NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey says only Congress can truly set a national standard for name, image and likeness compensation in college athletics.
Sankey opened the league’s annual football media days by noting state legislatures haven’t been enforcing their own NIL laws. Some of those would bar the NCAA and conferences from adopting and enforcing their own rules. Sankey says congressional action is the only way for a national uniform standard allowing boundaries that do not become simply pay for play.
Sankey did ask states where gambling is legal for help protecting players and officials from abusive threats.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Brian Kelly and LSU face much higher expectations going into his second season as coach.
He can look in the mirror for raising those standards after winning the Southeastern Conference’s Western Division title in his debut year. The success of fellow LSU coaches in their second seasons didn’t help either. Not one little bit. Kelly said Monday all they think about are championships at LSU after what the Tigers did in baseball and women's basketball.
Kelly views the challenge as an opportunity. This is the SEC’s final season with divisions before Texas and Oklahoma join the league in 2024.
DALLAS — The name of the annual Texas-Oklahoma football matchup has been changed back to the Red River Rivalry, ditching the unpopular Red River Showdown used since 2014.
Allstate was announced Monday as the new title sponsor of the game played every year at the Cotton Bowl amid the Texas State Fair in Dallas. The game was long known as the Red River Shootout before being changed to the Red River Rivalry in 2005.
The rivalry dates to 1900 and this year’s meeting on Oct. 7 will be the 119th matchup between the Longhorns and Sooners.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — John Calipari’s son is joining a Southeastern Conference staff, just not at Kentucky.
Brad Calipari has been hired as Vanderbilt’s director of on-court player development. Commodores coach Jerry Stackhouse said Calipari is knowledgeable, high-energy, and a strong communicator. Brad Calipari spent last season as director of player development for Long Island University in Brooklyn. He is a former graduate assistant under his father, John Calipari, at Kentucky and earned his master’s certificate in sports kinesiology in 2022.
UNDATED — The NCAA has announced it is creating another women’s basketball tournament that it will operate like the men’s NIT as a second option for 32 teams that do not make the NCAA Tournament.
The Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament will debut in the upcoming season. It brings the men’s and women’s NCAA postseason opportunities to an equal number.
An NCAA-operated second option for women was one of the key focuses of an external gender equity report on the NCAA. Women’s teams that didn’t make the NCAA Tournament in the past had the opportunity to play in an independently operated WNIT. The WNIT says the tournament will continue with 48 teams.
INDIANAPOLIS — The NCAA is exploring ways to promote the growth of women’s college basketball, including possible expansion of the 68-team tournament that determines the sport’s national champion each season. While there are no imminent plans to increase the number of schools included in March Madness, the Division I women’s basketball committee does want to build on the success of the tournament, which is growing in popularity. Talks this week during the committee’s summer meeting in Savannah, Georgia, follow the announcement in January of the creation of a 32-team postseason invitation tournament for women’s basketball starting in 2024.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee’s football program must vacate all 11 of its wins from the 2019 and 2020 seasons under coach Jeremy Pruitt as part of penalties handed down by the NCAA for multiple violations.
A school spokesman confirmed the Vols’ eight wins in 2019 and three in 2020 will be vacated and will be reflected in the program’s record book. Pruitt’s final record is now 5-19 and the school's all-time record is 856-410-53. The vacated wins are part of the penalties from the NCAA from a report that outlined more than 200 violations during Pruitt’s three-year tenure in Knoxville.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2023/7/1194598/sec-notebook-sankey-says-only-congress-can-set-national-nil-standards