SEC announces salary cap for new era of college sports

The SEC announced a salary cap Thursday that will allow schools to decide how to spend an annually allotted $5,980 per student-athlete. Per the Alston v. NCAA Supreme Court decision in June, the money can be used to purchase academic equipment or given in cash as “financial support” for receiving academic awards.

Below is the full statement from the SEC:

Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Alston v. NCAA, the Southeastern Conference presidents and chancellors have voted to confirm that each SEC member university now has the discretion to determine criteria and methods to provide education-related benefits and academic achievement awards to their student-athletes, consistent with the Court’s recent decision.

The Alston decision granted universities the opportunity to provide student-athletes with additional education-related benefits such as computers, science equipment and musical instruments, along with direct financial support in the form of academic achievement awards, up to the legally established maximum of $5,980 per year.

While the Alston decision allows individual conferences to set limits on the new educational benefits, the SEC’s presidents and chancellors have elected not to place additional constraints on Conference members in determining how to provide this new support to their student-athletes. The unanimous vote by the SEC’s presidents and chancellors was an approval of a recommendation from the Conference’s athletics directors.

The announcement makes the SEC the first conference to make a formal decision on the Supreme Court ruling. The move applies to football as well as men’s and women’s basketball players.

It also comes during a time where players are now permitted to make money through endorsement deals thanks to a change in NIL rules.

“The presidents, chancellors and athletics directors of our 14 universities have determined it is appropriate for SEC athletics programs to have discretion and flexibility to provide support for student-athletes in their academic and athletic endeavors,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said. “While the Alston decision invited individual conferences to impose limits on education-related benefits and academic awards, the SEC believes it is in the best interests of our student-athletes for these decisions to be made at the campus level rather than through Conference policy.”

Oklahoma and Texas are set to join the SEC from the Big 12 by at least the 2025 season. With the SEC making this announcement about its salary cap, how close are college sports getting to resembling the pros?