This week at SEC Spring Meetings in Destin, Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart made some major headlines when he theorized that the SEC could secede from the rest of the sport and play on its own if rules cannot be agreed upon and enforced nationally.

Smart has become arguably the most important voice in the sport since the retirement of Nick Saban, so hearing him say something like that raised a ton of eyebrows, though most dismissed it as a legitimate possibility.

Though, college football insider Matt Hayes of USA Today  revealed his belief that those conversations are indeed happening at a high level in the SEC during an appearance on WJOX’s “McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning.”

“The entire college sports framework is burning down and I think that’s what has to be addressed right now,” Hayes said before citing both Smart as well as UGA President Jere Morehead and Mississippi State President Mark Keenum echoing the sentiment of the SEC possibly pulling away from the rest of the sport in order to preserve itself.

“[Coaches and ADs and Presidents are saying] ‘Are we in a better situation if we just pull away and have our own rules, and have our own association, and that’s how we deal with things?’ I think there’s a lot of that going on right now and it’s not gonna finish today, next week, next month or maybe even next year. But there’s a legit argument right now within those presidential meetings, athletic directors and coaches meetings of ‘What are we doing right now and are we in the association we should be in?’”

Hayes was pressed further by Cubelic to assess how serious these discussions already are, and his answer raised alarms.

“On a scale of 10? 8.5 or 9,” Hayes said when asked what level he puts the seriousness of the possibility. “I don’t know that they are gonna do it, I think they are absolutely serious about it.”

Ultimately, it seems there are a ton of questions about the future direction of this conference that still don’t have answers right now, but possibilities that would have seemed absolutely insane even just a few short years ago are clearly being talked about at the highest levels.