DESTIN, Fla. — There are two Greg Sankeys. The first one sometimes will say something that reminds you he was one of the people supporting the old ways and makes you wonder if someone who supported the old system can be trusted to build the new one.

The other Sankey, however, leaves hints that he does get it.

In his first public appearance since the historic NCAA vs. House settlement, on the eve of the SEC’s spring meetings, both sides of the SEC commissioner were on display. Which side wins out, and how quickly, will mean a lot.

The necessary background for those who need it: The NCAA has agreed to revenue sharing, directly paying its athletes, as part of last week’s settlement agreement. But it was merely one part of the larger whack-a-mole approach in dealing with college sports issues. The chaos of the transfer portal and NIL is left unresolved. And some stakeholders — media members, lawyers, advocates, coaches and administrators speaking privately — believe having a collective bargaining agreement with the athletes is the only way to do that.

But the first side of Sankey still sounded skeptical on Monday.

“To be in collective…

DESTIN, Fla. — The SEC convenes Tuesday for its annual spring meetings, and the good news for those involved is the future football schedule is not the main topic.

The bad news is the future football schedule is not the main topic.

Whether to go to nine conference games or stay at eight seems quaint now compared with the heavy reality that SEC presidents, athletic directors, coaches and commissioner Greg Sankey must confront this week: revenue sharing, roster limits and other results of the settlement in the House v. NCAA case.

SEC presidents voted unanimously — at least in the final vote it was unanimous — to approve the settlement terms, which if approved will result in around 22 percent of annual revenue being paid to athletes, starting next year. It’s a landmark agreement, and the timing is good for SEC administrators, who can start to hash out what comes next in Destin.

There are, of course, other things going in the conference: A quarterback at Georgia is suing Florida. Oklahoma and Texas officially join the league in July, and their coaches will be present in Destin for the first time. Nick Saban is no longer coaching football….

It could be an elevator, a hallway or a corridor this weekend at one of the Final Fours, the men’s in Arizona or the women’s in Cleveland. Greg Sankey, commissioner of the SEC, has a team in each, so doubtless he will be at both. Len Perna, meanwhile, has an idea, and if he sees Sankey he may do everything in his power to get a minute.

At most, Sankey will smile politely, nod and keep the conversation short. For now, the chances of Sankey and his conference wanting any part of Perna’s idea are about as good as the SEC giving up football as a varsity sport.

Because that’s essentially what it would be doing here.

The notion of a college football “Super League” has been percolating for a while, and one idea finally went public on Wednesday, when The Athletic reported that a number of power brokers, including the presidents at Syracuse and West Virginia and Perna, the CEO of TurnkeyZRG, were pushing for a 70-team permanent group, employing athletes as players, making its own rules and leaving non-football sports to the existing conferences, as is.

Publicly, the reaction among SEC power brokers was crickets: Sankey and the presidents at…

April showers might bring May flowers, but Selection Sunday brings Transfer Portal Monday. … That’s what they say, right?

Welcome to transfer portal season, where the action in the portal somehow manages to rival the action we see on the floor. In each of the past two seasons, more than 1,000 women’s basketball players entered the portal in hopes of finding a new landing spot.

As we have in the past, we’ll be tracking the biggest names and most impactful players who enter their names over the next month and a half.

We’re only a day in, and it’s already hot. Here’s a ranking of the top prospects who are available in the transfer portal.

Arkansas freshman guard

Key stats: 22.1 points per game (PPG), 3.3 rebounds per game (RPG), 41 percent field goal percentage (FG%)

Scott will be one of the most highly coveted portal players given her offensive ability and three years of eligibility remaining. Among freshmen nationally, only USC’s JuJu Watkins and Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo scored more points per game than Scott this season. Her 3-point shot needs a bit of work (she shot only 30 percent from beyond the arc), but she’s a three-level scorer regardless. At 5 feet 9, she’s still a threat in getting to the bucket, and she drew more than four fouls per game this…

Desiree Reed-Francois is set to become Arizona’s next athletics director, the university announced Monday, a job that will include ushering the Wildcats into the Big 12, as well as helping lift them out of a financial crisis. She will replace Dave Heeke, who parted with the university last month after nearly seven years as AD.

Reed-Francois’ hiring is pending approval by the Arizona Board of Regents.

Reed-Francois, 51, has worked in college sports administration since 1997. Most recently she served as the athletics director at UNLV (2017-2021) and Missouri (since 2021), where she became the first female AD at a public SEC school. During her time at Missouri, Reed-Francois brought in a record $62 million to the athletics department, according to The St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Reed-Francois takes over during a troublesome time for Arizona. President Robert Robbins last fall told the Arizona Board of Regents the university had a $240 million budget miscalculation. Upon closer examination, an operation deficit of $177 million has been revealed.

The athletics department has lacked sustainable revenue growth for several years. To help fix the situation, Robbins has said layoffs, compensation freezes and other tough decisions are coming. Arizona starts Big 12 competition in the…

The SEC is closing in on being a billion-dollar conference: Revenues continued to go up in the most recent fiscal year and are expected to keep climbing amid a new TV deal, College Football Playoff expansion and the addition of Texas and Oklahoma.

The SEC announced Thursday that it distributed $741 million to its 14 schools in the 2022-23 fiscal year, meaning an average payout of $51.2 million. That’s up from the average payout of $49.9 million during the previous fiscal year.

That revenue comes mainly from television deals (CBS and ESPN up until this year),  football bowl games, the Playoff, the SEC Championship Game, the SEC men’s basketball tournament and NCAA championships.

The current fiscal year largely will feature the same sources of revenue, so the average payout may only go up slightly. But starting with the 2024-25 fiscal year, the new TV deal with ESPN will kick in, and it’s expected to be worth around $811 million. There will be the 12-team Playoff, which will pay out more in television and other revenue to all conferences. And the addition of the Longhorns and Sooners should help attendance and other revenue.

The SEC still would be short of the Big Ten, with its new $1.1 billion TV deal and addition of four schools (USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington). But the…

Most SEC teams are a few weeks into spring practice, and Auburn has its A-game this week. The future scheduling format is closer to being announced (presumably) and the SEC just claimed its second consecutive NCAA women’s basketball title. So, it’s a good time for an SEC mailbag: Post your submissions below and selected ones will be answered later this week. Fire away!