Southeastern Conference commissioner [autotag]Greg Sankey[/autotag] spoke on Monday evening in Destin, Florida, on the first day of the league’s spring meetings.
Among the topics covered was what congressional help for college sports could look like, offering that they constitute “a national system that deserves national standards.”
He expounded on the point in his opening remarks.
“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.
“I would welcome action between now and the election,” he continued. “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.”
Sankey also addressed the NCAA’s settlement.
“I anticipate plenty of conversation here with our leadership about what that means for our own decision-making,” Sankey said. “We have the opportunity to play an important role in our own decision-making about the future, as opposed to leaving that just to the court system.”
He also proposed that collegiate sports are as healthy as ever for student-athletes.
“There are those who advocate for that reality,” he added. “That takes me back to a fundamental statement, which is there’s no better time to be a student-athlete than right now in the history of college sports. No better time. And again, they’re not calling me saying, ‘I want to be an employee.'”
The SEC is not alone in this either.
“I know other conferences have discussed it,” Sankey said. “Coaches have texted our coaches. They get fired up, and we said just wait. We’re going to have a conversation. That’s where it is: a concept. Understand that football captures the attention, but we have 21 championship sports, all of which need to have a level of conversation about that roster piece.”
As for how the NCAA has enforced its rules and bylines so far, there is a light at the end of the tunnel but still much work left to be done.
“There’s some options,” he said. “There’s some openness to what that might look like. I’m not going to narrow that.”
At the end of the day, Sankey is hesitant at being hasty with the massive changes take place in the collegiate landscape.
“We don’t want to just rush into something,” he said. “It’s not injury reporting. It’s a very different circumstance given some of the privacy issues we have. Yet when you start to see the numbers of dollars being bet on legalized sports gambling around college sports — not just football, but men’s and women’s basketball, volleyball, baseball — all of those catch your attention.
“We have to be thoughtful about how information is managed.”
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