SEC commissioner makes plea to Congress after bombshell NCAA agreement

The SEC commissioner Greg Sankey is making an impassioned plea for a new federal law on college athletics. The SEC’s top executive says Congress needs to get involved and help out NCAA schools trying to figure out a way to pay college athletes fairly. Sankey’s plea comes after the NCAA reached a massive legal settlement in a number of antitrust cases.

“I think Congress has still an opportunity to use the structure of this settlement to enact legislation to strengthen the future of college sports,” Sankey said, per ESPN.

The commissioner wants a consistent standard, so schools have clear and rigid guidelines they must follow on how to compensate athletes for their name, image and likeness. There has also been a great deal of scuttlebutt on how to treat players who want to transfer multiple times to different schools. In the past, some athletes were allowed to immediately play at a third or even a fourth school, while others had to sit a year. Sankey is hoping Congress can clear it all up with a law that would address all of these matters.

“I would welcome action between now and the election,” Sankey added. “Most people with whom I converse say that’s unlikely, and so your educational process will continue post-election, and it will depend on who’s in leadership of each party within the House and Senate, where the majorities lie and who occupies the White House. Those realities guide conversations.

“So, as much as it’s been unpredictable, I think it will still be unpredictable.”

The NCAA’s handling of college sports

The NCAA President Charlie Baker has proposed ideas to reform college athletics. One plan would allow schools to directly negotiate financial deals with athletes for use of their name, image and likeness. That isn’t currently allowed, as collectives are doing that work now. That specific proposal is being deliberated currently by NCAA committees and their member schools. Baker has also gone to Washington to testify at several Congressional hearings that are probing college athletics.

Another idea is to treat athletes as employees of their respective schools. There has been pushback against this plan, by coaches and athletic directors across the country. Even still, it seems the tide is moving in the direction of paying athletes more, and not less. A recent legal settlement is making available about $2.8 billion to former NCAA college athletes who were denied the chance to make money from NIL.

These are some of the many reasons why Sankey is hoping to get some clarity from Congress. The SEC commissioner says the NCAA may not get that clarity though anytime soon.

“Obviously, we’re in an election year,” Sankey added. “Congress is a challenging place to accomplish a task, and I say that respectfully; there’s a lot on the plates of our House and Senate members.”

The federal government has shied away mostly from college athletics in its history as a lawmaking body. This time, Congressional involvement may be inevitable. There are a sea of other issues facing colleges and the NCAA in regard to players, and it seems that right now the landscape is a Wild West.