Greg Sankey (SEC Photo)
In a year of uncertainties one thing has become very clear. If SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey ever decides to run for a national public office he would fit in perfectly. He has become adept at saying many words without really clearly saying anything. And instead of saying in great Harry S. Truman fashion, “The buck stops here”, Sankey said basically the buck stops everywhere but here.
In discussing the possibility of a waiver to play immediately for several athletes that have transferred intra-conference this year – in basketball and football – Sankey said, “I also said this morning it is interesting that we rely upon waiver requests rather than changing rules, and we made two adjustments that I referenced in 2018, one related to grad transfers because we saw the culture change and had to deal with waivers, which we could do so at that point. Now it’s simply an exception to the rule. And then those who have postseason bans, a student-athlete choosing to leave would have the freedom to do so within the conference.
There are a set of NCAA bylaws referenced in there that get into the level of gibberish that I won’t bore you with, so I observed this morning and would observe again, rule changes are always available to our membership, and we as a staff support that process. We’ve identified issues. We’re going to see a change. We expect the NCAA rules come January around transfers, and all of that creates to an environment along with your questions about kind of what’s happened with COVID and eligibility that didn’t result yet in a change to that particular bylaw.”
Now, it’s almost impossible to decode what he is trying to say in this statement. What he appears to say is that although the NCAA has become more flexible in their approach to player transfers, especially in this year of Covid19 and social unrest, we at the SEC have no intention of being more flexible in our approach to the more strict SEC transfer rule even though we know starting in January the NCAA will allow one time only transfers with no penalty and we will be forced to make a change to our rule.
That is my best translation of Sankey-ese and from that translation it appears that he is out of step with the rest of society and maybe even some of the schools and coaches he claims to represent.
Last year when discussing the new NCAA transfer portal in true Sankey-ese he said, “”I think the ability to remove control of the conversation, destination, in receipt of financial aid, which used to be part of the rules, I think that’s healthy,” Sankey said. “But that’s only part of the transfer piece. I think we’re going to have to wait a little bit to see, meanwhile reviewing the contention where coaches say, ‘I don’t think this works, I’m not sure this is healthy.’ I don’t think we know enough right now to make those determinations.”
I’m not sure he really said anything here except that maybe he thinks removing the ability for schools to control where and how a player can transfer is a good thing but then he goes into some gibberish about coaches not being for the new transfer portal or even player’s ability to transfer in general.
And yet here’s what a high profile coach in the SEC had to say about Sankey’s take on the process. Ole Miss Head Coach Lane Kiffin said, “As we’ve seen in a lot of things, times have changed. People’s views around the country in a lot of areas are different now. So, I would think maybe that’s to be reconsidered nowadays.” I would think the same thing. If everyone around you is realizing that times have changed and that sometimes a waiver process exists so that the SEC Commissioner can use his judgement to create change. Sankey should be leading the pack through this process and not following along waiting for something to happen. I have always been one that believed a leader should lead, or allow someone else to if that person doesn’t have the appropriate leadership ability.
In more true political fashion of passing the buck and avoiding taking a leadership position Sankey said on Thursday, “People send in waivers, but one of the questions that should be asked is not what is the commissioner going to do; it’s why haven’t our members voted to change that rule?”
Sankey then went on to say, “So, we’re inviting people to campus knowing there’s a clear rule, and now everyone points and says, ‘Well, you need to let people out of that rule.’ And one of the questions that’s real is, why has our membership not acted to change? And the answer is because we have to work together. We have to be respectful. Could it change? Should it change? Might we manage it differently? Those are questions still to be answered. The real direct answer is, decades ago, and repeatedly since, the now 14 member universities of the SEC have said we that think that rule is appropriate within our own conference.”
Sankey seems to believe that a rule set up “decades ago” is still a reasonable requirement for today’s situation. He seems to believe that the waiver process wasn’t created to allow him to make judgement calls on situations that are occurring today under totally different circumstances that didn’t exist decades ago.
So instead players, coaches and fans are left to wait while receiving no guidance from the SEC office about a timetable for providing a “yes or no” decision on players futures. Sankey said, referring to any type of timetable for letting player’s know what the future holds, “We work to move through matters efficiently, but there’s always been variance.” So in other words, don’t hold your breathe waiting on a decision from the SEC office.
And for those that think all this jockeying by Sankey is being driven behind the scenes by coaches in the SEC who don’t want to lose players to other programs in the SEC, here’s what Tennessee Head Coach Jeremy Pruitt had to say about the current state of affairs, “As coaches, we have the opportunity at any point in time to choose if we want to go take another job. Everybody has that opportunity. There’s no penalty for coaches. Why should there be one for student-athletes?”
And that folks, is exactly the point. This delaying tactic currently being used in the SEC appears to be “the tail wagging the dog.” Athletes once again are left out in the cold while the SEC continues to make millions from sports like football and basketball. Or maybe the real issue in this case of Commissioner Greg Sankey not leading this process of change is another Harry Truman quote that might seem more appropriate, “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.”
— Keith Peel, Contributing Writer
