The hype surrounding the 2016 college football season is really starting to pick up.
The Southeastern Conference’s Football Media Days kicked off today in Hoover, Alabama, with a speech by Commissioner Greg Sankey.
Sankey remembered former South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier in his speech.
“We will miss Steve’s unique football genius, and you will miss the entertaining quotes he offered annually at SEC football media days,” Sankey said.
The commissioner’s speech strayed from the originally planned discussion of policy changes in terms of recruiting and replay. Instead, Sankey chose to focus on the topics he deemed “issues of importance to the Southeastern Conference.”
Chief among these issues were NCAA violations and student-athlete conduct. The commissioner touched on the two ongoing NCAA investigations at the University of Tennessee and the University of Mississippi.
“The last few months remind every one of us in college athletics that we are entrusted with the public, with leadership for what is at its heart an educational endeavor that’s important to our culture,” Sankey said.
Sankey also focused on steps made to combat this problem: A special committee created to balance athletic excellence with NCAA compliance and a new student-athlete transfer policy.
This policy states that student athletes hoping to transfer to an SEC school might be prohibited from transferring or obtaining athletic scholarships as a result of their past behavior.
Sankey also spoke extensively on discussions he has had with student athletes on the issue of time management. He hinted that these discussions could translate to a new set of proposed policies to the NCAA at its January 2017 convention.
Players and coaches Auburn, Florida and Vanderbilt all met with the media Monday. Tuesday's highlights include an overview of the SEC’s new collaborative replay policy with the conference’s Coordinator of Football Officials Steve Shaw, in addition to appearances from players and coaches of Georgia, Mississippi State, Tennessee and Texas A&M.
University of South Carolina head coach Will Muschamp as well as players Mason Zandi, Marquavius Lewis and Deebo Samuel will speak on Thursday, July 14.