DALLAS — Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey unofficially opened the league's first football season as 16-team league Monday in a massive hotel ballroom in North Texas, a new setting for SEC Media Days at a time when everything about college sports seems to be in flux.

“It’s time to update your expectations for what college athletics can be,” Sankey said, kicking off the four-day event.

The powerhouse SEC, which boasts 13 college football national champions since 2006, now includes Texas and Oklahoma. It's one of many changes going into effect this year in college football, with plenty more to come.

“We as leaders are responsible for navigating what really are for us in college sports uncharted waters of change,” Sankey said.

The 59-year-old commissioner stressed that college sports must find solutions from within while also recognizing external pressures from lawsuits and politicians that complicate the situation.

“But the reality is there is no easy button we can just go push to resolve the issues we face," Sankey said. "There’s no magic pill. Anytime you go through a reset, it is difficult."

Maybe the most dramatic changes are still coming together. In late May, the NCAA and power conferences agreed to the framework of a settlement of several antitrust lawsuits. The settlement includes $2.8 billion in damages to be paid out by the NCAA and a groundbreaking commitment by the conferences to allow its schools to share a percentage of athletic revenue with their athletes.

A full term sheet with details of the settlement still must be filed with the federal court in Northern California that is overseeing the case. That is expected to happen soon. Then it must be approved by Judge Claudia Wilken.

“We are literally working to make what would normally be a decade’s worth of change in a matter of months," Sankey said.

Sankey said new revenue streams will be needed, but he warned of college sports leaders handing over control in exchange for money, a not-so-subtle allusion to private equity.

“We’ve been incredibly successful, and I understand why so many outside of the campus and conference realm are interested in coming in and being a part of it, but that responsibility lies with us to bring people into the solution, not to cede authority to external actors,” Sankey said.