The 2022 college football Most Intriguing Lists continue. Last week’s installment: the Most Intriguing Coaches. This week: Most Intriguing People In Suits—that is, the people away from the field who are helping shape the future of the sport.
1. Kevin Warren, Big Ten commissioner. In one bold move out West, Warren’s reputation was radically transformed. With the league’s acquisition of USC and UCLA, the Big Ten emphatically answered the SEC’s acquisitions last year and will be the nation’s first coast-to-coast conference in 2024. Warren, brutally criticized in ’20 for his leadership through the pandemic and caught flat-footed by the Texas and Oklahoma move in ’21, scored his biggest win to date and gained the trust of his constituency. He’s a confident commish going forward.
2. Greg Sankey, SEC commissioner. His league is the leader on the football field, and he is the leading policy wonk away from it. Sankey is co-chair of the NCAA transformation committee, which has been tasked with revamping the manifold inconsistencies and shortcomings in the college sports bureaucracy. If there is one person who can effectively interact with TV execs and campus leaders, Sankey is it. His value to college sports has never been greater, but the SEC’s actions have done damage to the enterprise as a whole.
