SEC's Greg Sankey - 'Only Congress' can resolve NIL issues - ESPN

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — SEC commissioner Greg Sankey on Monday said there is an «urgent need» for Congress to enact a national standard for name, image and likeness and was emphatic in his belief that «only Congress can adequately resolve these issues.»

Sankey, speaking on stage to a ballroom full of reporters gathered at the Grand Hyatt for the league's annual media days, used the bulk of his time at the lectern repeating a message he had personally delivered last month to congressmen and women in Washington, D.C.

«The reality is, only Congress can fully address the challenges facing college athletics,» he said. «The NCAA cannot fix all of these issues, the courts cannot resolve all of these issues. The states cannot resolve all of these issues, nor can the conferences. Whether congressional action is achievable is a matter of debate. Much debate.

»But educational opportunity, supporting equitable opportunities for men and for women, ensuring the United States' continued success in the Olympic games, providing medical care, nutritional support, academic support, mental wellness counseling," he said, «these are non-partisan issues that deserve a non-partisan solution.»

Sankey said that «to our knowledge,» no state has taken action to enforce its own NIL laws, and the individual states are also preventing the NCAA and conferences from adopting and enforcing reasonable NIL standards. Sankey said that while NIL has been «a net positive for young people,» there are also stories of how it has been misused.

«Some stories told and others not told of promises made but not fulfilled, of inducements offered but not provided, of empty commitments, and NIL agreements that created more questions than provided answers and other behaviors