SEC commissioner responds to Harbaugh by declining 'childhood use of Twitter'
If there wasn’t a war of words before, there certainly is now.
Jim Harbaugh had a subtweet that caught plenty of attention on Wednesday. The Michigan coach tweeted what was perceived as a response to the SEC’s attempt to ban spring break practices like the ones the Wolverines were scheduled to have in Florida.
Question of the day: Does anyone find whining to be attractive? Just curious.
— Coach Harbaugh (@CoachJim4UM) February 10, 2016
To that, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey had this to say.
“I’m not going to reduce what is an important conversation to some childhood use of Twitter,” he said to AL.com. “This is an important issue.”
Just in case there was any doubt, it appears Sankey did interpret Harbaugh’s tweet as a shot at him.
The NCAA also has no rule in place currently banning off-site practices, nor does it prevent a team from conducting practice during spring break. As long as it meets the hours requirement, which Harbaugh ensured it would, then it isn’t in violation of any NCAA rule.
Sankey has long since been a supporter of the fact that the NCAA needs to better regulate its practice hours for student athletes. This isn’t exactly a new issue with Sankey. The timing, however, is why many are considering Sankey’s complaint directed at Michigan.
He said understands why some have interpreted this as a “don’t-step-on-our-toes” agenda.
“That’s a commitment and with that as the backdrop I think this is a substantive issue,” Sankey told AL.com. “The Big Ten is going to recruit Florida. We fully understand that. They should. Other Big Ten schools, other Big 12 schools are going to recruit in the SEC’s geographic footprint. That’s perfectly fine. This is about saying we’re not going to infringe further on the time demands of student-athletes — the free times and spring break in particular.”
It would be all sorts of ironic if Harbaugh fired off another subtweet for Sankey’s latest comments.