly selfish and out for their own self-interest. It will happen. Now, I guess the idea here is they think that the SEC would be less immune to the or more immune to the legal challenges. I I guess maybe we'll see, but I would imagine that there still would be legal challenges. And Sankey even admitted that it would be, quote, very difficult to enforce the SEC's own rules. So it's kind of in the end again, like, what are I mean, what are we really doing here? Other than just a bunch of talking and a bunch of hubris and puffing out our chests. Like, well, we could. We could if we wanted to, because we're good enough for the SEC. I don't know. Good luck on all this. Now, if this were to actually pass, Dellinger did reiterate again here for the realignment heads and the realignment nerds. If this does pass, it still looks like it would pass with the membership cap at 19 for conferences. And that for schools moving from one power conference to another, they would have to operate as an independent for five years. So if you're capping things at 19, the Big Ten could only add one more team. The SEC could add three more. And now you would immediately start looking toward the ACC. And this goes back to the theory. Dellinger Dellinger finally really addressed this. He said, for instance, an anti-expansion provision remains a fluid subject that, as of latest discussions with CAP conference membership at 19, such a move may expedite another wave of conference expansion as schools jockey to elevate themselves, such as ACC programs moving to the Big Ten or SEC before the bill passes. So Dellinger has now written into this that if it looks like it's going to pass, you could get realignment in the next month. Like we're talking before the season, everybody. So you still gotta you still have to stay on alert for this. I've talked about this already before, so I didn't really make it the headline of this live show. But now Ross Dellinger is speaking to this. Like, hey, yeah, if this, if this really does seem like it's gonna pass, there will be a mad dash from the Florida State, Miami, Clemson, North Carolina corner of the world to try and get into whatever the next level is. And I yes, I know you Utah fans would also say Utah. I have to chuckle a bit. I don't think that that would happen, but Utah fans on Twitter seem to be pretty, pretty convinced that that would happen too. So that's where we're at. This thing does not, I say doesn't have momentum. One of Dellinger's articles from like two days ago said that there was momentum. Now, today you've got Thune saying that it probably won't happen before the August 7th recess. And so that certainly to me seems like there's not momentum. We have another hurdle with the scheduling in the New Year's 6. I guys, I don't know. I'll keep you updated on it, but it's getting exhausting. There's hurdle after hurdle every day, and it still has not gotten to a vote in the Senate. So it's it's not looking great. I will just interject and say that. It is not looking great. I've got to run. Thank you for hanging out with me tonight for a shortened live show. I'll keep the content coming. I'm gonna be out of town this weekend. No live show on Sunday. But please do subscribe to the channel. Uh like the video. All of that really helps. Spread the word. Those of you listening on Apple and Spotify, rate and review. Share to your friends. I appreciate you all. Take care, have a good night, and I will talk to you soon.