SEC-Big Ten Union More Than Advisory, And Greg Sankey Criticizes Tennessee Lawsuit

The Southeastern Conference's new union with the Big Ten is "only advisory" toward the NCAA, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said Wednesday night on the Paul Finebaum Show on the SEC Network.

Then he proceeded to explain how he and Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti would like to change the NCAA, and it sounded much deeper than mere advice. It was more of a directive.

"We have a responsibility for leadership," Sankey said after repeating "advisory" from the SEC release last Friday that announced the historic, SEC-Big Ten partnership. A partnership that hopes to do what the NCAA has not been able to do in recent years - organize Name, Image & Likeness and the Transfer Portal better and avoid the glut of antitrust lawsuits against the NCAA.

Leading, by the way, is more than advising.

SEC's Greg Sankey Says NCAA Is Not Healthy

"We don't seem to be making a lot of progress," Sankey said. "We need a healthy, national governing body."

Translation: The NCAA is not healthy.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey watches an SEC game with former SEC commissioner Roy Kramer. (Getty Images).

"And to the extent we can contribute to that in a new way, that explains more of what our focus will be," he said.

In other words, not a hostile takeover, but a subtle, steady and slow one.

"We're just not making the kind of progress on the real important issues," Sankey said and complained of the NCAA's "inability to make progress on decisions."

He is a man who has been to far too many meetings across the country at conventions and the like that do not get much of anything done.

"We talk about those issues," he said. "This draft is introduced. This direction might be changed. But if we just keep going through these same types of environments (provided and directed by the NCAA) to guide our decisions or rely on for our decisions, then we're going to have the same pace of change (slow), the same discourse, the same thinking that ideas are going to be generated from some other corner. And we need to make sure we take that responsibility."

Shortly after becoming Big Ten commissioner last spring, Tony Petitti met with SEC commissioner Greg Sankey in Birmingham, Alabama. (Getty Images)

As OutKick reported last week, this union didn't just happen. Sankey and Petitti met last spring shortly after Petitti left his position as chief operating officer of Major League Baseball. Over dinner in Birmingham, they shared their concern for the countless court cases the NCAA has lost, pending cases and the wide variety of state laws concerning NIL that have contributed to the myriad mess in which the NCAA finds itself. 

"We want to try to introduce some new perspectives, some new ideas perhaps," Sankey said. "Or more importantly, help cut through the bureaucratic tape that we face so often as we try to effect change."

Greg Sankey Not A Fan Of Tennessee-Virginia Lawsuit Vs. NCAA

Sankey then brought up the recent, much-publicized legal involvement by the Tennessee and Virginia Attorney General offices, who filed yet another antitrust suit against the NCAA over restrictions on NIL for recruiting. That lawsuit came on the heels of the NCAA doing its job - investigating a Tennessee collective allegedly using a private jet to fly heralded five-star quarterback prospect Nico Iamaleava to campus during his recruitment, which is a violation of NCAA rules.

And Tennessee is an obvious recent repeat offender. The NCAA penalized Tennessee's football program (while under coach Jeremy Pruitt from 2018-20 before his firing) last summer for more than 200 rules violations, calling it "one of the worst the Committee On Infranctions has seen." There were 18 Level I violations that included around $60,000 in impermissible inducements and benefits for recruits. More major offenses now on the heels of so many major offenses could seriously damage the future of Tennessee football, and lawyers from Tennessee who love the Vols are trying to do something about it by going after the NCAA.

A preliminary hearing on the matter will be on Feb. 13 after a judge sided this week with the NCAA against a temporary restraining order request by Tennessee. And Sankey did not sound like a fan of Tennessee's lawsuit.

"We obviously have Attorney Generals that have been involved now in some of these state level activities," Sankey said. "None of that's contributing to the solid type of collegiate environment that we need."

Sankey returned to that subject later when Finebaum followed up.

"Given the environment we're in with the really big issues facing college sports, we've got a lot ahead of us in courts, in states and congress," he said. "I would like not to be in this circumstance (concerning Tennessee's lawsuit). But certainly, the Attorney Generals have the right to bring this. It will be decided. These things are going to be argued out. And we'll see the outcome, and then how we move forward from this particular matter."

Tennessee Lawsuit A Distraction Amid The Big Picture, Sankey Says

A diplomatic comment, yes, but it seems that Sankey does not like that an SEC member institution like Tennessee with a voluminous list of priors is insisting on taking on the NCAA on a specific issue.

"I tend to think if we look at the big scheme of things from an NCAA level and focus on trying to have the right set of oversight, make adjustments around outcomes of court cases, deal with the litigation that is already in front of us, that's the proper focus," Sankey said, counseling Tennessee's efforts.

"I think the pursuit of some of these particular cases through the enforcement process distracts us from solving the big problems," Sankey said.

Sankey and Petitti sound like they want to attack those big problems more than the NCAA. So, soon, the NCAA may have to get out of the way.

Perhaps some relief from all the histrionic, self-absorbed and silly lawsuits against the NCAA - like Tennessee's - could help.