SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, giving his state of the conference address in a fashion nod to the late Mike Leach, announced Monday that SEC Media Days will invade Big 12 country in 2024.
The move to Dallas next July is apropos, given that Texas and Oklahoma will make their SEC debuts in 2024.
Sankey made the announcement in Nashville, Tenn., site of this year’s festivities, without wearing a necktie after a conversation he had with Leach at last year’s media days.
Leach died in December following complications from a heart condition. He was 61.
“Last year in Atlanta, one of my backstage conversations was about the uselessness of neckties,” Sankey said. “It was a conversation that went much longer than I anticipated and it ended in the rhetorical question of why neckties survived but powdered wigs went away. That conversation was with Mike Leach and today I’m without a tie, just to honor Mike’s memory.”
Leach went on to lead Mississippi State to an 8-4 record and a spot in the ReliaQuest Bowl.
“You know, we lost Mike in December,” Sankey said. “A person important, not simply to the Southeastern Conference — we only had him for a few seasons — but to all of college football. … He provided wedding advice, evaluated Halloween candy and if you ended up in a phone call talking about history, you better have scheduled a great deal of time as he recited his historical knowledge.
“We’re going to miss Mike, but he’s not going to be forgotten.”
The SEC on Thursday announced a contract extension for Sankey that runs through at least 2028.
Sankey, 58, has been the commissioner since 2015, when he took over for Mike Slive.
–Field Level Media