Greg Sankey pushes back against House v. NCAA settlement complaints, detractors

Just over two weeks after the House v. NCAA settlement took effect, questions are swirling. Many center around the NIL Go clearinghouse which launched as part of the agreement, vetting NIL deals worth more than $600.

NIL collectives are also preparing for a legal fight as House attorneys slammed the NCAA and the College Sports Commission’s guidance around deals, as On3’s Pete Nakos detailed. Attorneys sent a letter to NCAA and power conference officials, according to Yahoo! Sports, asking them to “retract” the guidance.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey heard the frustration and pushed back during an interview on The Paul Finebaum Show on Thursday. He pointed out the importance of the moment while also acknowledging bumps in the road that will come up so soon into the new era.

“A moment of important change,” Sankey said of where things stand. “And it is both wearying and exhilarating. … I just left a video conference with our presidents and chancellors. We invited Bryan Seeley. Bryan’s the new executive director of what’s called the College Sports Commission, overseeing settlement implementation. He’s already hired two staff. You can’t do any of that until you actually have a settlement. You’re not going to leave a job with Major League Baseball like Bryan had and wonder if there’ll be actual settlement. So we’re in the implementation process.

“Last week, the CSC sent a letter with really guidance that I think is based on settlement terms. Plaintiffs’ attorneys said, ‘Not so fast.’ They quickly released that letter. We’ll go back and forth to figure out if there’s a destination upon which we can agree. That will happen repeatedly.”

Greg Sankey: House settlement provided ‘guardrails’

Greg Sankey also pointed out the “anti-circumvention rules” in place when it comes to enforcing settlement terms and said the “defense group,” made up of the conferences and the plaintiffs’ attorneys, are working toward a conclusion. When it comes to deals denied by the clearinghouse, he cited the guidance about a valid business purpose or an appropriate range of compensation.

Regarding the House v. NCAA settlement, Sankey said the agreement fits what coaches have been calling for since the NIL era began in 2021. He heard the call for “guardrails” and argued the settlement fits what they wanted. However, he also noted the complexity of settling the landscape so soon post-House.

“All of that to say, Paul, how many times have we sat and listened to coaches and administrators over the last three or four years say, ‘We have to have guardrails for NIL. Guardrails, guardrails, guardrails.’ So what the settlement did is provide guardrails,” Sankey said. “Now, the issue is we have work to do on our side to provide more of the rivets in the guardrails, I guess. And then, those involved in college athletics on campuses and around our programs have to operate within the guardrails they sought. That’s a shared responsibility. If they can’t, then oversight is appropriate, the right kind of accountability.

“That doesn’t mean it’s always the old way of doing business. There’s an arbitration process built in and there’s a lot there, and I’ll do my best to answer details. But what you just heard is a description of historic level change serious issues. Use the right word – this is complex. There are no simple answers. There are no, ‘If they would just do this,’ that unwinds things.”