Sankey (50) grew up in Auburn, N.Y., and after earning a bachelor's degree in education at the State University of New York College at Cortland, he got his master's in education at Syracuse University.In 1989, he came south to work as a $500-a-month intern in the athletic department at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, La., where he later became the men's golf coach and the director of compliance and academic services.He subsequently joined the league office of the Southland Conference, and by the time he was 31, he had worked his way up to conference commissioner.Sankey moved to Birmingham and the SEC office in 2002, when Slive hired him to help clean up the conference's reputation as a habitual infractions offender, which had as many as nine programs on probation or under the NCAA's radar at that time."We both saw and understood the issues and what it would take to make the cultural change that we have been successful making," Slive recently told the Associate Press's Ralph Russo.Two and a half years ago, Sankey was promoted to executive associate commissioner and chief operating officer of the SEC, effectively running the league's daily operations, freeing Slive to focus on the bigger-picture projects.
He was originally hired by the SEC when Slive first took over as commissioner in 2002 for the purposes of curing the conference’s compliance issues. At the time he was hired, nine SEC programs (among the 12 in the conference at the time) were under some sort of investigation.As of Thursday, only three are under investigation, and Sankey claims those are isolated incidents and not an indication of compliance issues at those schools.
Geez there was absolutely nothing in Nachitoches, LA in 1989 but mosquitos and folks living off the gubment.Walmart came and they now have pavement.Finebaum said Sankey was a very scholarly type with Mississipi State ties.
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