Greg Sankey weighs in on NIL comments made by Jimbo Fisher, Nick Saban and Lane Kiffin
Greg Sankey has led the SEC through these drastically changing times in the world of college athletics.
One of the biggest changes the SEC commissioner now faces is new NIL laws that allow players to profit from their names, images and likenesses.
Recently, there were some comments made about NIL and how it factors into recruiting. Nick Saban and Lane Kiffin made some comments that prompted a rant by Jimbo Fisher on National Signing Day.
So, what did Sankey think of the dust up? He spoke with Paul Finebaum about it:
A few SEC football coaches spent the week of National Signing Day sniping at each other. What did Commissioner Greg Sankey think? pic.twitter.com/YDwGaaggPX
— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) February 11, 2022
“Our coaches are dealing with a different reality,” Sankey said Friday. “That creates discomfort. It creates stress. It creates commentary. Our coaches still work incredibly hard and 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, that ‘wow, the only reason that somebody had recruiting success is because of name, image and likeness,’ that’s not actually a fully informed opinion. At the same time, it is a dynamic in recruiting now.”
The SEC head coaches had a meeting late last week, so perhaps the tensions got smoothed over at that event. Or, maybe there will be some even more intense rivalries on the field this fall!