To say the SEC is less than satisfied with the current status quo of college sports would be putting it lightly. In a conversation with ESPN's Paul Finebaum, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey talked about many things during their 30-minute interview. However, his candidness when it comes to the SEC potentially creating "its own in-house governance and enforcement model" certainly speaks volumes.
Sankey went on record by saying that none of his league's members are thrilled with the NCAA here.
"I don't think anyone on any campus wants the status quo to remain. In our league, by unanimous vote, we can't go on as we are."
Sankey met with the SEC presidents during a very important meeting in Nashville, coinciding with the men's SEC Basketball Tournament. While the legalese of this may bore you to tears, it is abundantly clear that the SEC is frustrated with the lack of oversight coming from the NCAA and College Sports Commission when it comes to topics such as NIL, revenue sharing, and any major eligibility concerns.
Sankey does not want to break off from the NCAA, but he is afraid that he may be left with no choice.
As far as what this could mean for Alabama moving forward, more in-house governance is way better.
Alabama would benefit tremendously from SEC governing itself in-house
For the sake of argument, if we wanted to hone in on those three aspects stated above of NIL, revenue sharing, and eligibilty, having more regulations in place could serve Alabama. When it comes to the wonderful world of NIL, a standard set in place could help keep a traditional power like Alabama on top, without affording some newcomer program to dictate terms with their big-pocketed boosters.
As far as revenue sharing is concerned, having more uniformity and clarity could help all 16 schools find new and creative ways to further expand the growing pie. Because Alabama has long been at the forefront of college athletics in this conference, having more guardrails there on revenue sharing should help them more so than other lesser programs. Everyone wins, but Alabama would win more...
And finally, when it comes to eligibility, having a clear, set standard of what it means to be eligible could help programs like Alabama assert their dominance over the league. Again, lesser programs would try to find ways to skate around eligibility issues with nebulous rulings. Having a standard will make things more enforceable. That way, Trinidad Chambliss and Joey Aguilar are viewed the same.
Overall, this does seem like a bit of gamesmanship brewing between the Big Ten and the SEC among the powers at be. These are the two power broker conferences atop the world of college sports. Yes, the ACC, Big 12, and the Big East in basketball will want a seat at the table, but Sankey and Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti are the ones who do the lion's share of the work for the rest of their peers.
Ultimately, strong SEC programs like Alabama would benefit the most from the league having its own in-house governance the most because all of the potential loopholes lesser schools could exploit could be closed up for good. If newer ones do present themselves in due time like they always do, Alabama and other elite SEC programs would be in a position to quickly capitalize in those areas, too.
Right now, the more confusion there is in the SEC over things like this, the worse it is for Alabama.