Scenes from a Saban-less SEC spring meetings: Jimmy Sexton’s awesome power, Greg Sankey’s simmering anger

DESTIN, Fla. – In a scene straight out of “The Godfather,” the SEC’s highest-paid coaches came out one by one to pay their respects.

Steve Sarkisian. Lane Kiffin. Hugh Freeze. Kalen DeBoer.

Billy Napier, fresh off talking about Jaden Rashada’s lawsuit with reporters, and Kirby Smart, Rashada’s new coach, chatted amiably with him for more than 10 minutes.

At the elegant Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort & Spa, the most interesting thing that happened during the SEC’s annual spring meetings was seeing Creative Artists Agency super agent Jimmy Sexton operate a restaurant off the lobby that sold “gourmet” burgers for $23. Sexton usually keeps a low profile in public, but it was impossible to miss him this week as college football bold names orbited around him.

For a few hours on Tuesday, Sexton, accompanied by his CAA team, had a near-constant line of multimillionaires eager to catch up and pick his brain. It was like watching a maestro as Sexton moved from client to client, always seeming to time it perfectly and never leaving a trainer feeling like he abandoned him for one of his bigger clients.

In a week defined by unknowns, it showed that the only certainty was the power that Sexton holds in college football.

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The week at one of Florida’s most beautiful beaches may have set a record for the most “We’ll see” responses distributed in one place. Reporters and athletic directors had the same questions following the historic $2.8 billion House deal, which was agreed upon but not yet finalized.

What does this mean for Title IX? What will payments be made to athletes under a new revenue-sharing model? What will this mean for athletic departments as a whole, who now have to find a way to pay an additional $22 million a year?

There were theories, but there were still no definitive answers.

“There’s no consensus on anything right now,” Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said. “From their presidents to their athletic directors to us as well. Hopefully we can find a good landing spot.”

Those answers are expected to arrive in the coming months, as plaintiffs’ lawyers are expected to present the House’s lengthy settlement to Judge Claudia Wilken by July, according to CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd. As a result, there should be greater clarity and understanding, especially in how plaintiffs structure retroactive damage payments for impacted athletes from 2016-2020.

But until then, these were just educated guesses, at best, about what the new model of college athletics will look like in the future. Thus, the most noteworthy comments have fallen more on the periphery of what is happening, rather than getting into the nitty-gritty details of the House agreement, which can make even the most diligent observer’s eyes glaze over.

There was Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin revealing the expectation that the NCAA will allow sponsored field logos, a potentially lucrative new revenue spigot for athletic departments. If we don’t get a Buc-ee logo on Texas A&M’s Kyle Field, we will all be deprived.

Stricklin also weighed in on the idea of ​​Florida State joining the SEC, its support for Napier amid the Rashada lawsuit and a litany of other topics in what was supposed to be a record-long media session with reporters that stretched over more than a hour. As much as there was outside noise about Stricklin and Napier’s long-term job security, Florida’s athletic director answered all questions as calmly and collectedly as possible.

We asked Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte to come out with a hot version of The Paul Finebaum Show, declaring that there was nothing in the SEC like the Red River Rivalry game. “It’s the best thing ever,” Del Conte said. He’s wrong, obviously — the Iron Bowl, the Egg Bowl and the world’s largest outdoor cocktail party all have arguments for being better, for starters — but it was fun to see the Texas athletic director already start flexing his muscles. Del Conte has become known as an outspoken, aggressive AD who is a perfect fit for Texas and will have his voice heard in the SEC when the Longhorns officially join the conference in July.

New Texas A&M athletic director Trev Alberts was equally candid — there must be something in the Texas waters — when he reiterated that college athletics has an expense problem, not a revenue problem. It was refreshing to hear a university administrator admit this in dealing with the changing environment, and yes, Daniel Libit, we are aware that he I didn’t invent the turn of phrase.

An increasingly risqué Greg Sankey appeared when discussing his issues with the NCAA and what led him to create a joint advisory group with Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti. For a long time, it seemed like Sankey wanted to be the good guy and be nice to everyone, even to his own frustration, so as not to rock the boat. Now, a confident Sankey will do what he believes is best for his conference, even if it means “sometimes you have to be a jerk.”

The coaching ranks missed the presence of former Alabama coach Nick Saban, who always arrived in Destin with talking points and some overarching topic that he wanted to use his bully pulpit to address. Watching new coach Kalen DeBoer take his time and chat with reporters was a stark contrast to the meticulous Saban, who ran from meeting to meeting, often with a cellphone pressed to his ear along the way.

Georgia coach Kirby Smart is the new leading voice in the coaches’ room, according to Lane Kiffin, but he hasn’t been as interested in using that voice with the media. Kiffin, when he wants to, has the same ability to address general topics in a salient way, but he still doesn’t have the same seriousness. In the first year without Saban, the SEC spring meetings were different without him.

“It’s different, certainly for me, having come all these years and seeing him,” Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said. “I’ve known Coach (Saban) personally for a long time, and working with him as a colleague, I miss him.”

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I am often asked what my work is like. I love reporting and writing about college sports and I’m lucky to do so. But if your eyes are green with envy at the thought of reporters spending a week at the beach tanning and drinking Piña Coladas, think again. The event, in particular, involves mostly windowless conference rooms and chasing the glitzy crowd of SEC millionaires in the hallways for nine hours a day.

Rivaling Sexton’s lobbying reception was the steady stream of SEC heavyweights eager to be on Paul Finebaum’s show this week. Unfortunately, Finebaum’s set was the closest many of us got to the beach.