Courtesy ASAP Transcripts...
GREG SANKEY: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Atlanta. Two fun facts when you begin. The first fun fact is does the notebook fit with the microphones and the podium? That one's not that interesting.
The second fun fact I learned this morning is that Herb Vincent, our associate commissioner for communications, is also the Beyoncé concert coordinator for our staff. So of any social media moment this week, that may rank towards the top.
Good morning and welcome to the 2025 edition of SEC Football Media Days. It's a privilege certainly for me to be with you once again. We appreciate your work and all the work that's done to make this event possible. It also signals the start of a new season. I look forward to the traditions, the games, the spirit, the intensity, the competition that makes college football and the SEC so special.
Pleased to be back in Atlanta. A little bit of a history lesson. The first meeting of the SEC membership took place in Atlanta February 27, 1933. Apparently, it was the beginning of a tradition of hosting conference meetings around men's basketball tournaments because our men's basketball tournament was first played here also in 1933.
Atlanta, as you know, has served as host to the SEC football championship game since 1994, and just up the road in Duluth, we've had a number of women's basketball tournaments played and SEC gymnastics champions determined.
Also proud we'll be back in Georgia later this year. After a 20-year hiatus, the SEC volleyball tournament returns. We'll be in Savannah, Georgia, November 21st through the 25th at Enmarket Arena, again, in Savannah, and we're looking forward to that event.
Since we're here to talk about football, let me first express appreciation for what's done around the game of college football and the city of Atlanta. First, we're pleased to be back here with a football field in front of us at the College Football Hall of Fame. It's always fun to see goal posts when you're talking.
The 2025 season will kick off a few blocks from here at Mercedes Benz Stadium when on Thursday, August 30th, Tennessee plays Syracuse, and the next day, Sunday, August 31st, South Carolina plays Virginia Tech. Plenty going on that weekend, but noteworthy we'll be back here to kick off the season with those football games.
Our championship game is a December tradition here in Atlanta. We appreciate Arthur Blank, the Atlanta Falcons organization, and everyone around Mercedes Benz Stadium that provides an incredible experience for our participants and for our fans.
I want to thank the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau. You don't understand how many mechanics there are to pull off something like this: Law enforcement, the city of Atlanta, everyone that makes things work smoothly.
We're also pleased and really proud of our affiliation with Regions Bank. Regions serves as the title sponsor for the SEC Kickoff, and you can see Regions embedded around us. I'll have another note about how they contribute to support our student-athletes through the year in different ways.
Before I move on, I'll just make a note that we're adding to our sponsor program Wayne-Sanderson Farms. We have several members of the Wayne-Sanderson Farms leadership team here with us this morning, and I thank them for their support. Wayne-Sanderson farms has over 20,000 employees and over 2,000 family farms spread across the southeastern footprint.
While I was preparing my remarks for media days, I recall that last time we were here in Atlanta one of my backstage conversations - I've noted this - included the discussion of why powdered wigs went away and neckties remained, and that was with Mike Leach. I just want to make a note that we appreciate an adjustment made by the National Football Foundation to change the qualifying criteria for head coaches that makes Mike and others eligible for election into this college football Hall of Fame.
Also, since we last gathered, we lost Bob Holt, and we've saved a spot, right around where Bob usually sits, to honor Bob. Bob, as you know, worked with the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, he was pretty quick with a question here, and always asked a question with a smile. That did not mean that you might like the question he was asking with a smile, but he had a special way about him, and we miss Bob and respect and honor his memory.
Last month we had a loss in the Southeastern Conference family. Bobby Gaston, who served in a variety of capacities, passed away at the remarkable age of 101. Bobby was still a regular attender of the SEC football championship game. Atlanta was home for Bobby, as was the SEC during his playing career at Georgia Tech, where he was a teammate of Frank Broyles. He spent 50 years working in the SEC's officiating program. We didn't have social media then, but I'm sure we didn't get them all right in that time frame. The last 18 years of those 50, he served as the programs leader. We remain grateful for Bobby and his work and contributions, and we extend our best wishes to his wife Gail.
We also, at a time when we can't ignore -- in fact, we intentionally remember what happened over the last week and a half or so in the Texas Hill Country in the Central Texas area, yesterday traveling down here listening to news reports that the rains were coming again and emergency warnings were being issued. Watching from afar, it's been an unimaginable loss of life to see. I cannot imagine the grief that families and friends and neighbors and relatives are experiencing not only across our universities in the state of Texas, but across this region, as you start to understand through these stories the depth of relationships that exist.
We offer our thanks to first responders, to emergency workers, and even to those who try to help, whether it's through a search, through debris moving, or simply by giving someone a hug. We also know that closer to this location last fall -- I saw it as I drove last spring from Knoxville to Greenville to be part of our SEC women's basketball tournament -- the devastation left by Hurricane Helene and the impact on real lives. In fact, we were in Asheville, North Carolina, for the Collegiate Commissioners Association meeting, where that organization made a donation to a food bank, and the leader of that food bank spoke in that Asheville area of the remaining and lingering challenges faced for food security in that region.
Be it individuals we know personally or tragedies we know from afar, we share in the grief and in those losses.
We also, though, look ahead to anticipation. There is joy embedded in what we do, and we take pride in what was accomplished last year. Our first as a 16-member, what I think is a "superconference," for all those of you who like to speculate about superconferences, welcome to one. We have common sense geography, restored rivalries, record-breaking viewership. In fact, I asked for some data this weekend. If you take the consumed viewership hours on linear TV, almost 40 percent of that viewership was focused on games involving Southeastern Conference universities and teams.
Big Ten was next, right around 30 percent. That means with those two conferences, just over two-thirds of the total viewership of college football is embedded between the SEC and the Big Ten.
Commissioner Press Conference
GREG SANKEY: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Atlanta. Two fun facts when you begin. The first fun fact is does the notebook fit with the microphones and the podium? That one's not that interesting.
The second fun fact I learned this morning is that Herb Vincent, our associate commissioner for communications, is also the Beyoncé concert coordinator for our staff. So of any social media moment this week, that may rank towards the top.
Good morning and welcome to the 2025 edition of SEC Football Media Days. It's a privilege certainly for me to be with you once again. We appreciate your work and all the work that's done to make this event possible. It also signals the start of a new season. I look forward to the traditions, the games, the spirit, the intensity, the competition that makes college football and the SEC so special.
Pleased to be back in Atlanta. A little bit of a history lesson. The first meeting of the SEC membership took place in Atlanta February 27, 1933. Apparently, it was the beginning of a tradition of hosting conference meetings around men's basketball tournaments because our men's basketball tournament was first played here also in 1933.
Atlanta, as you know, has served as host to the SEC football championship game since 1994, and just up the road in Duluth, we've had a number of women's basketball tournaments played and SEC gymnastics champions determined.
Also proud we'll be back in Georgia later this year. After a 20-year hiatus, the SEC volleyball tournament returns. We'll be in Savannah, Georgia, November 21st through the 25th at Enmarket Arena, again, in Savannah, and we're looking forward to that event.
Since we're here to talk about football, let me first express appreciation for what's done around the game of college football and the city of Atlanta. First, we're pleased to be back here with a football field in front of us at the College Football Hall of Fame. It's always fun to see goal posts when you're talking.
The 2025 season will kick off a few blocks from here at Mercedes Benz Stadium when on Thursday, August 30th, Tennessee plays Syracuse, and the next day, Sunday, August 31st, South Carolina plays Virginia Tech. Plenty going on that weekend, but noteworthy we'll be back here to kick off the season with those football games.
Our championship game is a December tradition here in Atlanta. We appreciate Arthur Blank, the Atlanta Falcons organization, and everyone around Mercedes Benz Stadium that provides an incredible experience for our participants and for our fans.
I want to thank the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau. You don't understand how many mechanics there are to pull off something like this: Law enforcement, the city of Atlanta, everyone that makes things work smoothly.
We're also pleased and really proud of our affiliation with Regions Bank. Regions serves as the title sponsor for the SEC Kickoff, and you can see Regions embedded around us. I'll have another note about how they contribute to support our student-athletes through the year in different ways.
Before I move on, I'll just make a note that we're adding to our sponsor program Wayne-Sanderson Farms. We have several members of the Wayne-Sanderson Farms leadership team here with us this morning, and I thank them for their support. Wayne-Sanderson farms has over 20,000 employees and over 2,000 family farms spread across the southeastern footprint.
While I was preparing my remarks for media days, I recall that last time we were here in Atlanta one of my backstage conversations - I've noted this - included the discussion of why powdered wigs went away and neckties remained, and that was with Mike Leach. I just want to make a note that we appreciate an adjustment made by the National Football Foundation to change the qualifying criteria for head coaches that makes Mike and others eligible for election into this college football Hall of Fame.
Also, since we last gathered, we lost Bob Holt, and we've saved a spot, right around where Bob usually sits, to honor Bob. Bob, as you know, worked with the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, he was pretty quick with a question here, and always asked a question with a smile. That did not mean that you might like the question he was asking with a smile, but he had a special way about him, and we miss Bob and respect and honor his memory.
Last month we had a loss in the Southeastern Conference family. Bobby Gaston, who served in a variety of capacities, passed away at the remarkable age of 101. Bobby was still a regular attender of the SEC football championship game. Atlanta was home for Bobby, as was the SEC during his playing career at Georgia Tech, where he was a teammate of Frank Broyles. He spent 50 years working in the SEC's officiating program. We didn't have social media then, but I'm sure we didn't get them all right in that time frame. The last 18 years of those 50, he served as the programs leader. We remain grateful for Bobby and his work and contributions, and we extend our best wishes to his wife Gail.
We also, at a time when we can't ignore -- in fact, we intentionally remember what happened over the last week and a half or so in the Texas Hill Country in the Central Texas area, yesterday traveling down here listening to news reports that the rains were coming again and emergency warnings were being issued. Watching from afar, it's been an unimaginable loss of life to see. I cannot imagine the grief that families and friends and neighbors and relatives are experiencing not only across our universities in the state of Texas, but across this region, as you start to understand through these stories the depth of relationships that exist.
We offer our thanks to first responders, to emergency workers, and even to those who try to help, whether it's through a search, through debris moving, or simply by giving someone a hug. We also know that closer to this location last fall -- I saw it as I drove last spring from Knoxville to Greenville to be part of our SEC women's basketball tournament -- the devastation left by Hurricane Helene and the impact on real lives. In fact, we were in Asheville, North Carolina, for the Collegiate Commissioners Association meeting, where that organization made a donation to a food bank, and the leader of that food bank spoke in that Asheville area of the remaining and lingering challenges faced for food security in that region.
Be it individuals we know personally or tragedies we know from afar, we share in the grief and in those losses.
We also, though, look ahead to anticipation. There is joy embedded in what we do, and we take pride in what was accomplished last year. Our first as a 16-member, what I think is a "superconference," for all those of you who like to speculate about superconferences, welcome to one. We have common sense geography, restored rivalries, record-breaking viewership. In fact, I asked for some data this weekend. If you take the consumed viewership hours on linear TV, almost 40 percent of that viewership was focused on games involving Southeastern Conference universities and teams.
Big Ten was next, right around 30 percent. That means with those two conferences, just over two-thirds of the total viewership of college football is embedded between the SEC and the Big Ten.