Greg Sankey on NIL: 'We have to adjust this system'

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey recently joined The Joel Klatt Show to discuss a variety of topics, perhaps none more important than name, image and likeness. During their talk, Klatt asked about the old ways of NIL, when he thought the college used to control a player’s likeness. However, Sankey says otherwise.

“Yeah, we never owned name, image and likeness. That’s one of those misnomers,” the SEC commissioner stated. “The national standard was: you’re not going to engage in that economic activity during a period of time if you choose to be a college athlete. What’s interesting is the colleges never retained anything around name, image and likeness after someone’s departure.

“Now, that may be a fine point but there are examples in sports, professional sports, where people enter clubs or they enter points of access competitively and they’ve signed that away. And one of the concerns we should have right now — and this is why I offer not to be disagreeable as we have no idea what’s being signed in these agreements.”

Then Klatt jumped in to note that he’s heard of NIL deals that were signed in perpetuity and could have long-term effects.

“Well I couldn’t agree more and I know I know firsthand of agreements that have been signed that are in perpetuity. I think that you would absolutely hear about the long-term financial consequences of a poor business deal through NIL and I know that that’s happening out there.”

“And those stories need to be told,” Sankey responded. “I’m not the one to tell those stories. If you go back pre-COVID with our leadership council, we went through and I’m like… you have complete permission to talk. We developed over time, I think, a decent rapport.”

Greg Sankey then shifted to discuss the varying approaches certain athletes have towards NIL deals and the pitfalls that could pop up.

“Here are the realities,” he began. “You know, the high-level competitors said: ‘You know what, I’m not sure I want to deal with that. I’m here. I have educational expectations. I want to develop and grow. I have competitive expectations and I think more about what’s next and how I prepare for that than a local restaurant deal on a Tuesday night. And then we had some of that group with wisdom who said: ‘But I have teammates who need these opportunities, who don’t maybe have the economic access or some of the support that that I can access.’ And and so that’s part of the balance.

“But I think that’s really insightful as we think about how we carry this forward back to kind of that national standard. I don’t think there’s anyone right now who says we stop or we fully pull back to where we were.

“In essence, we have to think about the protections for young people so that they’re not signing for what seems like a lot of money at 18 years old, and all of a sudden there were first round draft pick at 23 and they realize there’s an entanglement and now they’re in a court case without the type of cleanliness around these deals that would be much more optimal. We have to adjust this system and we need help to do it to do it properly.”