WASHINGTON — A who’s who of leaders from the Big Ten, SEC, Big 12 and ACC gathered on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to meet with state representatives and lobby for federal NIL guidelines — a strong showing of unity from the NCAA’s largest and wealthiest conferences just days after a federal court hearing inched college athletics closer to a landmark settlement.
University presidents and chancellors, athletic directors and a few coaches and players concluded the day with a cocktail reception at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium, where SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark and Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti participated in a brief panel recapping the day.
“We’re kind of in a seminal moment,” Phillips said. “We’re trying to find something that has sustainability to it. It’s a modernization of college sports. I think for all of us, we are passionate about access and affordability to higher education … at the heart of this thing is opportunities for young men and women. Times have changed, and whether we like all the things that have occurred, or we don’t, we find ourselves in a position where we are major stewards of the future of college sports.”
While the commissioners have made multiple trips to the nation’s capital to push for federal NIL legislation, it’s not often — if at all — that such a large contingency from their respective leagues has joined them, and all four at the same time.
Auburn men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl, fresh off a Final Four appearance, attended the event, along with Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian.
“We’ve been here repeatedly,” Sankey said of the commissioners. “The reality is the timing of the House settlement, the new Congress and when we planned really months ago to be here, there was a nexus of issues. We know there’s conversations taking place. We’ve educated, I think, effectively members of the House and Senate, and we need to keep pushing and to do that with our universities is much healthier than simply doing that as commissioners and doing so in a coordinated way across the four conferences.”
On Monday, there was a federal court hearing in Oakland, California, regarding the highly publicized House settlement in which the NCAA has agreed to pay roughly $2.8 billion in damages to past and current athletes.
Wednesday’s meeting also came on the heels of March Madness and a week from the opening of the spring transfer portal window.
“Everyone knows there’s a sense of urgency,” Yormark said. “Time is not on our side, so we have to move quickly and swiftly.
“The settlement is one thing, but it needs to be codified on the Hill.”
