I really do believe the man is trying to destroy the conference, along with any chance in hell a team from the SEC will ever sniff a National Title again.
SEC presidents voted Monday to adopt uniform NIL and revenue-share contracts across the league, effective immediately, sources told CBS Sports.
The SEC joins the Big Ten as the second power conference to adopt standardized athlete contracts. Schools can share up to $21.6 million in revenue directly with athletes this academic year, the second year of the 10-year window under the House v. NCAA settlement. Players received nearly $1.8 billion in direct revenue-share payments during the 2025-26 school year, according to the College Sports Commission.
The SEC’s new NIL contract includes customizable sections, sources said, but CBS Sports was not given specifics.
The Big Ten drafted a standardized memorandum of understanding for its schools before the House v. NCAA settlement took effect in July 2025. The template allowed schools to tweak and customize the deals.
Public records requests in January 2026 revealed notable differences among member institutions in the Big Ten’s standardized agreements. For example, Washington added a liquidated damages clause for a player entering the transfer portal, making him or the new school liable for the remainder of the contract’s value, according to documents obtained by Kristi Dosh of Extra Points.
Multiple Power Four programs face College Sports Commission investigations over alleged NIL cap evasion
The documents also include provisions granting termination rights in the event of a head coaching change, medical disqualification or a violation of a morals clause.
Schools can claw back a prorated share of money already paid in Big Ten contracts, according to a January 2025 Sportico report. The Big Ten also added a clause titled “No Employment,” which requires the player to acknowledge he is not an employee and waive any claim that he is.
When athletes sign an NIL agreement with a school, they grant the school rights to their name, image and likeness for use by the school, which are typically also sublicensed to the conference, the NCAA, TV partners and sponsors.
The SEC circulated a suggested NIL contract template to its schools in 2025, according to ESPN, which obtained a copy at the time. That version barred athletes and their representatives from trying to “initiate, solicit, entertain, negotiate, accept or discuss” offers from other schools while under contract and required them to notify their school of any outside interest — otherwise known as tampering.
Now granted, it says – very clearly – that the B1G has already done this, and they set the precedent for this. However, if you’re trying to tell me that every B1G member institution is abiding by it – which the article clearly states they aren’t – then I might need you to sit down for this one.
What’s worrisome is that Sankey strikes me as the kind of guy who will actually enforce it and regulate it, while the B1G continues to allow its teams to run amok and win national championships while SEC programs are told to behave and wave bye-bye to players choosing to sign contracts with other conferences.
While we’ve seen the short-term effects play out on the field – lack of roster stacking, depth (I guess that’s why Alabama only had one receiver Saturday, right?), and maintaining consistency of the roster for multiple years – Kirby seems to have found a way to stabilize this in recent years, but this could add yet another wrinkle to the system. To make it worse, it adds another level of stress for coaching staffs and schools to figure out how to make it work.
What’s more concerning, in what’s becoming the NASCAR era of college football NIL deals with logos all over the place and college players inking deals with companies (look at any of a number of cringe-worthy ads featuring Arch Manning), will only further encourage more third-party deals and backroom shenanigans than ever before.
What’s worse, it might make some folks, like Kirby, decide to hang it up in frustration. Just when it seems like he’s got it down, they go and make another change.
Or, maybe, this is where teams decide to branch off from conferences and form their own league.
It could happen. Hell, Indiana won a national championship in football.
College football is no longer the sport I loved, and it hasn’t been for a couple of years now. I almost chose not to follow the team this season out of sheer frustration with everything going on. It’s definitive for me that once Kirby hangs it up, so will I.
I’m ok with Sankey enforcing a salary cap across the SEC. With a level playing field Kirby will dominate. As the Lying Legends of the B10 they’ve always been cheating they will turn on themselves given a little time.
I think Kirby will like this. I am sure anOSU, TT, and Da U will like that the SEC is doing it too though.
I highly recommend ignoring anything in college football other than what happens on the field. It makes the experience much more enjoyable. Pretend it’s 1980 and you do not have access to the Atlanta Journal.
Good plan: Lewis Grizzard is still around, Furman Bisher is drunk, Tony Barnhart is obvious…and who the fuck let Mark Bradley in here???
You’re paid like employees. You have responsibilities like employees. You receive benefits like employees. You have no control over management like employees. But you’re not employees. Got it.
And you have no say in negotiating your salary cap. Got it.
Lawyers are lining up. Which school will have the first group of athletes to go on strike and sue to void these agreements?
Isn’t this a stop gap until the PCSA gets passed and signed into law?
I’m not sure what Sankey is supposed to do. He’s the commissioner and works at the pleasure of the CEOs of the conference’s member institutions.
Clearly, one of the goals of this is to discourage tampering between member institutions. Another is to try to find common ground where all members agree to a set of rules.
“Another is to try to find common ground where all members agree to a set of rules.” yes and that will happen when Hell freezes over.
CMR has lost control of the SEC administrative assholes.
Standardized contracts are a good thing, and will provide some stability on a player-to-player basis. This has nothing to do with players getting their own deals or schools going outside the box, or a cap. It’s just one step. It’s a start.
Arch isn’t what makes the ads cringy, it’s his dad being in them.
I’ve seen this movie before. Georgia abides by the rules, we make a minor administrative misstep in filing paperwork and get punished as an example to others. Meanwhile Auburn, bama, gators OU, Vols and horns cheat like it’s 1999…or 89…or 79. And the B1G will “allow exceptions” to cheat while claiming they are holier than thou and denigrating us for cheating. Herbstreit will wonder aloud about Kirby’s lack of control.
The SEC league office is like a Frat pledge, every time the game get changed they just bend over and say “Thank you sir may I have another’)
How do we get Greg Sankey gone?