The traditional 10-year anniversary gift is something made of tin or aluminum. I am not making this up. Not exactly glamorous, it’s meant to symbolize the strength and resilience of a relationship that’s survived a decade’s worth of challenges.

Sunday was Greg Sankey’s 10th anniversary as Southeastern Conference commissioner. To mark the occasion, he received some non-traditional presents in the form of Twitter zingers from keyboard warriors in tinfoil hats. All because a number of SEC baseball teams, led by the shocking early exit of No. 1 overall seed Vanderbilt, underperformed in NCAA Regionals.

The gifts that kept on giving:

“Greg Sankey called and said baseball games now end in the 8th inning.”

“Should we expect a Greg Sankey white paper on why Southeastern Conference teams should always get 10 innings?”

“Greg Sankey is actually working now to make sure the College World Series is invite-only going forward.”

Sure, the Vandy Boys were a massive disappointment, but the SEC is still well-represented on the Road to Omaha. Besides, imagine throwing shade at the commissioner of a league that’s won six of the last seven College World Series – by six different schools – and supplied 11 of the last 14 teams to reach the championship series.

Hey, never let facts get in the way of a good rant. After last week’s spring meetings, the anti-SEC brigade is on a roll.

When they incorrectly thought the SEC was officially in concert with the Big Ten’s preferred 16-team college football playoff format – with four spots guaranteed for each league – they blamed Sankey, not invisible Big Ten boss Tony Petitti. When it turned out there was growing internal SEC support but no official advocacy for a model with five spots for conference champions and 11 at-large bids, they flamed Sankey for suggesting a reasonable re-examination of the selection committee’s criteria.

When Sankey expressed his justifiable disgust with public comments by the ACC and Big 12 commissioners that questioned his interest in “the good of the game,” critics accused him of ruining college sports.

So much of the blowback has been so much hot air. Like this X dart from the blowgun of media gadfly Steven Godfrey: “Greg Sankey’s professional existence defines ‘born on third base thinking you hit a triple’ and I’ll never understand the fealty in media coverage.”

Born on third base? The man who started his career in sports administration as the director of intramural sports at Utica (N.Y.) College? Whose pre-SEC roles included golf coach at Northwestern (La.) State and assistant commissioner of the Southland Conference? Who spent 13 years at SEC headquarters before earning a promotion to the top job?

Perhaps Godfrey has confused the SEC’s leader with Petitti and Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark, each of whom parachuted into his current lofty position from another industry. No wonder Sankey was a little cranky last week. He’s been promoted from the Most Powerful Person in Intercollegiate Athletics to the Most Hated Man in College Sports.

“Ultimately, I recognize I’m the one who ends up typically in front of a podium explaining not just myself but ourselves,” he said. “So good luck to me.”

Fact is, Sankey has done the job he was hired to do exceedingly well at a time of unprecedented upheaval. Economically, competitively, logistically, in just about every tangible way, the SEC is in a stronger position than it was on June 1, 2015 when Sankey succeeded the beloved Mike Slive as commissioner.

Count the money. After the 2014-15 academic year, the SEC distributed $455.8 million to its schools. This fiscal year won’t end until Aug. 31, but a year ago, the conference distributed $808.4 million to its members.

Count the victories. The SEC sent a record 14 teams to the 2025 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament with two of them advancing to the Final Four and Florida earning the league’s first national championship in that sport since 2012. The league sent a record 14 teams to the 2025 NCAA Softball Tournament with a record-tying five advancing to the Women’s College World Series.

The league sent a record 13 teams to the 2025 NCAA Baseball Tournament, and the lackluster efforts of Florida, Georgia, Vanderbilt and others aside, the SEC is still a solid bet to make the most noise at the College World Series.

Now check the geography. While the other power conferences have expanded beyond all reason into distant regions with nothing in common, the SEC has grown intelligently, managing to remain a collection of remarkably similar institutions in contiguous states.

Each of the last three SEC commissioners presided over the addition of two schools. Under Roy Kramer, it was Arkansas and South Carolina. Under Slive, it was Texas A&M and Missouri. Under Sankey, it’s been Texas and Oklahoma.

By virtually any measure as we approach the end of their first year, the Longhorns and Sooners have brought the most to the home of “It Just Means More.”

So take your shots while you can. Question the commissioner’s judgment if you like. Ten years into his tenure, Sankey has the SEC rounding the bases and headed for home year after year in sport after sport. That’s his job, you know, to pursue the best interests of the Southeastern Conference above all else.

Objectively speaking, he’s gotten the job done. At the least, he deserves a tinfoil hat tip.