HOOVER, ALABAMA- SEC commissioner Greg Sankey took to the podium on Monday afternoon to kick of the 2017 edition of SEC Media Days. Sankey like always addressed the state of the SEC, plus went into detail on some changes and recapped the past year.
GatorCountry is live in Hoover and brings you a recap of what Sankey had to say on Monday afternoon in this notebook.
- On December 9th the SEC will turn 85 years old as a conference. The conference was created in 1932 in downtown Knoxville.
- The SEC won national championships in six different sports and had two playing in the national championship in both women’s basketball and baseball.
- Sankey says the SEC is seeking permission from the NCAA to expand the use of instant replay in baseball.
- Going to a 14-week season is something that Sankey isn’t opposed to but says he doesn’t want summer practice to start earlier.
- Sankey also says that they’re continuing to make adjustments on shortening the breaks between action in football games. Mentions keeping half-time as close to 20 minutes as they can making sure they come out of media breaking quickly.
- The SEC will continue to focus on player safety and two things being looked like are blocking below the waist and blind-side blocking. Sankey believes the targeting class are doing their job right now.
- Starting on Monday’s at 7:00 P.M. the SEC will have a new show called “thinking out loud” that will feature Greg McElroy and Marcus Spears in one-hour football discussion show.
- Starting next spring, the SEC network will host some swimming and diving meets along with the indoor track and field finals on TV.
- The SEC commissioner now has the authority to say when and where a make-up game will be played.
- Division realignment is something that has not been a topic of discussion for Sankey and the athletic directors.
That’s all the news and notes from Sankey’s press conference. Stay tuned to GatorCountry.com for all of the news and notes’ from SEC Media Days.