Greg Sankey shares worry created by lack of NCAA guardrails, unintended impact

NIL and the transfer portal alone have caused drastic changes in the college athletics landscape that have hit no sport harder than college football. It has facilitated a recruiting marketplace that has become more competitive than ever before without a standard set of rules that has created potential consequences.

The NCAA along with college football’s leaders and decision makers are being looked upon to help stabilize the new concerns that have been presented. That includes SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, who was recently asked about the lack of guardrails in college athletics and the problems they can present.

“It is often difficult for people to conjure up sympathy for the NCCA. It’s like I’m from the federal government I’m here to help, I’m from the NCAA I’m here to help are kind of the same things that the people judge,” Sankey said on The Triple Option. “But you do need a set of national standards. I think what’s happened collectively is this push and pull from a system that worked. It was perceived as really well for decades, the money escalated, the external pressures increased, and collectively, we didn’t react.”

Sankey added that a part of the blame for the current climate of college football should be put on himself and others in power for not being more proactive. Decision-makers are now faced with making decades worth of change in a matter of months in order to create a better present and future for student-athletes.

“We just have to be honest about that reality and I would just observe more deeply that we should be concerned about the impact of lack of guardrails. And we talk about the game, we talk about the environment around college sports, I’m actually concerned about individuals,” Sankey said. “I don’t know how you go from the six-figure NIL deal as part of a team where, in that sport, you have this small chance of playing professionally. And the majority of people won’t, even in my league, won’t have that professional opportunity.”

NIL has now allowed student-athletes to see more individual revenue than ever before, signing big time deals with sponsors and NIL collectives similar to professional athletes. But when the college careers of these 18 to 21-year-olds finally does come to an end, are they prepared for the drastic lifestyle change that comes with no longer being a modern student-athlete?

“So how do you go from this experience at the college level where everything’s provided, you have concierge medical care, concierge mental wellness care, you have nutritionists around you, you have NIL deals, to an entry level job where you’re lost?” Sankey asked. “And we’re not going to understand the impact of that reality for a number of years.

“We should be concerned about that, because I think what will happen on the backside of this is there’s going to be this next wave of criticism. That wow, look at what you did. This sense of perhaps entitlement’s a word that’s used.”

We will not know the long-term repercussions on student-athletes as a result of the current state of college athletics for quite some time. But it will be fascinating to see what Sankey and others do in an attempt to find some sort of harmony in today’s current, chaotic times.