Greg Sankey defends SEC replay review process, slams broadcasters for 'just flat wrong' criticism

Fans of college football games this season have noticed that there are some differences between the conferences when it comes to broadcasting replay reviews. The ACC, Big 12 and Big Ten all offer some form of live look-in with audio during replays. The SEC does not. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey was asked about that difference on Monday during an appearance on The Paul Finebaum Show. He explained some of the technical aspects that make it difficult for the league to follow suit. [ $39.99 gets you a FULL year of On3 | Rivals national coverage ] “We don’t have the luxury of a Thursday night or a Friday night game, where you can do one game at a time and everybody’s eyes and voices and minds are on that one monitor,” Sankey said. “We play on Saturdays with, at times this year, seven games happening at once. So you have to figure out how to manage that process so you continue to have the right outcomes.” Sankey also noted that there’s a challenge that comes with exposing people to a ‘hot’ microphone, something that you’d have to prepare them for adequately before implementing such a system. The SEC also sets its replay room up a little differently from other conferences, Sankey said. While most conferences have one voice most prominently on the broadcast feed, the SEC opts to have several involved in the process, something that would make it more difficult from a logistical standpoint, on top of the other issues. “I don’t think we have the luxury of like designating one game on a Saturday where that access would be provided, and our room wasn’t set up for full audio access,” he said. “So how do we work through providing broad access? We actually became the first to show video access to every replay that’s being considered this year. We offered it before, so you can see the video in real-time that’s being provided.” Then the commissioner pivoted pretty hard, biting back at some of the criticism the league has faced over its officiating, particularly when it comes to SEC replay reviews. “Now I’ll say this: I am highly disappointed in announcers and their criticism,” Sankey said. “And they’re wrong. Some of the worst officials in America are those in the announce booth. We have officiating experts, who I turned on a game on Saturday, who was just flat wrong. And what that creates is this narrative that we’ve done something wrong and that is unacceptable to me, and we have to address that. We’re going to be wrong. We’ve made announcements when we own it. We’re going to have debates about judgment calls. “But somebody on a Saturday night who’s announcing a game between Oklahoma and Florida going back to something that happened at noon, that he’s never called and asked a question about and being critical is unacceptable in my mind.” The broadcast crew in question that called Florida-Oklahoma featured a booth of Matt Schumacker and Aaron Murray. They questioned some calls in the earlier Missouri–Texas game, a game that included a highly controversial replay review of a forward fumble by quarterback Arch Manning that was upheld. Sankey did not sound pleased that they opined on the issue on the airwaves. But he circled back around to how the SEC handles things, outlining that the conference will continue to look for ways to improve, all while defending its current practices. “So we’ll take the responsibility, we’ll take the heat, we’ll work to continually improve, we’ll work on how do we provide more transparency and access to a replay system,” he said. “We’ll do that collectively so that we have the best in class model. “And remember this: You and I have talked before about we’ve benefited from working with the NFL, the NBA and Major League Baseball on implementing our replay. The NFL doesn’t provide this audio access at this point. So it’s not just us that’s kind of an outlier. I think when any of us do it we want to get it right.”