Report: SEC leaders preparing ‘Plan B’ self-governance model if Protect College Sports Act fails

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The Congressional cadence around potential reform to the Protect College Sports Act continues to beat, but as lawmakers prepare to make some potentially significant adjustments that could appease dissenters, the SEC is apparently planning for “Plan B.” That would be a move toward self-autonomy.

Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger reported on the latest twists and turns in the legislative agenda on Friday, noting midway through his update that the SEC continues to watch and wait. Commissioner Greg Sankey provided updates to athletics directors and university presidents Thursday, “where officials continued discussion over ‘Plan B.'”

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What is “Plan B?” Dellenger explained.

“‘Plan B,’ as some have referred to it, is a self-governance model in which the conference would establish its own rules, enforce those rules and even compete against only itself,” Dellenger wrote. “League officials believe the strategy, as it applies to a smaller subset of programs, may avoid many legal challenges that crippled the NCAA’s amateurism rules.”

The talk will likely rekindle discussions that took place during the SEC’s spring meetings in Destin. Then, certain league administrators ignited the college athletics landscape with talks of breaking away.

Georgia president Jere Morehead and head football coach Kirby Smart drove headlines when they suggested the conference could potentially pull away from the rest of college football and form its own postseason playoff if there’s no universal accord on things like the postseason format. It was a controversial suggestion, to be sure.

Increasingly, though, the SEC exerting more independence seems to be garnering potential support as Congressional action crawls. Dellenger noted the time constraints Congress is working with ahead of an August recess and the November midterms.

“We’ve got a tight timeframe, but everybody’s got to give us some time and space to educate the rest of our colleagues and hopefully get that moment,” Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Washington) said.

Among proposed changes to the Protect College Sports Act is a revision that would permit non-power conference schools to join power conferences if invited. The current legislative proposal blocks such a move.

Whether that change will be enough to appease leagues like the Big Ten and SEC, which have been publicly in opposition to the bill as concurrently constructed, remains to be seen. ‘Plan B’ remains on the table.

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