| Tuesday, July 19, 2022 |
| Mississippi catfish producers struggle despite high market prices | |
 | Catfish producers in Mississippi are receiving good prices for their products, but they're facing issues from high heat and high costs for feed and fuel. Mississippi has 34,100 acres of catfish ponds found mostly in the Delta, with some scattered in Noxubee, Lowndes and Chickasaw counties in east Mississippi. According to Jimmy Avery, Mississippi State University (MSU) Extension aquaculture professor at the MSU Delta Research and Extension Center in Stoneville, the catfish industry is confronted with many challenges. "Farmers are receiving record prices for their fish, but this increased income is being eroded by high feed prices and high fuel prices," Avery said. Recent weeks of hot weather are also causing problems. "High temperatures lead to decreased feeding and increased aeration rates," Avery said. "High water temperatures suppress fish appetites and result in lower levels of oxygen in the water. Growers must compensate for lower oxygen levels by running electric or diesel-powered aerators more hours at night." Continuing strong demand for catfish is helping keep prices high. Ganesh Kumar, an aquaculture economist in Stoneville, said catfish producers were receiving between $1.25 and $1.35 a pound in mid-July for their fish. |
| Innovative Solar Hybrid Kiln Technology Licensed for Commercial Use | |
 | Hybrid solar power technology developed by George Washington University faculty to efficiently dry agricultural products like lumber and biochar has been licensed for exclusive commercial use by Englo, Inc., a West Virginia-based air handling business. This technology can help companies speed up drying time, recapture energy typically lost as heat and reduce their carbon footprint. The innovation was developed by two faculty members from the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS), Research Professor Richard C. Millar and professor Thomas Mazzuchi, in partnership with professors Todd Mlsna and Rubin Shmulsky from Mississippi State University. The research that led to the development of this technology spanned two summers and involved students from both GW and Mississippi State. Tim Warden, president of Englo, said he became connected with Millar and his research through the company's work in the forest products industry. The company secured a one-year option to explore the solar hybrid dryer technology's commercial viability in 2021 and has seen notable interest from potential users. The chemistry department at Mississippi State tested the performance of the dryer using biochar. |
| Howard Miskelly, business and civic leader, dies at 96 | |
 | Longtime businessman and civic leader Howard Miskelly died July 16, one day shy of his 97th birthday. Miskelly -- who often said his greatest achievement was raising children who were strong in their Christian faith -- started a retail store in Okolona that would provide as inspiration for his children to found Miskelly Furniture, one of the largest independent furniture retailers in the country. "His passion in life was influencing, inspiring and helping people in any way that he could," Chip Miskelly, one of his sons and a co-founder of Miskelly Furniture, told WLBT. "That was his legacy that he left for us to continue." Howard Miskelly showed his aptitude for success at an early age. He selected the mascot and school colors for Falkner High School in Tippah County as class president. In 1943, he was drafted into World War II. He served with the 102nd Infantry Division and fought in Belgium, Holland, Germany. Miskelly earned the rank of Staff Sergeant and was awarded two Bronze Stars. When he returned home to Mississippi, Miskelly eventually found himself at Mississippi State University, after transferring from Union University where he played basketball. Mississippi State would become a lifelong passion for Miskelly and his children. He was a donor, supporter and tireless supporter of the school. |
| How 3 Mississippi country stores are adapting to high inflation: 'It's hurt everybody' | |
 | With two floors filled with baskets of cotton, cast-iron skillets and farming plows, the Simmons-Wright Company in Kewanee, Mississippi is a country boy's dream. The boy dreaming on one July afternoon is 75-year-old Louis Hankins. Hankins made the short drive from Alabama to Lauderdale County where the historic general store has sat for the past 138 years. As he skims through the store, he can't help but play show-and-tell with some of the rusted farm equipment on the shelves -- like carving blades and sausage mills. But the joy of holding these items is bittersweet. "Country life [is] not like what it used to be," Hankins said, lamenting the disappearance of stores like the Simmons-Wright Company and the culture they represent. To a degree, Hankins is right. County stores have been a hallmark of the rural South for generations -- the kind of mom-and-pop places where you can buy fertilizer in one aisle, lotion in the next and crickets for bait in a third. Many closed over the recent decades, pushed out of business by big stores like Walmart, which rolled into town offering cheaper prices. Some of the Mississippi stores that stayed open now worry that high prices from surging inflation will do what everything from the COVID-19 pandemic to the Great Depression could not -- force them to permanently close. But despite their modest appearances, adapting to change is nothing new for stores that have survived for more than 100 years. |
| Cargill, Continental Grain Talk Concessions With Justice Department on Sanderson Chicken Deal | |
 | The Justice Department is discussing with Cargill and Continental Grain Co. potential concessions that could clear the way for the companies to acquire poultry processor Sanderson Farms Inc., according to people familiar with the matter. The discussions with the government involve how farmers and plant workers are paid, the people said. Cargill, an agribusiness giant with meat, grain and food ingredients businesses, and Continental, an agricultural investment firm, agreed in August 2021 to acquire Sanderson for $4.5 billion. One possible concession under discussion is that farmers who would raise chickens for the combined company would no longer be paid through the so-called tournament system, a payment system in which chicken companies measure farmers' performance against one another to determine how much they make, the people said. The tournament system is used by many large U.S. chicken companies to pay their growers. The details of an agreement between the companies and the Justice Department could change, and the deal could fall apart. The discussions come as the Biden administration, lawmakers and regulators have ramped up antitrust scrutiny on the U.S. meat and poultry industries, in which a handful of big companies supply the bulk of the beef, chicken and pork eaten by U.S. consumers. Mississippi-based Sanderson reported a $321 million profit for the quarter ended April 30, helped by rising prices, compared with $97 million in the like period a year ago. The company got its start in 1947 as a farm-supply store. Joe Sanderson, the founder's grandson, has been the company's chief executive since 1989 and chairman since 1998. |
| Capitol construction addresses much needed repairs in two-year project | |
 | Anyone driving in downtown Jackson over the last few months has noticed the amount of roadwork and construction. Nowhere is that more true than the areas surrounding the Mississippi state capitol building. The state's Department of Finance Administration is conducting $4,672,000 worth of projects to repair and maintain aspects of the 119-year-old complex. The work began in the fall of 2021 and is expected to be completed by fall 2023. The two-year long plan is funded through bonds and includes fixing a "severe drainage issue" on the east side of the capitol, said DFA spokesperson Marcy Scoggins. Additionally, an uneven sidewalk is being fixed on the southeast side, the sidewalks on each of the four corners of the complex are being made handicap accessible, cracks and drainage issues in the main drive are being fixed, sidewalks in the east plaza are being replaced, flag poles that were damaged in a 2021 storm are being replaced and the complex's sprinkler system is being replaced, which will also come with a re-sodding of the entire capitol grounds. Scoggins said repairs and maintenance of that magnitude do not happen very often. "This is the next round of needed repairs, and improvements to the capitol grounds," Scoggins said. |
| Owner: Mississippi abortion clinic is sold, won't reopen | |
 | The Mississippi abortion clinic at the center of a U.S. Supreme Court case that overturned Roe v. Wade has been sold and will not reopen even if it's allowed to do so by a state court, its owner told The Associated Press on Monday. Diane Derzis said the furniture and equipment from Jackson Women's Health Organization have been moved to a new abortion clinic she will open soon in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The Jackson clinic is best known as the Pink House because of its bright paint job, and it was Mississippi's last abortion clinic. Derzis said people were calling her to ask about buying the building within minutes after the Supreme Court released its June 24 ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and took away women's constitutional protection for abortion nationwide. She said she does not think the building will be used as a medical facility. "I didn't ask because I really didn't care," Derzis said Monday. "It's a great building." The building is in Jackson's Fondren neighborhood, home to an eclectic mix of restaurants, retail shops and entertainment venues. |
| Biden could declare climate emergency as soon as this week, sources say | |
 | President Biden is considering declaring a national climate emergency as soon as this week as he seeks to salvage his environmental agenda in the wake of stalled talks on Capitol Hill, according to three people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private deliberations. The potential move comes days after Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) told Democratic leaders that he does not support his party's efforts to advance a sprawling economic package this month that includes billions of dollars to address global warming. If an emergency is invoked, it could empower the Biden administration in its efforts to reduce carbon emissions and foster cleaner energy. Two of the individuals with knowledge of the discussions said also they expect the president to announce a slew of additional actions aimed at curbing planet-warming emissions. The exact scope and timing of any announcements remain in flux. "The president made clear that if the Senate doesn't act to tackle the climate crisis and strengthen our domestic clean energy industry, he will," a White House official, who requested anonymity to describe the deliberations, said in a statement late Monday. "We are considering all options and no decision has been made." Top aides to Biden are debating the best course of action as another punishing heat wave has descended this week on the central United States, and as a similar weather pattern is breaking temperature records across Europe. Many Democrats have called on the White House in recent days to use its powers to address global warming as hopes for congressional action have faded. |
| Anthony Fauci Plans to Retire by End of Biden's Term | |
| Anthony Fauci, the infectious-diseases expert who has helped steer the nation's response to Covid-19 through two administrations, said he is likely to retire by the end of President Biden's term. Dr. Fauci, 81 years old, has become one of the most well-known public-health leaders during the pandemic, appearing often at White House Covid-19 press briefings and on national TV and other outlets. He delivered unvarnished views in his characteristic Brooklyn accent about the dangers of the virus and a need to take precautions, drawing criticism from some Republicans. Dr. Fauci is the chief medical adviser to President Biden, while also leading the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, or NIAID. He has directed the institute since 1984, serving under seven presidents. Dr. Fauci said Monday he hadn't decided on a date but planned to step down by the end of Mr. Biden's term in January 2025. "Sometime between now and then, I will step down from my current position and pursue other directions in my professional career," he said. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Dr. Fauci has won praise from Democrats for his response to Covid-19 and criticism from some Republicans who have questioned his credibility. The tensions prompted online threats against Dr. Fauci, who in 2020 received an armed security detail. Dr. Fauci was also criticized for changing his position on some virus-fighting measures such as mask wearing, though said he changed his advice to match evolving science. |
| Inflation is providing cover for price fixing: economists | |
 | Economists and lawmakers are warning that high inflation is providing companies with an excuse to telegraph price increases during earnings calls, reducing market competition and compounding the pain for consumers. The worldwide trend of high inflation, which has led to unrest and labor protests in numerous countries, is caused by larger disruptions in the global economy resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. However, it is being exacerbated by companies in concentrated sectors essentially acting in cahoots to further price increases, economists argue. "A bout of inflation creates an opportunity that didn't previously exist for firms in concentrated industries to coordinate better their pricing decisions," Hal Singer, managing director of Econ One Research and an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University McDonough School of Business, said in an interview. "No price-fixing conspiracy in the modern world involves a written agreement where they sit down in a smoke-filled room and they say, 'OK, we all go up by 10 percent.' That's not how it works. They're not that dumb. What they're doing is trying to coordinate in a way that defies scrutiny from the antitrust laws." Singer said one common coordinating tactic is earning calls. "At the end of 2021 -- I was livid -- you'd hear these executives saying, 'We plan on raising our prices by 17.24 percent next quarter.' I thought to myself, I can't believe the agencies are letting them get away with this. This is clearly an invitation to collude." This sort of language about where prices are heading in the future comes close to the kind of price signaling identified as a no-no by the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission. |
| Police offer no major updates as Ole Miss student Jay Lee missing for 10 days now | |
| Red and white posters pleading for help finding Jimmie "Jay" Lee -- the University of Mississippi student who has been missing for 10 days -- cover this small college town. The posters, created by Lee's family and local volunteers, are stapled to bulletins across the Square or taped inside bus stations on Jackson Avenue. Some are tucked beneath the windshield wipers of cars parked at Campus Walk, the beige student housing complex where Lee, a 20-year-old Black student who is well-known in Oxford's LGBTQ community, was last seen at 5:58 a.m. on Friday, July 8. He was wearing a silver robe or housecoat, a gold cap, and gray slippers. From there, police think Lee may have driven to Molly Barr Trails, another student apartment complex where his car was taken by a towing company that Friday afternoon. Police found his car three days later at Bandit Towing's impound lot. Sydney Hughes, a UM student who lives at Lee's apartment complex, talked to a Mississippi Today reporter Sunday afternoon as she was letting her dog out. The weekend after Lee went missing, she said she was sitting on her balcony with her roommate when they saw four police cars drive through the parking lot in the span of 30 minutes. The next day, the university sent a campus-wide alert. Hughes said she didn't know Lee well but that she met him last fall in the Grove when he was campaigning to become homecoming king. |
| USM awarded $10K for veterans struggling with food insecurities | |
| The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) Center for Military Veterans, Service Members and Families received a Bob Woodruff Foundation stimulus grant for $10,000. The funds will be used to assist veterans and their families who are struggling with food insecurity. The grant will serve at least 33 local military veterans. Each veteran participating in the program will be awarded a $300 gift card through the USM Veterans Center for the purchase of healthy foods at the Hattiesburg-area Corner Market Grocery Store. The Corner Market staff has worked closely with USM veteran-leaders to meet the needs of local veterans and their families participating in this program. |
| Roberts takes on new role at East Central Community College | |
 | Marie Roberts has been selected to lead East Central Community College's student recruiting and retention efforts as the first Executive Director of Enrollment Management, ECCC President Brent Gregory announced. Roberts, of Collinsville, began her duties in this newly created position on July 1. "East Central Community College began a restructuring of its student recruiting and retention efforts this spring to be more in line with best practices in colleges and universities across the nation," said Gregory. "This included the new position of Executive Director of Enrollment Management to lead this effort, as well as three other positions to provide support to Dr. Roberts and the existing recruiting and admissions staff." In this new role, Roberts will oversee the college's student recruiting, admissions, placement, registration, and retention efforts. This includes the Office of Admissions and the Student Success Center. New positions created to aid in the college's enrollment management efforts include Director of Student Success, Athletic Enrollment Management Specialist, and Native American Liaison & Enrollment Management Specialist. |
| Jill Biden, education chief to kick off summer learning tour | |
| Jill Biden and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona will visit Connecticut, Georgia and Michigan this week to examine summer learning programs that are helping children who fell behind during the pandemic catch up on reading, writing and arithmetic before the new school year begins. The two-day tour, which the first lady's office announced Tuesday, also gives her and Cardona a chance to highlight programs that are paid for by President Joe Biden's coronavirus relief program. The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan set aside $122 billion to help schools safely reopen and stay open during the pandemic, and address students' academic and mental health needs. Many schools across the United States saw large numbers of students fall under the radar after schools shut their doors because of the pandemic and learning went online. Many students skipped class, tests and homework. Record numbers of families opted out of annual standardized tests, leaving some districts with little evidence of how students were doing in reading and math. Now that most schools have reopened, many have been racing to make up for lost time and gaps in learning. They are budgeting billions of dollars for tutoring, summer camps and longer school days and trying to figure out which students need the most help after two years of disruptions. |
| Mark Ballard: Conservatives want to clip tenure protections for outspoken Louisiana college professors | |
 | Louisiana began down what one legislator calls the "slippery slope" toward eliminating job-protecting tenure for college professors who mouth off in unapproved ways. Senate President Page Cortez, R-Lafayette, Friday received designees for the Task Force on Tenure in Postsecondary Education, putting Louisiana on the path already tread by other Republican-majority states seeking to remove what some professors call protection for academic free thought and what some conservatives say is a license to indoctrinate youth with extremist thought. "The caricature for tenure has been weaponized on the national level for political pursuits," University of Louisiana System President Jim Henderson testified May 11 as legislators considered creating the task force. "I encourage you that the conversation around this is around the merits and not about the politics." Louisiana is just the latest state flirting with clipping the wings of educators. UL System President Henderson quotes Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black institution, on the issue. She said: "Education at its best is the anthesis of comfort. ... We have to challenge the status quo and challenge what conventional wisdom is and that's what puts faculty members in a precarious position." |
| Higher Ed Is Looking to Refill Jobs. But It's Finding a 'Shallow and Weak' Candidate Pool. | |
 | While higher education has largely recovered nearly all of its pandemic-associated job losses, the task of recruiting and hiring administrators and staff members has become a daunting one, according to a Chronicle survey of college leaders, hiring managers, and administrators that was conducted with support from the Huron Consulting Group. Nearly 80 percent of the 720 respondents said their campus has more open positions this year than last, and 84 percent said that hiring for administrative and staff jobs has been more difficult in the last year. Those positions are harder than ever to fill, too: 78 percent of leaders said their campus had received fewer applications for open jobs in the last year, and 82 percent agreed that they'd fielded fewer applications from qualified candidates. Said one person who took the survey: "The pools have been shallow and weak." At the same time, candidates have upped their salary demands. There's a clear reason for that: 77 percent of respondents --- among them presidents, deans, human-resources leaders, and other senior officials --- said that higher education is a less appealing place to work than it was a year ago (the survey was conducted between June 14 and July 1). |
| An inaugural HBCU presidents' delegation travels to Israel | |
 | Six presidents of historically Black colleges and universities visited Tel Aviv earlier this month for an inaugural HBCU leaders' delegation to Israel. The nine-day trip was the outgrowth of a partnership made this spring between the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, an organization representing public HBCUs, and the American Jewish Committee, a Jewish advocacy organization. The committee runs a program called Project Interchange that brings international thought leaders to Israel so they can learn about Israeli society and build relationships with counterparts there. Amy Goldstein, assistant vice president of organizational advancement at TMCF, described the trip as a "capacity-building" mission to experience a country known for its technological innovation and "to find out what the opportunities were for our schools to partner with Israeli institutions for student exchanges, faculty exchanges and joint research opportunities." The HBCU presidents who participated are the heads of land-grant institutions, historically Black universities established in 1890 that focus on food sciences and agriculture research. One of the goals of the new partnership is to bring the presidents of all 19 historically Black land-grant institutions on future trips. Larry Robinson, president of Florida A&M University and the only member of the group who had been to Israel before, said the group tried "to take advantage of every minute we had in the country" |
| Despite Renewed Commitment to Diversity, Colleges Make Little Progress, Report Says | |
| Colleges in recent years have boasted that they are steadfastly committed to student and faculty racial diversity. But a new analysis by McKinsey & Company says that's really more talk than action. In fact, at the current rate, it would take colleges another 70 years to recruit enough Asian, Black, Latina/o, and Native American students for their enrollment to somewhat reflect America's demographics. And that figure would be dominated by and Latina/o students. For Native American and Black students, it would take more than 300 years to form a representative student body. Colleges collect flawed and incomplete racial enrollment data, struggle to reflect on their own racist history, and fail to invest adequate time and resources into diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, according to the report. The McKinsey analysis, "Racial and Ethnic Equity in U.S. Higher Education," shows that, since 2020, more than 130 research institutions have publicly shared plans or aspirations to diversify their student bodies and work forces, and to build equitable and inclusive communities where people of color have access to the same resources as white students and feel like they belong. At least 95 percent of these colleges have a senior diversity equity and inclusion executive, according to the report. But there seems to be a disconnect between colleges' stated efforts and reality, says Duwain Pinder, a leader of the McKinsey Institute for Black Economic Mobility and one of the report's authors. |
| Federal judge blocks Ed. Dept Title IX guidance for trans students | |
| A Tennessee judge on Friday issued a temporary block on the Education Department's Title IX guidance that prohibits discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. The temporary injunction from by Judge Charles Atchley focused on guidance issued by the Education Department in June 2021, which came after the Biden administration put out an executive order regarding how federal agencies should interpret what constitutes sex discrimination in light of Bostock v. Clayton County, a Supreme Court case that determined that "it is impossible to discriminate against a person for being homosexual or transgender without discriminating against that individual based on sex." The plaintiffs argue that the Education Department guidance following the Bostock decision should be more of a suggestion rather than enforced by the department as a statute, since the protections have not yet been codified into law under Title IX. The 20 states listed as plaintiffs on the injunction, including Alabama, Ohio and West Virginia, to name a few, argued that the department's guidance on Title IX interfered with their ability to enforce laws that prohibit transgender students from using bathrooms and locker rooms or playing on sports teams that align with their gender identity. Joe Cohn, policy director of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said, "The preliminary injunction is another reminder to the Department of Education that it cannot pretend a 'guidance document' is merely advisory while simultaneously threatening to enforce its terms." |
| Colleges navigate confusing legal landscapes as new abortion laws take effect | |
 | If a University of Michigan student walks into the school's Ann Arbor health center and learns they're pregnant, the health worker's response is never exactly the same. "It's easy to list: 'Well, you can continue a pregnancy, or you can consider a medication abortion or ... a surgical procedure,'" says Dr. Susan Dwyer Ernst, chief of gynecology at the University Health Service. "But we take those conversations in the context of the human being who's sitting in front of us." In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade, Ernst has been thinking a lot about how those conversations with students will change. Michigan is one of several states with long-standing abortion laws that weren't enforced while Roe guaranteed the constitutional right to abortion. Now, as abortion-banning state laws take effect, university health centers across the U.S. are trying to figure out their rights and responsibilities when counseling students. And another thing is adding to the confusion: In some states, it's unclear whether individuals could be prosecuted for helping pregnant students get the resources they need to obtain an abortion, including transportation or funding. Dr. Jessica Higgs, president of the American College Health Association, which represents over 700 institutions of higher education, says larger universities are likely better equipped to navigate this confusing legal landscape. "Really concerning [will] be smaller universities in more rural settings" with fewer resources, she says. |
| Some Students Want Colleges to Provide the Abortion Pill. Schools Are Resisting. | |
 | Many colleges pride themselves on providing a range of sexual and reproductive health services for their students, including birth control, screenings for sexually transmitted diseases and even insurance coverage to terminate a pregnancy. What they do not tend to provide is abortion, either by pill or through a procedure. For that, they refer students to other clinics or doctors' offices. For some students, that standard of care is no longer good enough, not with the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. They want colleges to expand access to abortion, reduce the stress and obstacles, and give women more autonomy and control over the process. The biggest thing on many of their wish lists: medication to end an unwanted pregnancy. A few colleges, including the University of Illinois Chicago, already provide the abortion pill. The University of Massachusetts Amherst plans to begin offering it in the fall. In California, a new law requires all of the state's public universities to provide medication abortion on campus by January; some campuses, like in Berkeley, have already begun to do so. But because of the fluctuating landscape of abortion law, and because of the complicated politics, persuading more colleges to provide medication abortion will be difficult. Colleges in states with restrictive abortion laws, like Missouri, may not be able to legally offer it. Other universities, especially publicly funded ones in states where laws are in flux, do not want to end up on the wrong side of legislation. |
SPORTS
| Mississippi State pitcher Preston Johnson, outfielder Brad Cumbest selected on Day 2 of MLB draft | |
 | "Beef" is Baltimore bound, Brad Cumbest is headed to Coors Field, and Bill Knight might not make it to Starkville after all. Day 2 of the 2022 MLB First-Year Player Draft saw four rounds of action before any players with Mississippi State ties were selected, but three Bulldogs were taken in the second half of the afternoon's action. Pitcher Preston Johnson was a seventh-round pick of the Orioles, Cumbest was taken in the ninth round by the Colorado Rockies, and Knight -- a transfer from Mercer -- went to Seattle in the 10th round. Nearly all players taken in the top 10 rounds sign with their pro team, so Bulldogs fans hoping to see the above trio return will likely be disappointed. But Monday proved to be a good day as far as MSU signees are concerned. Bradley Loftin, Jurrangelo Cijntje, Colby Holcombe and others all stayed off draft boards and are likely to come to Starkville. Rounds 11-20 will be Tuesday, with players such as Kamren James, Luke Hancock and RJ Yeager hoping to hear their names called. Any Bulldogs selected will join the four MSU players already picked, beginning with pitcher Landon Sims and catcher Logan Tanner. MSU fans had to wait a while between Tanner's second-round selection Sunday and Johnson's selection by the Orioles, which opened the seventh round Monday. He was taken with the No. 197 pick, which carries a slot value of $249,000. Johnson joins infielder Jordan Westburg as Mississippi State products in the Orioles' system. |
| Sankey sees changes in stronger SEC with expansion, playoff | |
| Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey proclaimed Monday the league "is stronger now than at any other time in our history." But the conference can't rest on its success, which includes the last three national championships in football, Sankey said in his address that opened SEC Media Days. He spoke of the changes to come with conference realignments, leaving open the possibility of further expansion after Texas and Oklahoma join the SEC in 2025 to make it a 16-team conference, as well as what might be next for the College Football Playoff. The Big Ten recently countered the SEC's move by voting to add Southern California and UCLA as conference members beginning in 2024, positioning both the SEC and Big Ten as super conferences. Sankey said the league feels no pressure to add to its 16: "We know who we are. We're confident in our success. ... Don't feel pressured to just operate at a number. But we'll watch what happens around us and be thoughtful but be nimble." Last year, Sankey was named co-chairman of a Transformation Committee charged with reshaping NCAA Division I. He also has a voice in unresolved efforts to expand the four-team College Football Playoff. "I walked into one of the first (CFP) meetings when we were looking at the format and said, 'If we want to expand to eight teams for the playoff with no automatic bids, I'll have that conversation,'" Sankey said. "But moving to an eight-team playoff and granting what were going to be six automatic bids, reducing at-large access, is unwise." |
| SEC commissioner Greg Sankey: 'No sense of urgency' for league to expand beyond 16 teams | |
| In his first public media appearance since USC and UCLA announced their intent to eventually join the Big Ten, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said on Monday his conference is in no rush to expand beyond 16 teams, but that the league will "be nimble" as it continues to monitor the landscape. "There's no sense of urgency, no sense of panic," Sankey told reporters at SEC media days at the College Football Hall of Fame. "We're not just shooting for a number of affiliations that make us better. Could they be out there? I would never say they're not. I would never say that we will. We're going to be evaluating the landscape. I'm not going to speculate. And I actually am watching a lot of this activity operating around us more so than impacting us directly." The decisions of two of the Pac-12's flagship schools to join the Big Ten on Aug. 2, 2024 elicited public speculation about what conference -- if any -- will make the next move. Sankey said he was at his lake house in New York, an attempt at a summer vacation, when he heard the news. He said he waited a week to gather the league's presidents and chancellors together to make sure he had all of the facts -- but also to prevent any inaccurate reports that the meeting meant they were planning an immediate response. "We wanted to be patient and wanted to communicate," he said. |
| Sankey says SEC won't panic over conference expansion race | |
| The Southeastern Conference is a leading player in the dramatic changes to the national football landscape. New Louisiana State coach Brian Kelly likens them to a game of musical chairs, and warns there's not enough chairs for every school. "That's the current state of college football," Kelly said Monday at SEC media days, a high-pressure game to find a desired conference. The SEC will become a 16-team conference in 2025 with the additions of Texas and Oklahoma. The Big Ten recently countered by voting to add Southern California and UCLA as conference members beginning in 2024. Kelly's former school, Notre Dame, may be the biggest prize in the expansion race. It continues to operate as an independent school in football but would be an attractive addition for any league. Might the SEC have interest in another power grab? SEC commissioner Greg Sankey didn't go that far: "It is a compliment that people from all across the country and all across the globe want to be a part of the Southeastern Conference." Mississippi coach Lane Kiffin, who previously was at USC, said he doesn't like to see traditions and rivalries end. "When you go to places, you've been to USC, all these different places, you see how passionate fans are about certain things, what matters, rivalries," he said. "For those to be dismantled for money is kind of a shame." Kiffin also said the challenges for USC and UCLA moving to the Big Ten are not the same as what Texas and Oklahoma will face when adjusting to the SEC. |
| Greg Sankey: SEC's additions maintain geography, traditions better than Big Ten's | |
 | Forget about flashy locker rooms or player lounges: the college football arms race in 2022 is all about the game's most powerful conferences adding schools. The surprise addition of USC and UCLA to the Big Ten on the final day of June reignited realignment that left many, including Alabama coach Nick Saban, believing college football was headed toward two super conferences -- the SEC and Big Ten. The SEC made a similar move last summer when it accepted Texas and Oklahoma, and commissioner Greg Sankey on Monday seemed to lay out his case for why his conference's additions were stronger than the Big Ten's. Sankey was asked directly at SEC media days in Atlanta whether the SEC's two new schools "trumped" what the Big Ten added. "Yes," he responded. "I'm not sure we want to use the word 'trumped' all the time these days. Got to be careful about that." Maintaining the SEC's traditional geography has been a key point for Sankey. "This expansion keeps the SEC in contiguous states which supports reasonable geography among like-minded universities and keeps us confident that fan interest will continue to grow in our communities and our region and this country, and literally across the globe," he said. "There's no sense of urgency in our league. No panic in reaction to others' decisions. We know who we are. We are confident in our collective strength." |
| Greg Sankey at SEC Media Days 2022: Texas, Oklahoma better additions than UCLA, USC | |
 | As SEC commissioner Greg Sankey took the stage to open SEC Media Days, his mind went back to a late-June vacation. Sankey arrived to a lake in Skaneateles, New York, looking to relax, he said, when the news broke. UCLA and USC were leaving the Pac-12 and joining the Big Ten. "So much for our summer vacation," he said to a room full of reporters in the College Football Hall of Fame. But the moves don't appear to faze him, as he said Oklahoma and Texas trump UCLA and USC. Sankey didn't gather SEC presidents until about a week after the news broke on June 30 because he didn't want to send the message the conference was panicking the expand. He said the SEC's decisions regarding expansion wouldn't be based off what others do. Sankey echoed the words of Mississippi State athletic director John Cohen, who told the Clarion Ledger last week the SEC is powerful enough to not base its movement off others. "We know who we are," Sankey said. "We are confident in our collective strength." Oklahoma and Texas aren't set to join the SEC until July 1, 2025. However, the potential of those programs ditching the Big 12 early has been rumored. Sankey says that decision is between Oklahoma, Texas and the Big 12. "That's not up to me," he said. |
| SEC Media Days Report: Coaches voice NIL opinions | |
| The current state and the future of Name, Image and Likeness rules, regulations and oversight are uppermost on the minds of college athletics administrators and coaches. SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey and the coaches who opened SEC Media Days on Monday spoke on the topic. Ole Miss Coach Lane Kiffin spoke his mind when asked about it. "The first question is the key to NIL and how do you [do] well with that," Kiffin said. "You have really good boosters. That's how you do well at it. I'll say what other people won't say, as you know. "It's like a payroll in baseball. What teams win over a long period of time? Teams that have high payrolls and can pay players a lot. We're in a situation not any different than that. "I'm sure other people said it. I said Day One, you legalize cheating, so get ready for the people that have the most money to get players. Now you have it. It is what it is." Missouri Coach Eli Drinkwitz went deep big picture during his opening remarks, touching on realignment and NIL. "I know that the college football world and college athletics is changing," he said. "For any of you Simpson[s] fans, I'm not the old man yelling at the clouds that we want to go back to the way it was. But I do worry and I do question what are the guiding principles for college football and athletics moving forward." Drinkwitz expressed his concern over whether the "almighty dollar" and chasing TV deals were becoming guiding principles for college athletics and whether leaders were losing sight of what fans love about the game. |
| Sources: Big 12, Pac-12 won't partner as talks officially end | |
| Talks about a partnership between the Big 12 and the Pac-12, which had been discussed extensively the past two weeks, have officially ended, sources told ESPN. Officials from the Big 12 told Pac-12 officials on Monday that they're no longer interested in exploring the partnership, sources said. A Big 12 source said that the deal didn't work for the conference for "a multitude of reasons," which included the fact that any potential deal wouldn't have driven much revenue for the league. "It just didn't work," the source said. There have been at least three Zoom calls between top league officials in the Big 12 and the Pac-12 and other calls between other factions of the leagues -- including legal -- to discuss different options. The extent of the conversations had not been previously reported. A Pac-12 source briefed on the conversations said that the Big 12 had expressed interest on Friday in possibly exploring a full merger. The Big 12 source said of the three options laid out by the Pac-12 -- pooling rights, a scheduling concept or fully combining the leagues -- the only scenario that could have potentially driven value because of the sheer numbers of schools and population areas was a full merger of the leagues. The Pac-12 source said that the Pac-12 was skeptical of the full merger because the leagues' media rights expire at different times. A Big 12 source countered that the Pac-12 had expressed ways it could work around that. |
| Exclusive: WSU President Kirk Schulz goes in depth on Pac-12 and its future | |
| Washington State president Kirk Schulz says the remaining 10 members of Pac-12 have come together nicely over the last two weeks following an uncertain few days in the wake of USC and UCLA announcing moves to the Big Ten, he told Cougfan.com on Friday in a long conversation about the present and future of the Conference of Champions and Washington State athletics. The focus among the remaining 10, he said, is on moving forward together. And he's more than a little bullish on what the conference's next media rights package -- which begins in 2024 -- will mean for WSU and Pac-12 fans. "We're going to emerge from this media deal with people saying, 'Wow, I didn't think you could get that without USC and UCLA,'" he said. "I think people need to have confidence that the Pac-12 is going to emerge from this strongly ... I want our fans to have some trust in the process, and I know that's going to be hard. (People wonder what happens) if everything blows up what's going to happen with Cougar athletics. At the end of the day, (Pac-12 commissioner) George Kliavkoff has a great plan in place, he's been very communicative, he's working with our media partners, he's talking to all the schools on a consistent basis and stressing unification." |
| Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh speaks out at pro-life event | |
 | Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh lent his celebrity and voice to a pro-life event on Sunday in Plymouth, Michigan, sharing his reasoning why he's against abortion. According to the Detroit Catholic publication, Harbaugh and his wife, Sarah, were speakers at the Plymouth Right to Life event at the Inn at St. John's, designed to raise money for several pro-life charities and programs in southeast Michigan. "In God's plan, each unborn human truly has a future filled with potential, talent, dreams and love," Harbaugh said. "I have living proof in my family, my children, and the many thousands that I've coached that the unborn are amazing gifts from God to make this world a better place. To me, the right choice is to have the courage to let the unborn be born." The abortion debate has been reignited across the country after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision, sending the decision back to individual states. Abortions are currently legal in Michigan because a state judge in May issued an injunction against a 1931 law allowing the procedure only when "necessary to preserve the life of such woman." Sharing the stage with the Rev. John Riccardo, founder of Acts XXIX, a Catholic organization designed to support other clergy, Harbaugh spoke of courage necessary to stand up for one's beliefs. Sarah Harbaugh, who spoke after her husband and Riccardo, said there is some thought that their pro-life stance may impact the Wolverines on the recruiting trail, but the couple are not worried about it. |
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