Greg Sankey details questions about Protect College Sports Act: 'There's no law that's perfect'

As the Big 12 and ACC voiced support for a bipartisan bill in the Senate before its introduction, the SEC and Big Ten stressed the need to read the legislation before backing it. More than a week after the Protect College Sports Act came out, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said he still has questions, but acknowledged he expected changes to be necessary.

Sankey and Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti met Wednesday with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), one of the co-sponsors of the bill, to discuss the legislation. Sankey called it a productive conversation and credited Cruz for taking the time to meet about the two conference’s concerns with the bill, especially after this week’s hearing.

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But with any bill in the House of Representatives or Senate, Sankey said changes are likely to come after introduction. He cited a conversation with a member of President Donald Trump’s cabinet to further back that point.

“I think, rightly so, when a bill is introduced, it’s reasonable to expect changes,” Sankey said Friday on The Paul Finebaum Show. “There’s no law that’s perfect. In fact, I had a video conference with a member of the White House cabinet this week, and that was his observation. But I do think we have a responsibility to try to make things better.”

During the meeting with Cruz, Sankey and Petitti had specific discussions about Title I and Title II of the 111-page bill. Title I includes provisions about protections for athletes and fair competition while Title II is about sports broadcasting. The latter has been a point of conversation about the bill because of the option to pool media rights and what it says about the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961.

The SEC and Big Ten have come out against pooling media rights, and Sankey said during the SEC’s spring meetings the idea might not be as simple as people might think. But when it comes to the “voluntary” part of the provision, he wants to know how that would work.

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“When it’s in federal law, you’re required to follow the law,” Sankey said. “But there’s still significant gaps around litigation and lawsuits. That needs to be dealt with. We walked through issues like that, that are a little bit boring to talk about on a Friday afternoon on the SEC Network. … But those are the realities that we’ve tried to identify. There are about a dozen big buckets of those that will be refined for feedback.

“And then, when you move into what’s called Title II in the bill – which relates to government mandates around football scheduling – this 1961 Sports Broadcasting Act language that we’re told over and over is voluntary. But I need to really see that it’s voluntary to understand some components of how that would be treated under different scenarios. There’s a lot there.”

Greg Sankey stresses ‘very healthy’ dialogue

While Greg Sankey and the SEC have concerns about the Protect College Sports Act, he maintained the importance of constant communication with Sens. Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash). That’s why he credited Cruz for taking the time to discuss the issues on Thursday.

Even though the SEC reiterated Thursday night it does not support the bill in its current state, Sankey said a “very healthy” dialogue is key. From there, that could bring some solutions.

“I think the notion that we would simply rush to say, ‘We support,’ is not the appropriate position,” Sankey said. “I do think it’s appropriate to try to work through these issues.

“That’s where the acknowledgment of the work of both Sen. Cantwell and Sen. Cruz on the bill, and the willingness of Sen. Cruz and his staff to engage fully with us around some of these problems and some of the solutions we want to identify. I think that’s really important and very, very healthy.”