Paul Finebaum explains Greg Sankey's plea to Congress for NIL reform

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey stayed firm on his stance regarding NIL regulation at SEC Media Days, calling for Congress to take action and enact a blanket regulation policy for name, image, and likeness. And on ESPN’s ‘First Take‘ on Tuesday morning, college football analyst Paul Finebaum broke down Sankey’s remarks and explained timeline of NIL reform.

“He is saying that because the NCAA has failed, they dropped the ball, they did nothing about this issue when they had a chance,” Finebaum said. “I was with Charlie Baker, the new president of the NCAA, recently in Washington. And even he, he’s been on the job a year, admitted the NCAA model was broken because they simply punted.”

Finebaum hearing the top of the food chain admit to such a monumental error was jarring to hear, as he continued to pull back the curtain on the NCAA’s poor decision and its repercussions.

“Now why did they punt? Because of litigation, they started losing in court and decided they wanted nothing to do with this. So they differed, and that’s why states around the country passed legislation,” Finebaum. “The commissioner is correct, it was a very poignant moment for Greg Sankey yesterday because every state is different, and certain states, perhaps in Missouri, or Florida, or Texas, take your pick they’re screwing it to try to help their own state schools and make it more difficult for others.”

NIL has had a major impact in recruiting, as high school prospects are now taking into account how they can generate revenue for themselves at a given school. And with some states having more lenient NIL guidelines than others, certain programs now have advantages over others in recruiting space.

“So that’s why Greg Sankey said we need Congress to fix this, the problem is this, Congress is not going to fix this any time soon. And I’ll skip all the narrative about going to Washington trying to get help, we all know how difficult that is. But this is not an important issue for them, and there’s another thing that I think will hurt the college sports teams when they go to Congress and that’s restricting young people the opportunity to make money,” Finebaum explained.

Finebaum’s pessimism about Congress taking action on NIL soon combined with the problems presented by trying to put a limit on what student-athletes can make will make the next few years of NIL very interesting. As numerous other factors will play a role as well and all of college football’s decision-makers and athletes continue to navigate these uncharted waters.

“This is something that every young person that I’ve talked to in intercollegiate athletics is rejoining about. Yeah some are making millions of dollars, some are not making very much money at all, but they are making something, they’re getting something,” Finebaum said. “And that is positive I think in relation to where we have been where the NCAA controls everything.”