Kirby Smart Needles Greg Sankey Over Georgia's Schedule While Celebrating SEC Title

Kirby Smart after No. 5 Georgia's 22–19 overtime win over No. 2 Texas in the SEC championship on Dec. 7, 2024. | Brett Davis-Imagn Images

Of all the changes that have afflicted college football in the 21st century—for good or for ill—the rise of the celebrity conference commissioner has to rank near the bottom.

There have been well-known conference commissioners in the past—SEC boss Roy Kramer won a degree of notoriety for masterminding the BCS, for instance—but the modern league leader has sought to achieve a kind of sports-tech-bro fame. On Saturday, then, Georgia coach Kirby Smart struck a blow for sanity by cutting SEC commissioner Greg Sankey down to size over the Bulldogs' arduous 2024 schedule.