Greg Sankey issues statement in wake of signing of California endorsement law
Responses to the signing of a law in California to allow college athletes to profit off of their image and likeness are pinballing around the world of college sports. Now commissioners of conferences are responding to it, including Greg Sankey of the SEC.
Sankey said in a statement to Sports Illustrated that there are “meaningful concerns” when individual states unilaterally alter the rules for athletes around the country.
“We must also fully address the underlying potential for abuse by external influences and strive for a structure that appropriately ties financial support of student-athletes to their educational pursuits,” he wrote in the statement.
A couple of SEC coaches on Monday also weighed in on the news.
LSU’s Ed Orgeron said it’s outside his job description as a football coach.
“Just gotta follow the rules, whatever they tell us to do, he said. “I believe the players should get as much as they possibly can. And am I fan of paying the players, no. But I do — if there’s a system we can get these guys what they deserve without getting salaries, maybe cost of attendance like they are today and a little bit more, I’m all for that. But I think it’s got to be governed all in the right way. But that’s not for me to decide. My job is to coach football, and whatever they tell me to do, I’m going to do.”
Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher called it a “game changer.”
“It’s really going to change how things are done, that’s for sure,” Fisher said at his regular weekly press conference. “I’m anxious to see what the next step the NCAA takes, and then we’ll have to make the accountable adjustments of what goes on. But that is definitely a game changer, and I’m going to have to sit back and think through that. I’m glad it happened on an off week for the future of what’s going to happen.”
#SEC commissioner Greg Sankey’s statement to @SInow on California’s bill signing. pic.twitter.com/CauuftnQa2
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) September 30, 2019