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….

Congrats to South Carolina, which was the No. 1 team in all but one edition of this season’s rankings. The Gamecocks proved they were the best team in college basketball for all of 2023-24, just like last year, only this time they were able to cap their remarkable regular season with a national championship. South Carolina’s success was the primary validation of these power rankings, though the last poll did feature 15 of the Sweet 16 teams in the top 18 (apologies to Duke).

In case you’re interested in how well my first power rankings of 2023-24 held up, take a gander! Oregon State really came out of nowhere.

As we look ahead to 2024-25, a reminder that this is an indicator of how teams stand right now, though WNBA Draft decisions and transfers — keep an eye on Oregon State and Washington State following the dissolution of the Pac-12 — could substantially change the makeup of rosters. I’ve priced in some player improvement, particularly for younger players with high pedigree, but otherwise tried to assess these squads based on how the players finished this season. Let me know in the comments if you think I’m overlooking anyone.

Almost famous: Kentucky, Michigan State, Vanderbilt

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Why South Carolina over UConn?

South Carolina is losing Kamilla Cardoso, but otherwise…

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…

Vanderbilt athletic director Candice Lee is right in the middle of a men’s basketball coaching search and doesn’t have much to share with the public about it right now, other than: “The interest has been great.”

She’s trying to right that program after two straight failed hires — Jerry Stackhouse and Bryce Drew — by the athletic directors who preceded her, Malcolm Turner and the late David Williams. She’s home basing it with the women’s team this weekend in Blacksburg, Va., and that’s fitting because the best hire she’s made as Vanderbilt AD should inform the current search. She needs another Shea Ralph.

If all the college athletics programs in the state right now were stocks, the clear move would be to buy on Vanderbilt women’s basketball. It’s not as established (therefore not as expensive) as proven powers such Tennessee men’s basketball and Vanderbilt baseball. There’s an opportunity for gains on Tennessee women’s basketball, which is the most storied program by far but has settled into a good-not-great era. Mostly, buy because of the CEO.

Ralph has Vanderbilt in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 10 years, and the Commodores just got the program’s first NCAA win in 11 years, a 72-68 victory over Columbia in the First Four on…

The Athletic has live coverage of Selection Sunday and the Women’s NCAA Tournament bracket reveal

The final full day of conference tournaments has come and gone, and wow, what a jam-packed slate. We ultimately came away without any upsets that would put a potential at-large bid in question, but we witnessed some great games and competition.

For the first time since 2002, Kent State is headed to the NCAA Tournament. California Baptist, in Year 6 as a Division I program, earned its first ticket to the Big Dance. Norfolk State matched last season’s win total and tied its program DI record with 26 wins this season after punching its ticket to the tournament as well, back for a second straight year. Fairfield won its 31st game of the season, outlasting Niagara in one of the most frenetic games of the past few weeks to secure its trip to March Madness.

Get your women’s March Madness printable bracket

In the most anticipated game of the day, Princeton won the Ivy League championship comfortably, likely denying the possibility of the Ivy as a two-bid conference.

So on Selection Sunday, as we dive into our final Bracket Watch, a quick thank you for following along. We have a wealth of tournament coverage coming as the brackets are revealed (8 p.m. ET, ESPN) on the selection show. You…

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Jordyn Cambridge got a loud ovation Sunday before her final home game as a Vanderbilt Commodore, during the senior day ceremony for her and Bella LaChance. She got another when she nailed a deep 3-pointer to close the third quarter and reach 1,000 points for her career.

During a timeout midway through the fourth quarter of a 72-55 rout of Georgia, the crowd roared for her again when the video board announced that she had just become the program’s all-time steals leader with her third of the game. They got another opportunity when coach Shea Ralph subbed LaChance in for her with 1:29 to play. And then — after a LaChance bucket closed the scoring and set off a joyous celebration — Cambridge did postgame interviews courtside and got one last cheer on her way to the locker room.

The only thing missing from this senior day was more folks in the seats than the announced crowd of 3,739. This team, Ralph’s third and potentially Vanderbilt’s first to earn an NCAA Tournament bid in 10 years, deserved a full house. Cambridge deserves seasons’ worth of them. But that interest will rise because more winning is on the way.

And when this program gets wherever it’s going, they should keep talking about Jordyn Cambridge – for what she did and what she went…

(Editor’s note: This is part of the Bracket Central Series, an inside look at the run-up to the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments, along with analysis and picks during the tournaments.)

Power conferences understandably dominate discussion, particularly Bubble Watch talk, this time of year. All the teams fighting in the middle, yearning for resume-supplementing wins, provide some of the most notable matchups and storylines.

However, it’s worth pausing and noting some of the more under-the-radar seasons in the country, especially the programs that we are trending toward hearing about in March. I can think of few teams more deserving of that mention than Marshall.

The Thundering Herd are 20-6, a standout record on its own but even more notable when recognizing this is the first time since the 2016 season they have eclipsed the 20-win mark and just the second time since they left the Southern Conference in 1997. This is West Virginia native Kim Caldwell’s first season at the helm in Huntington. She led her alma mater, DII Glenville State, for seven seasons, including a national championship in 2022. In her first foray as a head coach at the highest level of collegiate basketball, something special is brewing.

Find it your local newspaper #WeAreMarshall

(Editor’s note: This is part of the Bracket Central Series, an inside look at the run-up to the men’s & women’s NCAA Tournaments, along with analysis and picks during the tournaments.)

The college season has been defined by stellar play in the youth of the game, with true freshmen piecing together some of the best collegiate seasons we’ve seen in basketball history. That’s unlikely to change as we head into March, as many of the top freshmen headline teams ripe to make runs in the NCAA Tournament.

Who are the freshmen going under the radar you need to know about who could make a splash in March?

Syracuse has been a superb watch this season, led by silky scorer Dyaisha Fair. Syracuse has a 41.1 percent offensive rebound rate, the fifth highest rate in the NCAA, according to CBB Analytics. More than 20 percent of the Orange’s total points scored come from second-chance opportunities.

Enter Alyssa Latham. The 6-foot-2 freshman has started the majority of the season for Syracuse and embodies the principles that have spurred on coach Felisha Legette-Jack’s team. Latham hustles like a sixth-year grad student, attacking the glass with a ferocity, blocking shots with tenacity and racking up mileage like few bigs can. Her offensive game is still unearthing, but she’s shown…

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…