If University of Georgia president Jere Morehead floated a trial balloon with his comments last week, head football coach Kirby Smart made sure that balloon got a good burst of wind beneath it.
Morehead has raised the idea of the Southeastern Conference setting its own rules and self-governing its institutions in the wake of the SCORE Act petering out in Congress. Morehead went as far as to say he was “prepared … to be ready to vote on creating an SEC mechanism and SEC rules” at the conference’s spring meetings this week, “if that’s what we have to do.”
Speaking on the first day of those spring meetings Tuesday, Smart gave his president’s proposal a full-throated endorsement.
“I’ve said this for a long time to our president, I’ve been a huge advocate that if we can’t find rules that everybody plays by, then we should play on our own,” Smart told reporters. “I’m not afraid of that. I’m not afraid to break away and say that our conference is strong enough to go out and play.
“If we could actually function financially, it would make our programs more stable. We could support things financially. I’m talking about all the sports and do our own rules — I’d be all for that.”
The SCORE Act, which had proponents and detractors on Capitol Hill, was pulled from the floor during markup last week when the Congressional Black Caucus came out against the bill, or indeed any legislation that “benefits major athletic institutions that continue to remain silent while Black voting rights and Black political power are being systematically dismantled across the South.”
The bill aimed to bring about regulation of the business of college sports, particularly a standardization of NIL compensation rules, while granting the NCAA antitrust protections.
Texas A&M’s Mike Elko was among the many head coaches asked about the topic at the meetings in Destin, Fla. He pointed out that there are already rules in place, but they aren’t enforced.
“If there were rules that had consequences,” he said. “Like you look at the NFL as a model, why do coaches not try to get an edge in the NFL? Because the rules are enforced, right? You can’t find ways around it … The rules are enforced so nobody can gain a competitive edge by you circumventing the (salary) cap or doing different things in free agency.
“And so the problem with college sports is who’s enforcing the rules? And so if there are rules that nobody’s enforcing … then that just creates this waterfall of people trying to skirt things.”
Elko is among those in favor of a single commissioner or CEO of FBS football, but failing that, he looks to SEC commissioner Greg Sankey.
“If it comes more to an SEC model, then you’d at least have the ability to say OK — we certainly have great leadership. Greg Sankey does a phenomenal job looking out for the best interests of the SEC,” Elko said. “And so Greg can get in with the presidents and the ADs and the coaches, and we can come up with some kind of decision about what’s best for the SEC, go out there and enforce that, if that provides some level of regulation or legislation within the SEC, I think that’s why it’s becoming more of a talking point because that seems more attainable than anything else.”
