Greg Sankey on House settlement: 'A decade’s worth of change in a matter of months'

In his opening address Monday at SEC Media Days in Dallas, commissioner Greg Sankey emphasized he wants college sports to figure out its own problems.

Athletic directors have spent the summer figuring out the aftershocks of the multibillion-dollar House settlement. As part of the agreement, schools can opt-in to a revenue-sharing agreement, with the option to share roughly $20 to $22 million per year with players.

Of the $2.77 billion expected to be paid in back damages to former athletes as part of the House case, the NCAA is expected to be responsible for 40% of the payout. The other 60% will come from a reduction in school distributions. The complete settlement could be submitted to Judge Claudia Wilken this next week.

“While that agreement does not resolve every issue and it is not the finish line, it does provide an opportunity for us to move forward in modernizing important elements of college sports,” Sankey said Monday. “There’s a lot of work still to be done. There’s work to finalize the full terms of the settlement agreement beyond just terms is the hard work of implementing the outcome of that agreement.

“We are literally working to make what would normally be a decade’s worth of change in a matter of months. We’re not in the world either where we’re allowed to focus on just one issue or even one small set of issues at any particular time.”

As Sankey welcomes Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC and assists his members in tackling revenue sharing, the commissioner alluded to “new-wave entrepreneurs.” Last week in Las Vegas, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark touted expansion and the possibility of selling football and basketball TV packages separately.

The Big 12 is also at the forefront of selling naming rights in deep discussions with AllState. Plus, the conference continues to evaluate private equity options.

Sankey believes college athletics should be fixed from within, not bring in equity or outside forces.

“There are other lawsuits where we have state attorneys general that have engaged in lawsuits against the NCAA, we have state legislatures continuing to enact or change laws that govern how we conduct college athletics,” Sankey said. “There are outside ideas that come from those apparently associated with private equity firms, professional league search firms, former executives from leading media companies who want to ensure their thinking. We have new-wave entrepreneurs who want to be on the so-called front end of the new paradigm for college athletics. But it’s our leadership responsibility to figure this out.”

Greg Sankey continues pushing for Congressional assistance

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce voted last month to move the Protecting Student Athlete’s Economic Freedom Act to the House floor. The bill, first introduced by Rep. Bob Good in May, would codify athletes are not employees of an institution, conference or association.

Landing on the House floor is the furthest any college sports legislation has gone in recent memory, despite more than a dozen bills proposed and drafted on NIL and athlete compensation on Capitol Hill in the last 18 months.

For much of the spring, the NCAA and power conferences were worried about agreeing on terms with House plaintiffs on a settlement agreement that would forever reshape college athletics. With that accomplished, the full focus has moved to ensuring athletes are not considered employees.

Greg Sankey and the NCAA president have made multiple trips to Washington, D.C., to lobby Congress in the last 18 months.

“We’re going to continue our dialogue with Congress,” Sankey said Monday. “Again, we’re going to have to make decisions on our own. We have to do those with the right legal counsel. Congress is a place that can help set national standards that address the issues are student-athletes have raised. We’re not waiting for change to land in our laps. We have a responsibility to engage with our Congressional leaders.”