Brady Quinn CALLS OUT Greg Sankey Over SEC Media Rights Drama 👀

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]You know, we've got some, you know, stuff we'll hear from Greg Sankey uh throughout the course of this show and others in the SEC, but from your guys's standpoint, uh do you kind of get the same impression that it's almost like well, now cat's out of the bag, so now we're trying to figure out a way to spin it to where we could still uh position ourself as the uh as the king of college football? Cuz that's what it reads like to me.

[00:00:25]>> I always say this about the SEC and everything we've heard coming out of their media days or uh spring meetings, whatever you want to call this, is it if this is how they're going to approach the issues in college football, the issues within their conference, and this is how they identify themselves, then if if you're the Big Ten or any other conference for that matter in the Power Four, the Big 12 or ACC, it's a good thing.

[00:00:52]Cuz they either are delusional, are lying to everyone, or they they just don't want to admit and acknowledge the fact that they're not the top of college football anymore.

[00:01:05]That is just the reality.

[00:01:07]That that is what's taken place over the last few years now since NIL, and I think it is a secret that they don't want to get out.

[00:01:16]They want to keep perpetuating and beating you over the head with the fact that oh, you know, we're the we're the better conference. Well, not really.

[00:01:23]Like now when it comes to actually teams that won a national championship, not when it comes to the college football playoff records over the last few years.

[00:01:31]What's the SEC 5 and 8 over that span?

[00:01:35]And the Big Ten is 11 and 4, winning three national titles.

[00:01:40]I mean, no SEC team SEC team has even reached the national championship game in the last 3 years.

[00:01:47]So, for all those SEC fans out there, this is not a moment to defend yourselves. This should be a moment where you go out and you say, "All right, well, wait a second. What are we doing wrong? Like where this where this go wrong for us?

[00:02:02]Is it purely NL? Is it the TV media rights, which we'll get into because there's a lot of nuanced conversation about, you know, people talking about the TV ratings and how valuable the SEC is.

[00:02:17]If it's the most watched conference, which according to Greg Sankey and the SEC, that's what they would tell you.

[00:02:22]>> have 30 what did you say? 36%? 30 something percent, yeah.

[00:02:27]>> If that's the case in Lavar, I'm not a brain surgeon, so I'm not sure if I'm capable of figuring this out. Shouldn't your rights be the most expensive then?

[00:02:35]>> That would be 1 + 1 = 2, but some people like to get 1 + 1 to 3 some way, somehow. So, but yeah, you're right.

[00:02:43]>> Maybe they're saying this, all right, and really it's the bed that they made for themselves. Like it was your choice to go in with one network that is Disney and ESPN.

[00:02:55]So, if you're upset about the difference in what the Big Ten's getting paid out and teams like Rucker's or Purdue are making more than your Alabama and your Florida's and your name LSU, whoever else you want to throw into it, that was your doing, Greg.

[00:03:12]You chose not to bring in more TV media partners that could have upped the actual offer for the conference.

[00:03:21]That was your choice.

[00:03:24]And so, now you're living in a world where money matters.

[00:03:28]In the last 3 years that we've had NIL, it's allowed the Big Ten to distance themself and not just in football, but you could go with pretty much every single sport.

[00:03:40]So, it's funny. The SEC has made some of these problems for themselves.

[00:03:45]And if you're a fan of another team in another conference, you should be super excited about the way they're handling it. Cuz they're one of those people who >> [laughter] >> and we've we all know those types of people who they've got a problem and they don't want to look in the mirror and then find out what the reason is for that problem.

[00:04:01]>> When is their contract uh when do they start negotiating their contract?

[00:04:06]>> right? I think it was a 10-year >> What year are they in on it?

[00:04:08]>> Uh >> I think they're more than halfway through now. Uh I have to look that up though.

[00:04:13]>> I see I think this is a starting of negotiating of sorts or maybe they're already in in lockstep with Disney.

[00:04:22]Cuz it seems like to me with with the expansion >> Uh so 2033 2034.

[00:04:29]>> 2033-34.

[00:04:31]Yeah, so it's like six six more seven more years left on six seven more years.

[00:04:37]>> That's fine.

[00:04:37]>> Yeah, that's that's that's still a long ways to go.

[00:04:39]>> How many more deals the Big Ten have left?

[00:04:41]>> I wonder if >> the the Big Ten's actually comes up next at 2029-2030.

[00:04:46]And given their ratings, given the success [clears throat] of the conference >> They're going [laughter] to clean up.

[00:04:50]>> They're going to go off. Yeah.

[00:04:52]>> Well, that's so that's kind of where I'm I'm kind of getting to is I wonder if there cuz you got to believe that there is is strong communication between the commissioner and and whoever it is that's running the account with with the the conference.

[00:05:09]So I I wonder if this is more of they're in cahoots or this is the SEC's strategy to drive the price up.

[00:05:21]If if indeed we are the highest consumed by percentage and you throw the percentage out there, if you do believe and you are putting out content on Netflix in the off-season and and having these conversations at your SEC media media days saying that you are the proclaimed best conference in in all of of college sports college football.

[00:05:48]Sounds like to me either you're trying to drive the value up as Disney so that you can continue to leverage it the way that you're trying to leverage it.

[00:06:01]Or and and maybe maybe both can be true without one being false.

[00:06:06]Uh or you have the SEC positioning themselves to get a bigger deal.

[00:06:13]If if we are indeed that, then we should be getting more money as you've mentioned than the Big Ten. And so, I wonder if if again, with that amount of time left on their contract, I wonder with the fast-paced changes that are taking place in the college sports level, are you are you going to be forced to negotiate? Is Disney going to be forced to negotiate a deal earlier?

[00:06:40]Will the stakes get so high? Will the landscape change so much that they're forced to negotiate a deal earlier?

[00:06:50]And I just wonder, is this posturing or is this teamwork? Or is it both? Is it teamwork with a little bit of posturing?

[00:06:58]I I just That's kind of what I I felt when I was was looking at the story.

[00:07:03]>> Um now, Greg Sankey, we do have a little from him yesterday at SEC Media Days being asked whether or not he thought the contract and the deal they have with ESPN is undervalued.

[00:07:14]>> Yes, they probably have great value. I mean, keep in mind, we were really undervalued before. Like really undervalued. The move to ESPN was based on modern metrics for 15 games. I think that's held up well so far. We've had increases.

[00:07:32]Uh we had uh the ability to expand and add to that. We've added a ninth game that's built. So, you know, >> [clears throat] >> to be big picture, everybody would say they're undervalued.

[00:07:43]>> So, um >> Sounds like posturing.

[00:07:46]>> I just >> And we're letting you know >> Well, well, I I I can I can tell you exactly where the posturing's coming from. If they add on an additional conference game, that's more to the inventory, right? For you you'd say you know, ESPN, Disney, where they're going to they're going to want more in exchange. So, when you say posturing and maybe maybe those metrics are already in play, maybe they've got that contract where they feel like uh it will increase because of the additional game now to it going to nine conference games, but is it going to increase by the amount that they want it to? And if they increase that amount more for that extra game, to your point, maybe they want to say, "Well, let's rip up the whole thing and just redo a new deal cuz this hasn't helped us."

[00:08:31]>> So, what's that >> the problem with that.

[00:08:33]Is is ESPN going to be willing to do that?

[00:08:37]In order to to In order to try to get the SEC back on top, I mean, hell, they've done the best ESPN's done the best they could politicking for them, trying to get as many teams ranked as possible before the season and hyping them up, trying to talk about them as favorably as possible in a 12-team expanded playoff. I mean, they've done everything they could trying to help get as many teams in. And people can say, "Well, the the committee's going to operate at on its own."

[00:09:02]Okay, that's fine.

[00:09:03]>> influenced.

[00:09:04]>> But they have to be, right?

[00:09:07]>> I mean, all you hear is ESPN talking about how great >> the SEC is.

[00:09:11]>> There's very little And by the way, I'm not trying to make the case that the SEC is not a deep conference. There are good teams, there are good coaches, there are talented players.

[00:09:21]It just hasn't been what the Big Ten has been the last few years.

[00:09:25]And if you want to start comparing the fifth and sixth and seventh best Big Ten team versus the fifth, sixth, and seventh best SEC team, okay, have at it.

[00:09:34]We can we can have those debates.

[00:09:36]But the truth of the matter is in the playoff in the post season the last few years >> And not 10.

[00:09:42]>> the SEC hasn't showed up.

[00:09:44]They have not won those games.

[00:09:46]>> And an independent.

[00:09:47]>> Well, [laughter] I was going to say that they sound like Kenny Atkinson. Maybe maybe you won the expected score. You know, maybe you won the analytical national championship the last 3 years.

[00:09:57]But you haven't actually won it.

[00:09:59]So that's why we are where we are.

[00:10:01]>> It just >> So to your point it could be about this additional conference game which has been somewhat controversial with the coaching staff we can get into or the coaches of those teams. But it could also be about, you know, hey they are undervalued. If that's the ratings. If that's what the ratings say they're undervalued. But you made this bet, Greg.

[00:10:20]Like Greg Sankey and the SEC made that bet by not allowing anyone other than the ESPN to have a stranglehold on it and be able to keep their price down.

[00:10:27]They could have bid this out to multiple conferences and the price would have probably been enormous and it probably would have been more than the Big 10.

[00:10:36]But they didn't. And that was their choice. Now they've got to live in that.

[00:10:39]>> Well, and you best believe that Disney and ESPN are cashing in on it. So whatever that undervalued >> Oh, yeah.

[00:10:48]>> Whatever that undervalued gap is, that gap is it's being delivered. You best believe that those those sales, that inventory is is probably being sold at the value that Sankey is thinking it is.

[00:11:02]>> I don't have a dog in the fight. I watch Hawaii football. Like I I don't They got their own problems, okay? I So I don't have a dog in the fight when it comes Well, which conference do you prefer?

[00:11:10]Which conference is better? But you just if you're just being objective, if you're [clears throat] just standing on the outside of this whole thing it feels like the Big 10's doing it on the field and the SEC's doing it through the media.

[00:11:23]>> Mhm.

[00:11:24]>> And >> But wouldn't you say that's kind of cultural?

[00:11:28]The South versus, you know, >> I don't >> Mid-Midwestern, you know, I mean, I guess we're we've expanded, but wouldn't you say like historically speaking, wouldn't that be kind of the contrast of personalities? Like the SEC is very colorful. They like having, you know, uh cocktail parties, you know, as as a an official part Like they're very, very driven that way.

[00:11:54]>> I I love the SEC. Like getting to go to an SEC game back in like that couple of SEC games, that was fun, man. Like it's it's a great environment. They love their college football. I Like it made me their passion for college football made me fall back in love with college football because I didn't see it to that level until being around it. But it just feels like everything you hear, one side's really trying aggressively to to to tell everybody how great they are, and the other one's just doing it when the fall comes around.

[00:12:23]>> And they have had a ton of success. They have. They have They had a period of dominance. They did.

[00:12:30]And and that's fine. I I would say it's been one one to two teams that have led the way on that, that being Alabama and Georgia. And listen, you throw in sprinkle in a couple of the other teams, okay, you see LSU here and there. Okay, I get it.

[00:12:45]Sprinkle a little bit on my homie.

[00:12:48]But again, I just I I think all of these things and all of these elements are on the table, they're at play, and I think one of the maybe major questions become if this is indeed you coming out and just making it very plain and clear that we are undervalued, and you're letting ESPN know, you're letting Disney know we're undervalued, I wonder if this is a pressure move where it's like, okay, we are undervalued. We're letting you know we're undervalued. You have a ton of time ahead of you to be able to correct this undervalued situation state that we're in.

[00:13:26]And because they do so much in the media, I wonder does it come out that there's a blockbuster deal that's done with with Disney? Because at the end of the day, if you get to the end of the contract and they are indeed as valuable as Sankey proclaims them to be and you can prove that, then don't you believe the floodgates open the the the conversations with those other, you know, entities that can jump in and be a part of it and throw their money at it lessens any type of leverage or foothold that that Disney has and exists with the SEC right now.

[00:14:05]In other words, we're letting you know, don't mess up our relationship. Don't mess up the relationship. We're giving you time to figure out and understand that we as a conference feel like we're undervalued. Now, I think that puts the ball in Disney's court and they have to, you would assume, address it properly.

[00:14:24]>> And I mean, where does it where does it fall in the pecking order of, you know, NFL rights, NBA rights?

[00:14:30]>> And that's that's the problem with ESPN.

[00:14:32]That's the problem. And And the NFL rights will come up before um the the you know, any any of the college football rights, I believe. I mean, the Big Ten will be somewhat synced up, but I think the NFL's coming up sooner. I think we all know the NFL's going to be prioritized over the rest. Now, what's interesting about that is ESPN, with their most recent deal, has it ESPN ABC and for Monday Night Football and everything else, I think they pay annually about 2.7 billion a year.

[00:15:02]And so if you look at how hard it is, cuz right now, I believe ESPN pays somewhere around a billion a year for the SEC media rights.

[00:15:12]Somewhere in that ballpark. I I I could be off. Um it might be a little bit less.

[00:15:17]I I know this much. I mean, if you look at what Fox, NBC, and CBS pay the Big Ten a year. They're making about one They pay about 1.15 billion.

[00:15:29]Okay?

[00:15:30]So, think about this way. Like when we're thinking about networks and and what they can spend and how this impacts the the conferences and everything else.

[00:15:37]Fox is with three other partners.

[00:15:40]Those other partners are each paying around 350 million.

[00:15:44]All right? But that's for the rights.

[00:15:45]That's for the the 30, you know, some games they get a year um with their college package and, you know, a rotating Big Ten championship, etc. So, if you think about it, Fox makes more money off college football than it does off the NFL. Like we we could talk about media rights and and how valued they are and stuff, but the problem is if you can't turn a profit, what are you really in it for?

[00:16:10]The prestige of it? To say you have it?

[00:16:13]College football is actually the more profitable sport as of right now because as Greg Sankey talked about, even with their media rights, they're undervalued.

[00:16:22]You can make the case that all of the football media rights are undervalued at this point.

[00:16:28]>> Mhm.

[00:16:29]>> Cuz there's a big delta between, for example, Fox paying, what, 300 million a year for their piece of the Big Ten.

[00:16:36]Well, meanwhile, they're paying, what, 2.2 billion for the NFL package?

[00:16:42]>> Mhm.

[00:16:42]>> And and the ratings >> There is a discrepancy, but again, there And the ratings aren't apples to apples because you know, you've got national broadcasted games versus regional and and a competing windows with affiliates.

[00:16:56]So, there's there's a lot of nuances to this.

[00:16:59]But if you look at how much more expensive the NFL is, how much harder it is to turn a profit with that, that to me is where you look at the the college football landscape and go, "Oh, there's a lot of room to grow here."

[00:17:12]>> Mhm.

[00:17:13]>> You know, like now some of that profit's going to get eaten away cuz they've had free labor forever. And then we're starting to see more and more of that money going to the players and that money's going to only keep going to the players unless the government steps in and Congress, you know, creates a bill that's going to protect them and that that was some recent news yesterday so we can talk about that, but the way I see this is whether it's the SEC wanting to re-up their media rights, whether it's the Big Ten wanting theirs re-up, even the Big 12 ACC, all these media rights are going to go up.

[00:17:42]It just comes down to what fashion form are we going to see?

[00:17:47]Are we going to see 138 FPS Division 1 teams pool together their media rights?

[00:17:53]Are we going to see that continue on where different conferences are going to go to different networks?

[00:17:58]Are we going to see a conference like the SEC say, "You know what? Solely being with the SEC ESPN, you know, that that relationship hasn't really worked.

[00:18:09]Like maybe we need to invite more people to the party, you know?"

[00:18:13]>> Mhm. It might work in reverse.

[00:18:14]>> be more beneficial probably for our schools and really our bottom line in being able to generate more revenue.

[00:18:20]>> It might be in reverse though. They might not, you know, the big the major powers might not want that.

[00:18:26]You know, they might not want to to allow that include the smaller ones.

[00:18:28]>> two There's two two schools of thought.

[00:18:31]The the networks still want it cuz they know the rights are going to get more expensive.

[00:18:37]Like there's different you know, law for this that's gone into place that have allowed other professional sports leagues to pool together their media rights and that's upped obviously the the price.

[00:18:47]Now, there's other there's other thoughts of like, "Well, you know, if if Alabama could solely do their TV media rights aside from, you know, Arkansas for example, they would they would fetch a much higher number and so maybe in the next round, you know, you're not seeing as many teams getting even cut of that.

[00:19:09]But the problem then in the league is there's not as much parity. You know, there's already a a gap between Alabama and Arkansas. And if you if one's getting $20 million more year, and as we've seen as evidence of the Big 10 and the SEC, the Big 10 teams getting more each year, it's going to lead to a greater discrepancy in the place.

[00:19:26]There's not as much parity in in the league. So, that's the problem is like, do you want this thing to be competitive? Do you want all these teams to be able to compete on a level playing field or not?