Report: Pac-12, SEC Commissioners Appeal to Congress on NIL

Conference commissioners are seeking regulations on NIL deals.

PITTSBURGH -- Jordan Addison, star receiver for the defending ACC Champion Pittsburgh Panthers, is transferring. With reports surfacing that Addison had been tampered with and offered multi-million dollar NIL deals as part of his recruitment, college officials are springing to try and reign in the unregulated market for football and men's basketball players. 

Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff and his counterpart from the SEC, Greg Sankley are traveling to Washington D.C. to speak with Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), according to a report from Sports Illustrated published on Wednesday. There, they will ask for help from the federal government to regulate the market for college athletes. 

Pitt and the ACC joined a loosely organized "Alliance" with the Pac-12 and Big 10 last year, meaning that Kliavkoff is likely representing those other two conferences as well during his trip to the nation's capital.

Officially or otherwise, the two commissioners' visit to Washington addresses the concerns of FBS athletic directors, 90% of whom are concerned that NIL will be used for improper recruiting, according to a survey conducted by LEAD1, a group that represents the interests of FBS athletic directors. The results were published by The Athletic on Wednesday. 

A fight over the status of college athletes as employees looms, but for now, the most pressing matter is the current state of NIL. Conference officials say that in the 10 months since NIL has been legalized, wealthy donors have funneled money through businesses that are offering enormous sums of money to athletes under the guise of endorsement deals and appearance fees. 

The goal is to find ways of keeping boosters out of recruiting and making sure that NIL deals do not morph into de facto "pay-for-play" schemes, in which schools can recruit players with the promise of six or seven-figure endorsement deals. 

The NCAA has not done much to alleviate any of the fears that college athletics officials had about how NIL could change the sport. They opted not to impose strict rules and instead only released vague guidelines that are easily circumvented. 

Congress debated regulating college athletics a year ago, when state laws first opened the door for athletes to exercise their NIL rights. But debate stalled when Republicans and Democrats became hung up on the scope of the proposed bill. Republicans sought a more narrow piece of legislation dealing exclusively with NIL while Democrats argued for something that encompassed other issues like health care and revenue sharing too. 

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