Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey spoke on Monday to kick off his league’s 2023 media days, which included several major topics of current discussion. Among the points he made was that only Congress can truly set a national standard for name, image and likeness compensation in college athletics.
The commish claimed that NIL is not a partisan issue and that state legislatures have not yet enforced their NIL laws — some of which would bar the NCAA and conferences from adopting and enforcing their own standards.
“Congressional action is then the only way to provide a national uniform standard for name, image, and likeness activity and to draw the lines around the boundaries that do not become simply pay for play,” Sankey offered, which echoed the stance of the NCAA on one of the most divisive issues in college sports.
Different laws in each state leave the SEC unbalanced, he added.
“I’m not here to fix it. I’m here to navigate it. If I can lend my experience in any shape or fashion, I will do that,” LSU Tigers football head coach Brian Kelly said. “But I can tell you what we’re living, and that’s third-party involvement and different rules of engagement by different states.”
Sankey said the league heard from athletes asking for uniform NIL rules again in late June as up-and-coming student-athletes try to decide on which university to attend and to even the competition on the playing field in the SEC.
“Uniformity will ensure a high school student and his or her family do not have to investigate potentially dozens of different state laws or university policies to figure out how they can be active in this name, image and likeness world.”
The SEC and its 14 schools are used to providing support to athletes, according to Sankey. But the students want protection for themselves and for international teammates to access NIL “that are consistent across the country” and not just a “patchwork” of state laws.
“Our student-athletes deserve something better than a race to the bottom at the state legislature level.”
An area where state lawmakers can help, according to Sankey: Gambling regulations. He said too often SEC athletes and officials deal with threats from bettors angry over plays, calls and game results.
“Every state with legalized sports gambling must act to ensure enforcement of gaming regulations and put in place clearly stated laws that protect participants from hostile behavior, particularly barring individuals who engage in that behavior from any further involvement in sports gambling.”
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