NASHVILLE -- Greg Sankey's upturned lips said it all.
"This smile may not leave my face for weeks or months," the commissioner-select of the Southeastern Conference said during a Friday morning news conference inside Bridgestone Arena, where the league's men's basketball tournament is being held.
"It's one of those moments that doesn't come along very often in life."
Sankey's new job hasn't come open for 13 years, or since retiring commissioner Mike Slive officially succeeded Roy Kramer in July of 2002.
A month after that, Slive made a call to Sankey, who was then the commissioner of the Southland Conference.
"At the end of that phone call, Mike asked me a question: 'Would you ever think about coming to work for the Southeastern Conference?'" Sankey recalled. "In November of 2002, I walked into the SEC offices on my first day. And I've benefited, as we all have, from (Slive's) wisdom, his integrity, his leadership, his work ethic, his vision."
To prove that belief, Vanderbilt chancellor Nick Zeppos -- the president of the league's 14 presidents and chancellors -- said of the group's decision to promote Sankey after a national search: "When you think of Greg, you think of integrity. You think of high intelligence. You think of passion for the SEC and the student-athlete."
Nor did it take Sankey long to let the world know he intends to expand the grand work done by Slive.
"Mike Slive's legacy will shape the SEC long into the future," Sankey said. "Yet we're not done. We're not close to being done."
If the rest of Sankey's remarks focused on any one theme, it was the future welfare of the student-athlete at the league's 14 member institutions.
"The SEC is poised to make a difference in the lives of student-athletes for generations," he said. "And we must ensure the lessons that they learn, both in the classroom and through competition, translate into success in their lives. Through leadership that is both thoughtful and strategic, our athletic achievements are going to be student-athlete focused and academically centered."
Sankey's life long has been centered on his wife of 26 years, Cathy, and their two grown daughters. He's run 41 marathons, once running one a month for 15 straight months. A former intramural director at Utica College, he joked Friday afternoon that "I learned early on that 18- and 19-year-olds will do almost anything physically or ethically to win a championship T-shirt."
He also noted at his news conference that it was no joke to South Carolina football coach Steve Spurrier to find out where Sankey had gone to college when he first arrived at the league office.
"When I first met Steve Spurrier, he and I had 20 minutes together," the 50-year-old Sankey recalled. "And his first question was, 'Tell me where you went to school.' I told him I have an undergraduate degree from State University at Cortland and a master's from Syracuse. And he said, 'That's good.'"
Some may also consider it a good thing that Sankey seemed to have no current interest in expansion.
"Expansion is not something that's on my top shelf," Sankey said. "Excellence is, though. And excellence is a good thing."
He also doesn't seem to have much interest in swiftly expanding the College Football Playoff from four to eight teams, though he does hope for someone other than Big Ten member Ohio State to win it again next year.
"I think what happened last year was great," Sankey said. "I think it would have been even greater had an SEC team won that national championship. And that will be our focus in the future."
But not his only focus.
"If in 15 or 20 years my time is done in this role, and there were decades of student-athletes who said, 'We were led effectively and our lives enriched because he was the commissioner,'" Sankey said, "that would be a great reward for me personally."
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.