Greg Sankey evaluates what can be done to help fix NIL, tampering

NIL is a blessing and a curse. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey recently discussed how to fix the broken system with so much potential.

“What you’ve identified is really a layering of issues. So, it’s not as if we’re dealing with like one problem right here. We’re dealing with a range of realities,” Sankey said on an episode of the “The Joel Klatt Show” earlier this week.

Sankey is right. The issue can’t be covered by simply pointing at the NIL or the transfer portal. The problems inside the NCAA are widespread, like a virus that’s gotten loose. Nonetheless, it’s fair to say the NCAA gave that virus a new avenue to infect when incorporating NIL into collegiate sports.

The issue is a bottomless pit. To start, the lucrative system provides large schools with significant advantages over smaller programs. Furthering the Power Five programs’ advantage, NIL has quickly transformed from individual brand deals to something closer to player salaries. Unsurprisingly, the big schools are offering the big bucks.

The merciless machines has led to cut-throat methods being employed by universities to gain any advantage they can find; methods such as tampering. Tampering is when a program makes contact with an athlete from another school, directly or indirectly, without first obtaining authorization through the notification of transfer authority.

Tampering can come from anywhere, coaches, players, agents or even parents. The messy underground of NIL makes it extremely difficult to track, and, thus, even more difficult to stop. The extensive time frame of the portal isn’t making Sankey’s job any easier.

Currently, there is a 45-day winter transfer window just after the regular season concludes and a 15-day window near the end of spring practice. Sankey intends on tightening these constraints and, consequently, squeezing out any malpractice.

“I think we shorten that 45 days. Not everyone will like that. But what you saw was, when the portal opened,” Sankey said, “the first week or two, it’s the exact behavior anticipated. A bunch of people who said, ‘I either don’t want to be here, I want more playing time, I didn’t make the right choice, I want to be closer to home’ — whatever it is, raise their hand on the portal and said it’s time to leave.

“After that two weeks, a lot of stories — anecdotal, admittedly — where you have influencers, if you will, third parties, agents, people that we don’t know saying, ‘Hey, I got a deal for you if you leave.’ That’s not name, image and likeness. That’s not. Some have described as bribery. Some have it described as inducement. That’s not what it’s supposed to be. And so, I would suggest that one step is let’s shorten the December portal and allow those decisions to be made for entry over a two week period of time. And then, they’ll play out.”

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