SEC’s Sankey: League’s association with Big Ten about bringing clarity to NIL

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey told University of South Carolina trustees that the league’s joint advisory group with the Big Ten Conference was created to provide leadership for a challenging landscape in college athletics.

It is not, he said, a breakaway framework for the two healthiest, wealthiest leagues to run the game.

The leagues announced their association earlier this month.

Solutions to some of the biggest issues in college athletics — like rules governing NIL and transfers — are difficult to advance in rooms with many administrators, all with opinions and agendas.“We felt it could be helpful if we could shrink those rooms,” Sankey said to school leadership, which included athletic director Ray Tanner.

He said he’s not on a tour of league members to update leaders on the changing landscape, which includes officially adding Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC on July 1 to make it a 16-member league. But Sankey is visiting Florida and Auburn this weekend.

Sankey said athletes have told him they want clarity in what’s become a sometimes muddled patchwork of state NIL laws — he said more than 30 states have some legislation regarding NIL; South Carolina lawmakers are debating such a rule — many of which can complicate those considering transfers.

Sankey believes the joint advisory group with the Big Ten can help solve some of those problems. He understands, though, others are skeptical of the motives, particularly after the once-potent Pac-12 Conference will shrink to two members, Oregon State and Washington State, after the latest realignment wave this past year.