Competing interests in NIL legislation on display at SEC Media Days

In his opening remarks Monday at SEC Football Media Days, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey once again lobbied for federal NIL legislation and preventing employee status for athletes, stating the conference isn’t aware of any states that have enforced their own NIL legislation. Sankey said the effect is compounded by new amendments that prevent the NCAA and conferences from enforcing their bylaws in certain states.

Hours later at the same podium, Missouri football coach Eli Drinkwitz thanked, by name, six different politicians in the university’s home state, where the Missouri General Assembly passed and Gov. Mike Parson recently signed one of the most advantageous state NIL laws in the country.

That’s the state of play nationwide.

When Sankey was asked about varying state laws, stating Texas’s amendment was the most recent nationwide, Sankey was quick to put the spotlight on the Northeast rather than the Southeastern Conference. He said that New York was actually the most recent state to pass a bill of this ilk.

“In that circumstance, it was acknowledged that there were universities in the state of New York that were involved in that activity,” Sankey said. “The same has been true, I think, in any state where legislation has been adopted.”

However, both the reporter and Sankey were incorrect. It’s actually Missouri that holds that distinction of the state whose governor most recently signed a bill into law. The friendly amendment in Missouri takes effect in late August, following the lead of other states, such as Texas.

While Sankey is correct that universities across multiple conference affiliations and locales have lobbied their respective state legislatures, the effects of advantageous state legislation shaped by universities, athletic departments and their legal counsel are most prominent in the SEC’s footprint – specifically in Arkansas, Missouri and Texas – where it just means more.

“Our student-athletes deserve something better than a race to the bottom at the state legislature level,” Sankey said Monday.

The interpretation of the phrase “something better” would likely vary by the stakeholder.

There’s a case to be made that keeping up with the Joneses of the latest wave of state amendments could lead to athletes getting better opportunities without oversight from the NCAA or conferences, or the prohibition of public disclosure of NIL contracts.

Even Sankey acknowledged NIL rights have been a net positive “in many ways.”

Sankey never uttered the phrase revenue sharing in his nearly 48-minute opening session with the media.

Yet numerous players – LSU running back Josh Williams and defensive lineman Mekhi Wingo, Missouri cornerback Kris Abrams-Draine, defensive lineman Darius Robinson and tackle Javon Foster, and Texas A&M EDGE Fadil Diggs – told On3 on Monday it would be a welcome development for players if implemented in the future.

Eli Drinkwitz thanks Missouri politicians for NIL law

What are those conversations like in the SEC when its commissioner very publicly campaigns for federal legislation – Sankey mentioned uniform or uniformity three times and “standard” four times in an NIL-related context Monday – while the conference’s member schools simultaneously look for a competitive edge?

On3 asked Drinkwitz about that dynamic.

Drinkwitz both deferred to the conference’s administrators and presidents. He then full-throatedly credited Missouri’s political alignment to best position in-state athletes in regard to their NIL rights.

“You know, I’m gonna let the administration, the presidents, the ADs and the commissioner work together on that side of it,” Drinkwitz said. “All I know is what I’m responsible for right now and what the state law is right now for the University of Missouri. And that’s what’s going to affect us currently and that’s what I’m going to operate on. There are a lot of things we wish were but we actually know what is right now in college athletics. I’m going to embrace what is and what currently is the reality on boots on the ground or cleats in the grass, so to speak.

“Our state legislature – and I’d like to thank Gov. Parson, Lieutenant Gov. [Mike] Kehoe, Attorney General [Andrew] Bailey, Senator [Caleb] Rowden, Kurtis Gregory, and Dean Plocher, speaker of the house. All those guys are working really hard to try to do what they can that’s in the best interest of our student-athletes at the University of Missouri and providing them the opportunity to utilize their name, image and likeness to the best of their benefit.”

Gregory, a former Missouri offensive lineman who’s now a member of the Missouri House of Representatives, told On3 last month, “I feel like we’re at the top in terms of what we have in statute right now. I’d have a hard time wanting to give that up. That’d be like learning the new weightlifting secret to success or something along those lines.

“Why would you want to give that up and your trade secrets-type deal?”

Brian Kelly: ‘I’m not here to fix it. I’m here to navigate it’

There can be verbal high-wire act for any administrator or coach speaking publicly about state or federal government, especially on a literal stage like the one provided at SEC Football Media Days.

Advocates of federal legislation often describe their desired bill as bipartisan or even nonpartisan.

“These are nonpartisan issues that deserve a nonpartisan solution,” Sankey said, when describing the preservation of opportunities in higher education provided to men and women through college athletics, as well as the support in academics, mental health and nutrition.

Even the standard qualifiers, such as “not to get political but…,” don’t apply in conversations that are inherently political.

LSU coach Brian Kelly bluntly, yet perhaps realistically said, “So, I think whatever answer I give you there’s going to be holes in it because there is not much regulation,” when asked if there should be uniform regulations.

“I think that the easiest answer to that question – and I’m not going to be political up here – we do want to control what we can control. But I would say that the thing that makes it difficult for us, all of us, is third-party involvement, and at what level does that third-party involvement, and at what level does that third-party involvement influence the spirit of name, image and likeness.”

Ultimately, Kelly said, “I’m not here to fix it. I’m here to navigate it.”

“Whatever that is, we’ll navigate and work on based off the right laws in which we have,” Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher said, similarly to Kelly, when On3 asked about the status of a bold NIL compensation model. Fisher deferred to athletic director Ross Bjork and the lawyers involved.

For coaches and administrators at some schools, particularly those that are the only Power 5 institution in a given state, like Arkansas, Missouri, Syracuse and Colorado, the most efficient way to navigate the current landscape could include lobbying for legal protections and prohibitions of potential repercussions.

“Despite the cynicism, despite the criticisms and the acknowledgment that we’re certainly not perfect, remarkable things happen in intercollegiate athletics for young people,” Sankey said. “NIL has provided new opportunities, and the reality is that those opportunities have to be embraced. But let’s not kid ourselves into believing that this is the best we can do for our young people.”

In many cases, institutions and athletes have embraced athletes’ new opportunities, just not in the way the NCAA or a conference like the SEC envisions.