SEC Media Day kicked off in Nashville on Monday.

The four-day culmination of "talking season" opened with remarks from commissioner Greg Sankey as well as LSU head coach Brian Kelly, Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher and Missouri head coach Eliah Drinkwitz.

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Here are three takeaways from Day 1.

The SEC is set to undergo a major change next year and so will the off season's biggest stage.

As media day began, a report circulated that the event, which is being held in Nashville for the first time in its 38-year history, will move to Dallas in July 2024. Sankey confirmed the news in his opening remarks.

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"I'm also pleased to announce that July 15th through the18th in 2024, this event, SEC Football Media Days, will behosted in downtown Dallas, Texas, at the Omni Hotel,where the SEC will light up the Dallas skyline with thecolors of the Southeastern Conference," Sankey said.

The move comes with the addition of Texas and Oklahoma, which will officially join the league next summer and give the SEC five teams within six hours of Dallas, signaling the league's shift towards using the Lone Star State for events.

It was two years ago this week that the news broke that Texas and Oklahoma would join the SEC, opening the way for another round of conference realignment across college football.

Since 2021, the Big Ten has announced the future additions of USC and UCLA and the Big 12 answered losing Texas and Oklahoma by adding UCF, Cincinnati, Houston and BYU.

For now, realignment seems far from settled, which is why it came as no surprise that Sankey was asked about it.

MORE: SEC Media Day Pulse: Where league teams stand heading into Nashville

"My reference to people want to be a part of it really reflects back on the outreach from Oklahoma and Texas," Sankey said. "That was a question I received (Sunday). I've been careful. When I was here in Atlanta last year, I was clear that we're focused on our growth to 16. I've watched others message about we're not done yet. I referenced this, we're going to go to this particular region. I just don't think that's healthy...

"It's not been a topic in the Southeastern Conference other than providing updates, so we're very attentive to what's happening around us, whether those are from all of your fine investigative writing or maybe opinions, and then focusing on our growth to 16 because it's an enormous task."

The SEC may add more in the future, especially if the ACC become unstable or the Big Ten dips into the south for memberships, but Sankey was clear that for now, the league is set at 16.

"Do I think it's done? People will say, well, I get to decide that. Right now it appears others are going to decide that before we have to make any decisions.My view is we know who we are. We're comfortable as a league. We're focused on our growth to 16. We've restored rivalries. We're geographically contiguous with the right kind of philosophical alignment, and we can stay at that level of super conference.

"When you go bigger, there are a whole other set of factors that have to be considered, and I'm not sure I've seen those teased out other than in my mind late at night."

The long-awaited conference scheduling format was decided on at the SEC spring meetings in Destin, Florida in May and released in June.

An eight or nine game schedule has been a top of debate for years, only increased since it was announced that Texas and Oklahoma would soon be league members.

For now, it will stay at eight; one permanent opponent and a rotating slate. It may be a temporary fix before the SEC can restructure its TV contract with ESPN.

MORE: Tennessee incoming freshmen and transfers updated jersey numbers

Beginning in 2024, the conference will also move away from divisions, deciding its top two teams by records instead.

Sankey provided some insight into the decision-making process.

"That discussion in football goes back to 2018, 2019, so the discussion of is our current divisional approach in football the most competitively equitable," Sankey said. "So the words "fair and balanced" came up a lot. You had to define what do you mean by fair and what do you mean by balanced in the schedule...When we began discussing a 16-team football schedule in August (2021), the first set of conversations were, again,taking the words "fair" and the word "balance" and defining them. Balance was rotating teams through with greater frequency, so I think plenty of people have written about a team may not see a team certainly for six years or may notg o someplace for 12 years if they're in another division.

"Fair was narrowing the competitive equity band, which is what we achieved, even with our eight-game schedule we announced a few weeks ago in June...But the effort to try to be both fair and then balanced within that scheduling approach was the motivation around eliminating divisions."

Tennessee's 2024 schedule includes Vanderbilt as its annual opponent with Arkansas and Mississippi State, both of which it has played only sparingly in the last decade-plus. The Vols also travel to newcomer Oklahoma.

Day 2 of media days resumes on Tuesday.

Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart and first-year coaches Hugh Freeze (Auburn) and Zach Arnett (Mississippi State) will take the stage, beginning at 10:05 a.m. ET.

All-day coverage will continue on SEC Network.

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