Greg Sankey stresses patience but there is no hiding from importance of the SCORE Act

The House settlement passed on July 1. This officially started a new era in college athletics. The post-COVID era that was already defined by non-stop player movement via the transfer portal, pay-for-play through collectives, non-stop eligibility lawsuits, and much more chaos. The hope was that this settlement would help calm down the rough waters thanks to revenue sharing.

The rough ride is not over yet. It might just be getting started.

The newly established College Sports Commission (CSC) issued a memo last week that stated athletes must present a “valid business purpose” for deals to be approved. Unfortunately, many did not like this ruling and felt it violate the settlement.

House attorneys sent a two-page letter to the NCAA and power conference officials quickly after that CSC memo went out that asked for this “valid business purpose” guideline to be dropped. Collectives are expected to follow suit as the fight for how players are paid continues.

Meanwhile, perhaps most importantly, college athletics is putting all of their eggs in a basket on Capitol Hill.

The SCORE Act was introduced last week as a bill that would codify the House settlement, provide liability protection for college athletics, overrule state NIL laws, and prevent athletes from becoming university employees. There would also be regulation for agents. This bill still must be passed through Congress but could give the NCAA and its members the teeth needed to enforce the new enforcement structure run by the CSC.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey is all-in on this bill.

“We welcome the ongoing dialogue in Washington and continue to support Congressional engagement for the purpose of building a future where education and competition coexist with clarity and fairness,” Sankey said at SEC Media Days in Atlanta. “A future where policies are adopted to preserve national competition, national championships and support healthy economic opportunities for student-athletes.”

“Introduction of the SCORE Act is a positive step, but there remains plenty of work to be done, but this bipartisan effort represents an indication that college athletics can produce bipartisan agreement to restore national standards for college athletics.”

Those national standards are needed to make everyone involved follow the rules. Without them, much like the previous system, the NCAA and its members could be bogged down in litigation when attempting to enforce their rules. Sankey and his colleagues are committed to making this new settlement structure work but there will be some bumps in the road along the way. The most powerful individual in college athletics comped the current problems with the settlement’s new rules to running marathon. Sankey claims the first couple of miles can be tremendously difficult but are pivotal to establishing the pace for a good race. We are currently in the first couple of miles in this new marathon that college leaders have placed college athletics on.

Will we be able to finish this race? It might be impossible without the SCORE Act. Commissioners and many others have been campaigning for this bill for years. If it does not pass, this newly established system could be in crisis territory. Chaos continues to surround us as we try to find a new normal.

“There’s no easy button for dealing with the complexities that we face,” Sankey said.