SEC commissioner Greg Sankey talks NCAA settlement, Jaden Rashada lawsuit and more ahead of spring meetings

DESTIN, Fla. — Memorial Day is not a work day, but on the eve of the SEC’s spring meetings, it was clear that commissioner Greg Sankey was more interested in returning to work on Tuesday to seek feedback from his conference leaders. and not necessarily face a litany of questions that still have no answers.

“I’ll be happy to do my best to avoid any questions you ask,” he joked, drawing laughter from a small contingent of reporters.

An understandable introduction? Perhaps. O $2.8 billion settlement announced last week in House v. NCAA, a landmark legal battle, has far-reaching implications anchored in revenue sharing and expanding roster sizes, which could also trigger more legal battles with Title IX and antitrust implications. The amateurism model is dead, exploded after nearly a year of negotiations between the power conferences, the NCAA and the House council.

Publicly, the time to begin formulating resolutions based on the terms of the agreement begins this week in the grand ballrooms of the Hilton-Sandestin, where the first major conference will hold its annual business meetings in the wake of last week’s seismic news.

“I anticipate a lot of conversations here with our leadership about what this 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, rather than leaving it just to the judicial system.”

Settlement terms are complicated and model development will take time. The terms could also change, as nothing will be resolved until Judge Claudia Wilken of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California decides whether to accept the terms — potentially within the next 60 days. From then on, it would take several months for everything to be finalized.

“We are not in a situation of aftermath,” Sankey said. “We are in that process. Still, that process will take months. In fact, many months ahead of us, subject to judicial review, subject to an entire legal process.”

So what are Sankey’s ideas? He didn’t share much on Monday, though he at least took a hard line in the discussion about treating athletes like employees.

“I’ve never had a student-athlete come to me and say I want to be taxed as an employee,” Sankey said. “There are those who defend this reality. This brings me back to a fundamental statement, which is that there is no better time to be a student-athlete than now in the history of college sports – there is no better time. They are not calling me and saying, ‘I want to be an employee, I want to be taxed as an employee.’ These rights advocates have freedom of movement, freedom to NIL, it’s a very good existence. And we should be careful to try to honor that when we think about better ways to support. our student-athletes in a national and competitive structure.

And that is the main tenant of the Chamber’s agreement. Congress has tried and failed to enact NIL legislation more than a dozen times in the past three years. Lawmakers asked the NCAA and university leaders to provide a plan and clarity about the future. Sankey and other conference commissioners worked to educate lawmakers about the issues, hoping it would eventually lead to something tangible. Over the past year, influential lawmakers like Sen. Ted Cruz have offered optimism that a solution was possible — Cruz estimated 60-40 in October that Congress would pass an NIL bill — but the SEC’s top official conceded on Memorial Day that it is increasingly unlikely, even after the terms of the court settlement between the House and the NCAA have been agreed, that any federal solution will come before the November presidential election.

“This is a national system that deserves national standards, not just state by state, whether it is legislative action to determine rules or Attorney General action to determine rules,” he said. “We need national standards. And that is the role that Congress plays.”

As for how a revenue sharing model should be structured? Sankey hasn’t shared any thoughts, nor has he made a major statement about whether he’s for or against sharing most of the revenue with football and men’s basketball players, the same way back pay for athletes will be addressed in the House deal.

“Our tendency has been to provide some equity,” he said. “This is a very different world. I hope that we get opinions, perspectives, and that we have time to learn those perspectives. And then we’ll have to work through what that means from a decision-making standpoint.”

Could the NCAA’s desire to develop stronger rules governing name, image and likeness collectives have traction? Should collectives still exist in the new model?

“We’ll see,” he said.

What about the unlimited scholarships provided for in the agreement? In connection with this, Sankey made a point on Monday to clarify that the creation of new roster limits is “just a concept” and not a formality. The issue of roster sizes has been a topic in coaching circles for several weeks across the country and has elicited strong opinions from coaches as ideas of closed-door meetings have leaked into the media.

Yahoo Sports first reported that a roster limit of 85 players, all on scholarship, would eliminate all walk-on players. The idea of ​​eliminating all substitute players naturally galvanized college football coaches who publicly and privately rejected the concept.

The topic is expected to be discussed extensively at SEC spring meetings, but Sankey has already tried to preach patience to his coaches when the topic has come up in recent weeks.

“I haven’t talked to our coaches about it other than individually to say, ‘Hey, take it slow, guys,’” Sankey said. “… I think it’s kind of a threat, a danger that we can’t have a conversation about concepts that don’t resonate outside of the room. So that provokes a reaction. I know other conferences have discussed it, the coaches have then sent text messages to them. They were excited and we said, ‘Wait, let’s talk.’ And where is it.”

Sankey is not a fan of Rashada’s lawsuit

Sankey weighed in for the first time on Monday about the bomb Jaden Rashada lawsuit who accused Florida coach Billy Napier, among others, of fraud in a failed $13.85 million name, image and likeness deal. Napier has not yet publicly commented on the lawsuit.

“I’m not a fan of lawsuits,” Sankey said. “That’s what I think.”

The Georgia quarterback filed the lawsuit last Tuesday in federal court accusing Napier, prime mover Hugh Hathcock and former Florida employee Marcus Castro-Walker of fraudulently inducing him to refuse a supposed $9 offer. .5 million to go to Miami to sign with Florida with no intention of fulfilling a $13.85 million promise. The suit alleged that Napier personally vouched to Rashada that the Florida alumni “were good in their promise that Jaden would receive $1 million if he signed with UF on National Signing Day”‘ and that Hathcock would make the payment.

Following Napier’s supposed financial promise, Rashada signed with Florida during the early signing period in December 2022. He was released from his letter of intent the following month after the NIL deal fell apart, and it became clear that he would not receive the promised payments.

Rashada spent a single season at Arizona State in 2023 before transferring to Georgia in the spring. This move has heightened interest in a historic lawsuit that pits a current SEC student-athlete against a rival SEC coach.

“It’s not the only lawsuit involving a coach in the last year, it won’t be the last,” the SEC commissioner said. “We have a legal system and people have the right to bring what they consider to be complaints and the legal system resolves that.”

SEC will discuss injury reports

The SEC may soon follow the Big Ten’s lead and begin providing player availability reports for its major sports, including football and basketball. Sankey said discussions with SEC senior leadership began last summer and will expand to include coaches and athletic directors this week. A decision will not be made at Destiny.

“We have to be careful about how information is managed,” Sankey said. “It’s also a reality that the lives of young people in college and the lives of professional athletes are very different, there is a lot more exposure to people.”

Future football scheduling model in the background

The SEC has yet to make a decision on moving from an eight-game to a nine-game football conference schedule starting in 2026, but don’t expect one this week. The fallout from the House agreement will dominate conversations at the SEC’s spring meetings, Sankey said.

Kick Times, TV Assignments Coming

On Thursday, the SEC will release the start times and TV networks for several games in the first three weeks of the 2024 football season.

“There will be some other games there and probably some surprises for next season,” Sankey said.

Some matchups, however, will remain off-limits as part of the six- and 12-day window selections to better showcase high-level games.

All early games (11 a.m. to noon) will be revealed in mid-June, Sankey said, which is a change from past practices as the SEC enters its first year under a unique media agreement with Disney , rather than with CBS and Disney.