SEC commissioner Greg Sankey's conference has been a hotbed of controversy this offseason, between Alabama Crimson Tide basketball coach Nate Oats bringing Charles Bediako back from the NBA to play collegiate minutes three years after he declared for the draft, and Ole Miss Rebels head coach Pete Golding texting a committed Clemson Tiger asking for his buyout and flipping him while he was in class at Clemson University.
Sports Illustrated's Pat Forde called out Alabama and Ole Miss for their shameless, and potentially bylaw-breaking behavior in the Rebels' case. Forde called Golding's contact with linebacker Luke Ferrelli a likely Level II NCAA violation and had practically no grace or patience with what Oats did, especially three years after the infamous Brandon Miller-Darius Miles incident.
He later rhetorically and snarkily questioned if anyone at the University of Alabama or the University of Mississippi was capable of embarrassment. Forde ultimately put the onus on Sankey to fix his conference's public perception problems.
"It’s certainly true that the SEC does not have a monopoly on conference drama. The ACC famously fought itself in recent years. The Big Ten was very publicly at odds over private capital and Connor Stalions. The Big 12 had a similar private equity impasse, with Utah going its own way," Forde prefaced before saying, "And it’s true that the SEC is accustomed to a baseline level of chaos, which some might argue is one of the league’s charms. Nobody watches a reality show full of well-grounded, well-behaved characters, after all.
"But the current scofflaw episodes at Ole Miss and Alabama are embarrassing—or should be, if anyone at either school is capable of embarrassment. And Greg Sankey, of all authority figures, doesn’t seem to have much control of the situation."
Two SEC schools are non-compliant with College Sports Commission
It gets worse for Sankey. Two of his schools, neither specifically named, are in violation of President Donald Trump's College Sports Commission's compliance policies, per a report from Genespage's Steve Robertson.
"Another matter of interest making the rounds these days is that several schools around the country are not using the NIL Go system as required by the House Settlement. Genespage has learned that at least two schools in the SEC have received correspondence from the College Sports Commission about their non-compliance. The CSC is essentially the new enforcement arm of the NCAA, but they are having some issues with manpower and enforcement," Robertson wrote.
"The question that persists is what will the CSC do about it? Will they write the offending schools a ticket for jaywalking or take more meaningful action? That remains to be seen, but if some action is not taken the wild, wild west will simply grow downright feral. There is already chatter that some schools are using promissory notes to get outside the guidelines of the CSC's NIL directives. The fleas always find the dog and the dog in the house of Sankey has to be itching."
If Sankey doesn't feel embarrassment now, there's a Commander-in-Chief who certainly knows how to embarrass someone who isn't playing ball with his administration.
Sankey needs to regain control of the SEC and show the college sports world what made his conference great in the first place.
Otherwise, it'll become clear that he is not adapting with the times, and needs to be shown the door.