Greg Sankey will have ‘full power’ to punish SEC schools for violating pro player policy, per report
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
The SEC won’t allow professional athletes to play in the conference if they signed a contract with a team or appeared on a team’s roster, according to a policy announced on Tuesday evening.
Should a program violate that policy, it’ll face punishment from conference commissioner Greg Sankey. Sankey was given “full power” to do so via a 16-0 vote by the conference’s universities, according to CBS Sports’ John Talty. Of course, what those punishments will be are not known at this time.
The SEC’s policy goes a little further than the Big Ten’s, which only prohibits professional football players from playing in the conference. Under the SEC policy, professional football players, as well as NBA and WNBA players, are banned from competing. That includes players from the G-League and other affiliates.
The professional basketball player portion of the policy is notable given that several players from the high school class of 2022 seeking to return to college for a fifth year of eligibility won’t be able to do so if they’d signed with an NBA team. That includes signing a Exhibit 10 contract, a non-guaranteed deal.
Meanwhile, the NCAA is fighting to keep Class of 2022 players from returning altogether, whether they’d played professionally or not.
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
