SEC Leaves NCAA: A Looming Earthquake in College Athletics?

"It Just Means More." The Southeastern Conference's (SEC) slogan has long been synonymous with the prestige and tradition of its collegiate sports programs. However, recent developments suggest the SEC might be on the verge of a monumental shift, potentially becoming the first power conference to break away from the NCAA.

The Spark: SEC Spring Meetings and Sankey's Statements

Speculation ignited following the SEC spring meetings on May 26, 2025, when SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey addressed rumors about a potential departure from the NCAA. Reports had surfaced that SEC member school presidents granted Sankey the authority to withdraw from the NCAA if he deemed it in the conference's best interest. While Sankey denied having unilateral authority to depart, his words hinted at the SEC's desire for greater control.

Sankey stated, "I don’t have the authority to just depart [the NCAA]. That’s not been voted upon." He also clarified that the SEC prefers to stay in the NCAA. However, the timing of these reports appears conveniently aligned with the SEC’s broader push to gain greater governing control over collegiate athletics amid the turbulence surrounding the pending House v. NCAA settlement, the introduction of a new revenue-sharing model, and the restructuring of the College Football Playoff system.

The Power Struggle: Governance and Autonomy

At the heart of the matter lies a power struggle over the governance of college sports. Under the proposed settlement in the House case, the Power Five conferences would hold up to 65% of the voting power on rulemaking committees across a range of decisions. The SEC has suggested increasing that figure to as much as 68%. Meanwhile, commissioners from smaller conferences have voiced concerns about the potential erosion of checks and balances if the SEC and Big Ten are allowed to dominate the governance of college sports.

Commissioner Greg Sankey has repeatedly acknowledged that the SEC is seeking greater authority and independence within any new governance model, and the mere suggestion of an NCAA exit appears to serve as a significant bargaining chip toward that goal. This stance is reflected in the SEC’s recent actions, including its partnership with the Big Ten to form a joint advisory group aimed at addressing the mounting challenges facing college athletics. The group was created to confront issues such as recent court rulings, ongoing litigation, inconsistent state laws, and complex governance proposals.

The Dissatisfaction: "Why Are We Still in the NCAA?"

According to commissioner Greg Sankey, some of the SEC’s athletics directors are getting restless. “I’ve shared with the decision-making working group that I have people in my room asking ‘Why are we still in the NCAA?’” Sankey told reporters Monday at SEC spring meetings, noting that he didn’t have the authority to decide to depart at the current time.

The idea has been floated among Power 4 schools, especially the Big Ten and SEC. Even as they’re given more autonomy compared to other leagues, some remain unhappy with the leaders of college sports.

A Word of Caution: Alabama's Perspective

On Tuesday, Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne was asked about the idea of the SEC departing the NCAA. He didn’t sound excited about the idea, but did not outright dismiss the possibility.

He began by mentioning what the organization does right. “(NCAA president) Charlie Baker has already come out, has he not, an said that the enforcement is changing, with the new clearinghouse, right?” Byrne said. “The NCAA, historically, has been really good at running championships. And I do believe March Madness has been one of the things holding all of us together. We all know that it’s a really special time in our country every year, when everybody’s doing their brackets and finding that time. So I would hate to see us have a time where we’re not all joined together.”

Byrne then went into the reasons why an eventual break could be necessary, at least from the SEC’s perspective. “Because of the legal pressures we’re all under, we’re just getting attacked,” Byrne said. “There’s a lot of things I’m going to say, but I’m not going to. We’re getting attacked regularly, that it’s making conferences at times, having to make decisions to make sure that the right ones are being made for long-term survivability. And so I hope that can continue, where we’re all together under one umbrella.”

Read also: Crafting Your NCAA Profile

A reporter questioned Byrne why football must remain under the organization, given those circumstances. The AD mentioned the need for some sort of authorities. “Is there anything that works long-term that doesn’t have regulation of some sort?” Byrne asked. “I haven’t found it yet. So, what I am hoping, and hope’s not a great strategy, but what we’re hoping for through the (House v. NCAA) settlement, if it gets, in fact, settled, it can give us some guidelines that will allow some type of regulation, compared to what we’ve been through for the past three or four years. “And that’s healthy for the student-athletes. That’s healthy for the universities, that’s healthy for broad-based programming and Olympic sports. And that’s probably healthy academically too.”

The NCAA's Defense: Baker's Confidence

On Thursday, NCAA president Charlie Baker didn’t sound too worried. “I tend to believe what I hear from people when I speak to them directly,” Baker said Thursday during the Big 12 spring meetings at the Waldorf Astoria Orlando.

Speaking from the SEC spring meetings in Destin, Fla., earlier this week, Sankey said, “I have people in my room asking, ‘Why are we still in the NCAA?'”

As the NCAA determines which voices should get the most power at the table, the SEC is seeking more authority than the governance proposal, which would give 65 percent of NCAA decision-making power to the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC.

Sankey, for what it’s worth, also pointed out that any concerns his members have had with the NCAA haven’t kept teams from accepting invitations to its national basketball or golf tournaments. That line suggests that fears of an SEC secession are premature but still worth hearing. “Their voice matters a great deal in part because they take college sports seriously and play at a very high level, just like the Big 12 does and just like many others do…” Baker said.

The Mechanics of Secession: How Could the SEC Leave?

For all its power and influence, the NCAA is only a private, member-organization. In that regard, the NCAA is like the American Council on Education, the Association of American Law Schools or numerous other member organizations in higher ed-including the SEC. Member conferences and schools choose to be considered for NCAA membership, and the NCAA chooses to accept or reject membership applications. The NCAA also can’t force a member to do anything.

As the late Texas Judge Mack Kidd wrote in NCAA v. Yeo (2003), “the NCAA has no direct procedural power to enforce its rules on individuals” and NCAA member institutions “reserve the right to secede from the NCAA and establish their own eligibility standards.” The SEC could leave the NCAA, provided its exit complies with member rules. The SEC could then create whatever rules the conference and its members wish for athlete eligibility, NIL, transfers, minimum GPA, employment and myriad other topics.

The SEC's Strengths: A Standalone Powerhouse

The SEC has the wherewithal to operate as a standalone league. Its member schools are large and prestigious institutions with impressive endowments and state-of-the-art facilities. The SEC enjoys a marketable brand with a national reach with fans. That is evidenced by the conference’s $3 billion media rights deal with ABC and ESPN and by the fact it feeds more players to the NFL than any other conference.

The SEC also doesn’t need to be aligned with conferences, most of which function more in line with traditional notions of college sports as played by students who aren’t pro prospects and who, like their classmates, will go on to jobs or grad school. The SEC could also form a super league with other power conference schools. A super league could function like a pro league, with athletes signing contracts with their schools and with backing from private equity and billionaires.

Potential Pitfalls: Antitrust and the Value of the NCAA

At first glance, it might sound like SEC secession is makes sense. First, the SEC might be able to leave NCAA membership, but it can’t leave the NCAA as a co-defendant. In the major athlete antitrust cases in recent years, the NCAA is the most notable defendant, but the power conferences are also defendants. They’re all accused of conspiring to limit economic opportunities for athletes. Co-conspirators can’t just quit each other, at least from an antitrust perspective.

Second, while NCAA policies in recent decades have drawn rebuke and lawsuits-such as denying athletes the chance to use their right of publicity or limiting funding for education-related costs-the NCAA does a lot of things well. It advances academic goals through enforcement of educational requirements, which is important since colleges are fundamentally about learning and are not pro teams. Further, the NCAA provides resources and research on player health, including mental health. It also organizes championships and tournaments for a wide range of sports, most of which are not football or basketball. To that point, while the SEC is most often associated with big-time college football, it also runs championships for 20 other sports, including men’s and women’s cross country and equestrian.

The NCAA is also national. Although the SEC’s reach might be national, it’s a regional entity that doesn’t have as much sway in some parts of the country-including with their elected officials. sports outside of the Super Bowl. While the SEC could create its own basketball tournament for its men’s and women’s teams and it would attract the interest of broadcasters, it wouldn’t be the tournament. There might not be Cinderella teams.

Fourth, a standalone SEC league or the SEC forming a super league with other breakaway conferences could morph into an entity that looks too much like pro sports. As the NCAA has argued in litigation over the years, consumers are attracted to college sports partly because it is distinctly different from pro sports. The athletes are college students, whose priority is (or should be) advancing toward a degree and graduating.

Fifth, the timing of secession doesn’t seem right. The NCAA has been more effective and pragmatic under president Charlie Baker. Through the proposed House settlement, the NCAA has opened the door to greater athlete compensation.

The Ripple Effect: Impact on Other Conferences

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey sent a tremor through the collegiate world when his league reportedly permitted an exit from the NCAA amid a recent College Football Playoff shakeup.

The SEC, like it or not, is the cornerstone of college football -- and has been for the past few seasons. Taking that chunk out of the pie would leave irreparable damage on the landscape of the NCAA, and with the most bloated league threatening to strike it out on their own, conferences like the Big 12, ACC, and Big 10 (assuming they don't pair up with the SEC in the event of a SEC exit).

The boat is rocking, and for schools like BYU who just found stable ground in a power league (in this case, the Big 12), what would a damaged NCAA mean for the "lesser" conferences that would be left behind?

This issue filters into two dominant questions for the Big 12 Conference. One: Can the NCAA survive without one or two of its largest money-makers? Two: Would the Big 12 (ACC, Big 10, etc) thrive at the top of the NCAA totem pole?

As it stands now, the Big 12 carries the most value of the non-SEC, non-Big 10 leagues, with only the ACC as a serious competitor for the top spot.

In a new NCAA, I would expect even more power from the likes of the American Conference, and the scrapped-together remains of the future Pac-12 (Mountain West Plus) to even the scales of power.

The ACC has the largest individual brands at the moment. Duke and UNC for basketball. Clemson and Florida State for football. While the Big 12 has stronger programs at the moment, would dominance in football and basketball -- the two biggest money makers -- be a guarantee?

The next era of college sports may look largely unchanged from its greater picture today. A drastic action like that doesn’t appear to be imminent. However, if that were to happen, the Group of Five would surely feel some impact. The SEC does bring a great deal of money in the FBS, but if the SEC (and potentially more conferences like the Big Ten) were to ever leave, then the overall structure for whatever level the G5 would be at would surely look different.

The Future: Uncertainty and Potential Realignment

The SEC has not formally made any declaration that it intends on leaving the NCAA. However, if a move like that were to ever happen, it could perhaps fall in line when media deals are up. There are 16 teams in the SEC. There are also 18 teams in the Big Ten. So if those two leagues did end up deciding they wanted to split from the rest of the NCAA, like some have speculated, they would have enough teams to make a league of their own. This is, of course, hypothetical and much more would need to happen for that to take place.

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