SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey: College football needs federal NIL guidelines
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Amid the chatter about Bama, the Bulldogs and the regular heaping of braggadocio concerning all things SEC football, conference Commissioner Greg Sankey used the power of his pulpit during Monday's introductory press conference for SEC media days to urge a national consensus on rules governing compensation for a college athlete’s name, image and likeness.
And Sankey didn’t shy away from criticizing states such as Texas for creating a mishmash of laws concerning NIL rules.
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“The reality is our student-athletes deserve something better than a patchwork of state laws that support their name, image and likeness activities, if support is the right word,” Sankey said. “Our student-athletes deserve something better than a race to the bottom at the state legislature level.
“Our student-athletes want to know their competitors on the opposite line of scrimmage are subject and governed by the same rules and policies by which they are governed. (Federal) 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.”
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An even playing field created by federal guidelines also weighs heavily on the minds of coaches, said LSU’s Brian Kelly.
“If there are different laws in each state, then the league is not balanced,” Kelly said. “But I’m not here to fix it; I’m here to navigate it.”
Questioning the state's NIL laws
Texas has new NIL legislation that went into effect July 1 prohibiting a conference or the NCAA from penalizing a college for participating in any NIL-related activity that is permissible under state law. Since there is no federal legislation regarding NIL, any state law supersedes conference or NCAA guidelines despite a recent memo from the NCAA stating otherwise.
Sankey also pointed out that states have not actively investigated or enforced NIL activity, which he said contributes to a chaotic approach to the new NIL laws.
“To our knowledge, no state has taken action to enforce its own state laws around name, image and likeness activity,” Sankey said. “At the same time, we've seen in a number of states laws enacted that bar associations, the NCAA, or conferences, including the Southeastern Conference, from enforcing what at our level, at the conference level, are still to be adopted, if ever, NIL policies.
“In other words, the states haven't been active in enforcing laws, and now states are preventing the NCAA, our conferences, from adopting and enforcing reasonable name, image and likeness standards.
“If states will not enforce the laws, and states are going to prohibit the NCAA or conferences from enforcing these reasonable policies, 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.”
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Two years in, it's a national issue
Sankey has plenty of company when it comes to fighting for congressional action regarding NIL rules. Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark emphasized his support for federal regulation at last week’s Big 12 media days in Arlington, and NCAA President Charlie Baker and other conference commissioners all have expressed support for federal NIL legislation.
In June, Sankey and representatives from each SEC school traveled to Washington to lobby for such federal regulation.
Senators Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., himself a former SEC football coach at Auburn, and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., have spearheaded potential legislation that would give the NCAA NIL authority that overrides any state law. However, Congress has not made any further movement on any such legislative action.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Federal guidelines needed for NIL, says SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey
