SEC, Big 10 Form Advisory Committee to Address ‘Significant Challenges’ Facing College Sports

They didn’t explicitly announce that they’re forming their own league, but the SEC and the Big 10 could be exploring how to create their own league.

The Southeastern Conference (SEC) and the Big 10 – the two preeminent football conferences in the land – have formed a joint advisory committee to address the “significant challenges” facing college sports.

“The Big Ten and the SEC have substantial investment in the NCAA, and there is no question that the voices of our two conferences are integral to governance and other reform efforts,” Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti said. “We recognize the similarity in our circumstances, as well as the urgency to address the common challenges we face.”

The core advisory group will consist of university presidents, chancellors, and athletic directors. However, as the committee confronts different challenges, they intend to hire “other constituencies” to consult on those issues.

“There are similar cultural and social impacts on our student-athletes, our institutions, and our communities because of the new collegiate athletics environment,” said SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey. “We do not have predetermined answers to the myriad questions facing us. We do not expect to agree on everything but enhancing interaction between our conferences will help to focus efforts on common sense solutions.”

While the joint advisory group is historic and could precede the formation of the long-rumored “Super Conference” that would join the Big 10 and the SEC, Friday’s announcement stressed that the group “will have no authority to act independently and will only serve as a consulting body.”

According to CBS, “The Big Ten is expanding to 18 schools in the 2024-25 academic year, while the SEC is expanding to 16. Both conferences are also entering massive new media rights agreements worth hundreds of millions of dollars per year at a time when the future of athlete compensation has become a central debate.”