SEC, Big Ten uniting to tackle pervasive issues in college athletics — ‘Pressures are mounting’

College football’s kings are aligning in an effort to pave the sport’s future path.

Amid one of the most pivotal times in college athletics, the SEC and Big Ten, the two wealthiest conferences in America, are creating a joint advisory group of university presidents, chancellors and athletics directors to address the turmoil enveloping the industry, the league’s two commissioners told Yahoo Sports in an exclusive interview this week.

This nameless joint effort, a historic cooperative movement between the country’s most powerful leagues, is an initial step in their intent to steer the future of college athletics — the latest example of authority shifting from the NCAA’s age-old national governance model to its more prominent conferences.

The joint advisory board is tasked with tackling the most pressing challenges before the industry in what Big Ten and SEC commissioners describe as an “urgent” mission to find solutions for issues such as ongoing antitrust lawsuits, most notably the multi-billion dollar House case; disagreements over the NCAA’s new governance proposal, Project DI; and the unsettled landscape of athlete transfer movement, tampering charges and name, image and likeness (NIL) inducements.

Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti calls the joint move a “meaningful step” in an effort to “fix things.” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey described it as a search for “a common-sense solution” that, he hopes, will lead to a “much brighter horizon.”

The commissioners both strongly rebuke any notion that the creation of this advisory board is a move toward a breakaway from the college sports’ governing body. The Big Ten and SEC remain prominent members of the NCAA, both in governance and national competition, they say. The joint board does not hold unilateral authority and they will have “no…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/sec-big-ten-uniting-to-tackle-pervasive-issues-in-college-athletics–pressures-are-mounting-172832810.html

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Publish date : 2024-02-02 17:28:09

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