DESTIN, Fla. — The agenda at SEC spring meetings in Destin this week was long. Would the SEC agree to expand the College Football Playoff to 24 teams? Would there be any answers about how to improve NIL rules enforcement? Would the conference seriously consider a “breakaway” of sorts to enforce its own rules?
By the time meetings wrapped on Thursday, none of the questions had clear answers. Plus, in the middle of it all, a group of Republican and Democrat senators dropped the Protect College Sports Act, a long-awaited bipartisan college sports bill.
As coaches boarded private jets Wednesday and administrators filtered out, the prevailing theme was a consensus on the problems—but none on the solutions.
NIL Rules Violations Are Rampant
After the House v. NCAA settlement, the power conferences formed the College Sports Commission to scrutinize all NIL deals over $600 to ensure they weren’t pay-for-play in disguise But almost a year into the CSC’s existence, millions of dollars worth of deals are being left in limbo, the “revenue-sharing cap” has become a floor, rather than a ceiling. Still some aren’t reporting deals at all.
