HOOVER, Ala. -- Greg Sankey was seven minutes late to his debut as the commissioner of the SEC at the league's annual football media gathering.
His tardiness was quickly dismissed if not forgotten altogether after he started his state-of-the-league address, which included a bold triumvirate of goals.
The "Scholars, Champions, Leaders" campaign was Sankey's official pitch as he unofficially kicked off the college football season where the SEC's coaches and select players speak with more than 1,200 media members from across the country.
In Sankey's words, it's a lofty aim that stretches beyond Saturdays in the fall and basketball gyms in the winter. He said the goal is for every student-athlete to graduate and the league to win every NCAA team championship and help shape future world leaders.
"Some of you may be saying that it's simply not possible," Sankey said before listing numerous memorable athletic names, including Cam Newton and Shaquille O'Neal, who returned to SEC schools to get their degrees.
"But no great achievement ever is produced by an attempt to be average, and we seek to be excellent."
Sankey has a great responsibility, and he knows it.
He became the first guy not named Roy Kramer or Mike Slive to take the podium first at this event in a quarter century. He steps in for Slive, who raised the league to a level almost never expected. Under Slive, the SEC Network launched with a smash-hit first year and each school received a record payday of more than $30 million from the league's media partners.
The SEC reached heights never imagined and never to be duplicated - think another conference will win seven consecutive football national titles any time soon? - and became the envy of college athletics.
Slive expanded on Kramer's foundation, and now it's Sankey who must navigate the next steps for a league that is both on the front lines of change and in the crosshairs of the critics.
Sankey knows this, but his first impression was best described as lukewarm. He made a rather large deal about having a Twitter account and was quite proud of referencing a Bob Dylan song about "the times, they are a changin'" for the league when Slive was quick to quote Chruchill or Eisenhower.
"I'm better at Google," Sankey said in his most charismatic moment of Monday morning. "We're different, but I learned a lot from Mike. Obviously it's a different day. Times are changing and that seemed an appropriate song title and lyric."
He's right. Change is coming. It always does, regardless who is leading or when.
But that change needs answers more than slogans and purpose more than propaganda. Sankey was noticeably short-winded in his answers about some serious questions about serious issues, most notably the recent run of domestic violence across the sporting landscape.
Maybe it was opening-day jitters, but it certainlty felt a touch hollow.
He focused most of his presentation on his three buzz words and spent a large amount of time about the merits of each goal.
"We can't fully lead unless we successfully educate," Sankey said.
Yes, working to a place where all student-athletes graduate would be amazing. They could all ride unicorns across the stage and accept their diplomas from Paul Bunyan or Sasquatch.
Is it a noble goal to try to focus college sports on the college as much as the sport? You bet it is. So is ending crime and world hunger.
Noble and doable are not the same thing.
So give the new commish credit for swinging for the fences, but to throw a Hail Mary on the first play seems a bit overly aggressive or ambitious.
Let's work to mesh athletics and academics better without setting a bar so impossibly high that failure is a certainty. Let's work to make the connection between student-athlete and student better by limiting (and enforcing) the amount of hours athletes spend on athletics and working with other athletes. Let's take meaningful steps to wash the bitter and beastly barnacles attaching themselves to SEC programs by putting meaningful punishments in place for fans who break the rules.
So Sankey met the media and shared his goals. It was the first step for a first-time commissioner that was misguided even if it was pointed in the right direction.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6343. Follow him on Twitter at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com. Read his online column "The 5-at-10" weekdays starting at 10 a.m. at timesfreepress.com.