Last week, many SEC programs wrapped up their 2022 recruiting classes on National Signing Day. Traditionally, the biggest Signing Day storylines focus on public announcements from the highest-rated recruits. Last week’s biggest story, though, involved the name, image and likeness (NIL) barbs traded by SEC coaches. In particular, Jimbo Fisher notably fired back at some of the NIL-related comments about Texas A&M’s top-ranked 2022 class.

Paul Finebaum asked SEC commissioner Greg Sankey about some of the NIL back-and-forth among conference coaches.

“Our coaches are dealing with a different reality,” Sankey said on “The Paul Finebaum Show.” “That creates discomfort. It creates stress. … Our coaches still work incredibly hard. They’re subject to state laws. They’re attentive to those. They work with their compliance offices. Simply suggesting, whether it’s Coach A or Coach B, ‘wow, the only reason that somebody had recruiting success is name, image and likeness,’ that’s not actually a fully-informed opinion. At the same time, it is a dynamic in recruiting now.”

Finebaum also asked if the coaches’ NIL comments came up at this week’s SEC coaches meeting in Birmingham. Sankey said he had private conversations with coaches prior to the meeting.