SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said multiple recent reports that SEC leadership has considered a plan to break away from the NCAA and govern itself are “real.” He added, “People have talked about that. They’ve opined about the frustrations that bring them to the point of saying we should look at something significantly different.” Sankey and other college sports leaders have asked Congress to reform the world of intercollegiate athletics, but their preferred bills “have stalled,” and current legislation, the Protect College Sports Act, does not currently have the SEC or Big Ten’s support. Sankey also said that the rest of the college sports world is “not adapting at the rate the SEC would like.” Sankey “did acknowledge that operating within a national structure with other conferences does bring a benefit.” Sankey: “There is meaning and value and I do think a national expectation that we participate in a national organization. But that national organization must function in a healthy manner” (AL.com, 7/20).
Sankey said Monday that he “continues to have conversations with congressional leaders about the Protect College Sports Act but stopped short of saying whether all the conference’s suggested changes need to be implemented for it to support the bill.” Sankey said that the SEC “has offered ‘10 commonsense suggestions’ that center on four key principles -- national standards that must be enforceable; a national framework to limit state laws that are meant to circumvent rules; transparency and accountability; and establishing fair and consistent standards for organizations while preserving voluntary decision-making.” One of the portions of the bill the SEC is “firmly against would allow conferences the option to pool their media rights.” There also has been “extended conversation about current language concerning the formation of super leagues” (ESPN.com, 7/20).
Sources cited by ESPN.com’s Pete Thamel said that the “latest discussions about the Protect College Sports Act’s most scrutinized section -- realignment restrictions -- has a new focus.” The discussion “centers around leagues being capped at 19 programs.” For a league to leave a power conference to join another, they would “have to play five years as an independent.” The Group of 6 schools would also “be allowed to move up in the latest discussions.” The current version of the bill “was set to freeze all of the leagues making more than” $700M in revenue, and “that was met with strong pushback” (X, 7/20).
