Greg Sankey sounds off on what needs fixed within NCAA system

There’s been plenty of discussion about reform within the NCAA lately. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey is one of those voices, and he sounded off on what needs fixed during an appearance on The Paul Finebaum Show on Friday.

Sankey, who co-chairs a transformation committee with Ohio athletic director Julie Cromer, said conversations are ongoing about plenty of topics, from the transfer portal landscape to NIL. However, he also noted Congress’ recent involvement, and said that’s a major development for the NCAA’s future.

While he said there’s time to get on track, he said that should be a wake-up call.

“I think you’ve seen a panel discussion in DC on two different bills introduced — one in the house, one in the Senate — on issues that touch college athletics,” Sankey said. “If we don’t get the message that we’re not trusted to manage this enterprise, what’s happening around us has to make that abundantly clear both internally and externally. I’m not going to over-predict that we can get all of this right, but we certainly can make progress between now and August, which is the timeline assigned to those of us working on this transformational effort.”

Greg Sankey: ‘The infractions process has not been right for a while’

Sankey’s coments about the infraction process come as the FBI investigation drags on. Multiple times, he said the process needs to be “fair and timely” and currently isn’t.

“Just quickly, from a menu of issues that we’ve addressed with this 21-person committee, the infractions process has not been right for a while,” Sankey said. “There’s a lot of parts. There’s been a lot of groups looking at things. That needs to be a system that holds people accountable when they’re accused in a fair and timely manner, but also provides results so those [who] compete against those who are accused have results from those allegations in a fair and timely manner. We’re really good at writing rules. We’re not good at deleting rules. We have to slim down our rulebook.

“We also have to update our support [of] student athletes. We’ve seen commentary from the Supreme Court that’s pretty clear about the need for change. Had a long meeting, Julie and myself, with the board members from the National Association of Basketball Coaches. … They talked about their academic concerns for student athletes and talked about the transfer reality, which has gone from very much a restricted approach to just really open-ended. It creates a lot of confusion and a lot of concern.”