diff --git a/IPython/nbconvert/preprocessors/sphinx.py b/IPython/nbconvert/preprocessors/sphinx.py
index ed913fc..f3a30d6 100755
--- a/IPython/nbconvert/preprocessors/sphinx.py
+++ b/IPython/nbconvert/preprocessors/sphinx.py
@@ -18,7 +18,6 @@ from __future__ import print_function, absolute_import
 
 # Stdlib imports
 import os.path
-import sys
 
 # Used to set the default date to today's date 
 from datetime import date