Greg Sankey Needs Answers From NCAA, While The SCORE Act Should Be Main Focus, Not Media Rights.

NASHVILLE — SEC commissioner Greg Sankey made it a point to say that President Donald Trump is committed to finding some route to take in making sure to find solutions to the ongoing problems in college athletics. But in the meantime, Sankey thinks we should be focusing on other things besides media rights. 

During a small gathering on Saturday afternoon inside Bridgestone Arena, the SEC's leader made it abundantly clear that there is a big difference between the conference breaking off on its own, and enforcing its own rules. 

The biggest problem has been whether the much-discussed SCORE Act can make it through the House, and then potentially the Senate. But when the College Sports Roundtable was convened last Friday inside the White House, it wasn't just for show, at least according to Greg Sankey. 

The legislation would create a federal NIL framework, give the NCAA limited antitrust protection and prevent athletes from being classified as employees.

Whether folks want to believe that is up to them, but with real problems facing college athletics, something has to be done to at least put some type of guardrail around this entire ordeal. 

The meeting included college sports leaders and lawmakers discussing federal solutions for NIL rules, athlete employment status and the growing number of lawsuits against the NCAA. President Donald Trump also said afterward that an executive order addressing NIL could come within the next week.

In the short-term, we are continuing to see statements being released by conferences pertaining to what they think should be fixed, or what rules need to be implemented. Most importantly, these situations are playing out in courtrooms across the country, which Greg Sankey implied that the NCAA was behind on. 

"What I have said in the beginning, when the state started acting and the NCAA failed to pursue what I think would be litigation to stop state by state. State laws are going to become competitive," Greg Sankey said Saturday. 

"I think some of the laws in our footprint were reasonable standards for the implementation of name and likeness. And then you had states outside our footprint that said, well, the school can pay for it or there weren't any laws or there wasn't any oversight of laws. I said to the NCAA leadership at the time that people were going to get left behind."

SEC's Greg Sankey Says It All: College Sports Isn’t Sustainable, Fans Are Tired Of Discussing NIL And Lawsuits

The other issue is that there are two conversations taking place. One is the SCORE Act, and the other is the Sports Broadcasting Act. Greg Sankey is hellbent on making sure he knows that his schools, along with student-athletes, are fighting on a level playing field, then focus can turn towards what is transpiring with media deals. 

"I think that's the most common-sense description of what's being sought, and really the that should exist for our congressional representatives to act and not be distracted by all this noise about what may or may not happen in the media world in the future. We can talk about that later."

Can NCAA Provide Guidelines For Eligibility And Tampering? 

There are plenty of Presidents and Chancellors within the SEC and across college athletics that want some type of guidelines around what actual tampering is and how this can be fixed moving forward into the future. 

But, with the ongoing problems that we are seeing right now, the clock seems to be ticking on the NCAA actually setting up some type of guidelines for what 

"When we go to Destin, I think all of us want some clarity around national policies related to tampering. We've talked about it, and probably have unique views. The issues around eligibility," Sankey noted. "We have been consistent in stating clearly that the ongoing NCAA waiver system creates confusion. It raises questions of inconsistency and, fundamentally, what coaches seek is an understanding of who they can recruit and who has forfeited their collegiate eligibility."

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Over the past few years, eligibility cases have been one of the more discussed topics in college athletics, with lawsuits seemingly being filed on a bi-weekly basis. But, the unanswered questions become bigger problems in the long run. 

Whether the NCAA can base its potential guidance on what Congress decides to do is a whole different situation in itself. 

"I think between now and Destin, we'd like to see the NCAA clarify its direction on eligibility policy that informs. And transfers as well, and there are lawsuits about transfers, and those limit some of the policy-making."

Sankey Says SEC Breaking Off On Its Own Is ‘Misinterpretation’ 

Would Presidents and Chancellors enjoy a more balanced, and instructive, set of rules around certain topics in college athletics? Sure they would, but that doesn't mean they are preparing to break-off on their own to enforce themselves. 

At least not right now. The SEC has always had rules that differ from other conferences. A good example of that would be the 'Intra-conference- transfer rule that was much-discussed in years past. That rule might not be in place in opposing conferences, but the SEC felt it needed to set up some type of transfer guardrail. 

Greg Sankey Needs Answers From NCAA, While The SCORE Act Should Be Main Focus, Not Media Rights (Photo by Johnnie Izquierdo/Getty Images)

Now, as conversations continue about putting in rules that would help solve some of the ongoing problems, the immediate thought process is that the SEC will just break away from others. 

"We have the interpretation that we're somehow taking the ball and going home is a stretch, in my opinion. I think that's a misinterpretation. But when you look at what's embedded in that expression of frustration, it is the NCAA entity has tried to adapt and is still not meeting the needs of conferences like ours.

"So, I think all of that frustration is, yeah, we'll have our own rules. We've had our own rules. We may have more of our own. And we'll continue to monitor the landscape and want to make an important contribution to a healthy culture."

Greg Sankey Said He Warned Folks About Expanding CFP Too Soon. 

It's obvious from his stance surrounding the College Football Playoff that the SEC would rather go to sixteen-teams, rather than make a massive jump to 24. 

This was one of the main reasons why the SEC and Big Ten could not come to an agreement on expanding the playoff, given that they hold a majority vote on the matter. But, with an ESPN deadline looming before the 2026 CFP title game, both conferences could not see eye-to-eye on expansion in such a quick manner. 

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Two months later, Sankey's opinion hadn't changed, though he did tell us that when college football jumped previously that 

"I think that 16 is the right number. We've done the kind of research. If it doesn't... We'll take a look at our position on things. Twelve worked really well for two years," Sankey noted. "The amount of interest and intensity in the game at the end of the year in the regular season. I think the two years we've had has been like off the charts comparatively. 

"So the notion that you just jump to some large number and there aren't impacts. I mean, my gosh, we just talked about name, image and likeness where people said, ‘Oh this will be great, won't be any issue'. You know, I was a prophet then based on whats happened. I said, ‘Hey, you need to stop and slow down’. I'm not always right, but you should exercise a lot of discernment before you just jump to something."

There are big problems in college athletics, and it's not unreasonable to think leaders across college campuses want answers on how to navigate current dilemmas. 

We will see what President Donald Trump decides to do with an executive order. 

But, Greg Sankey is looking for answers on how to govern his own conference with uncertain rules set forth by the NCAA.