Said he didn't know any specifics. Reclaimed that he had legal contacts that stated an FSU move was imminent. Pate talked about SEC Media days in July of 2021, when everything exploded one July morning when news broke that Texas & Oklahoma were leaving for the SEC. Pate said to watch those SEC Media days this month for breaking news on FSU. Pate also mentioned the mid August deadline as a date to watch for a FSU announcement on leaving the ACC. This does sound more like the stuff TJ Pittinger has been putting out for months. However a tight near future timeline is on all of it. We will see by mid August.

they are great at stoking interest and presenting something as a "scoop" when stating little more than the obvious and the really smooth ones give themselves a backdoor escape hatch if things do not actually materialize. Media days, either on or around those dates, are prime for announcements since the press is all gathered in one spot. August 15, 2024, just like August 15, 2023 before it and August 15, 2025 after it, are always going to be important as deadlines to avoid waiting another year. Things happen by 8/15/24 or the wash/rinse/repeat rumor cycle begins again. It will be interesting to see the "done deals" and what they look like and what that portends for February 2025 and beyond.

Echoes of a constant in old SWC Media days. SEC has bounced around on media days locations in recent years, last two being in Atlanta & Nashville. Most have been in Birmingham before that. I remember a conversation I had on a SEC Board long ago with an Alabama fan. I was complaining about Alabama having an easier road with SEC football officials than Arkansas. I said if the SEC front office was in Little Rock that would surely change. The Alabama fan disagreed stating that Roy Kramer came from Vandy & filled the Birmingham SEC front office with Tennessee people still there. The Alabama fan said the SEC front office going to Little Rock was fine with him. In the 32 years that Arkansas has been the SEC. The SEC Women's Basketball Tournament has been the only SEC event ever scheduled in the 20,000 seat arena that sets across the Arkansas River from Little Rock in NLR. I think that SEC Women's Tournament was scheduled there twice years ago. The NCAA put regional NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Games in that NLR Arena more times years ago Interesting to see how much the SEC patronizes Dallas. The SEC is off to a fast start. Dallas is far bigger than Little Rock.

about how much they will patronize Dallas going forward. With Saban out(for the most part) in Tuscaloosa, the Vols really not good enough to throw their weight around and UGA not seemingly predisposed to inordinately throw their weight around the door might be ajar for Dallas. However, Texas and its history as a conference killer will likely have all the SEC watching things closely. I also would imagine A&M and Arkansas given their history with the Longhorns do not want to recreate the days of the Big 12 or SWC. All that being said, Sankey is about the money and I imagine he will pit Dallas against Atlanta for some higher profile events as opportunities arise. Sankey has learned well from Mike Slive how to play the game. Without knowing better someone might peg him as a lawyer as opposed to a former director of intramural who worked his way up to the top seat from the compliance ranks. His resume is not that of an entertainment/media industry expert that some of the more vocal posters on this board assert to be a prerequisite for conference commissioners in this day and time.

It's not really substantive or helpful in any way. He's a very good college football commentator. He doesn't need to become a conference realignment huckster.

..."I said it first!" and/or, "I was right!"

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Whether any of his actual predictions for a Jurassic level event for the ACC come true, I guess we will see soon enough since the clock is ticking.