Report: Alabama AD Greg Byrne suggests conferences ban schools that break compensation rules
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Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne is clearly fed up with the current state of college athletics. But amid unrequited calls on Congress to save the NCAA, SEC administrators like Byrne are entertaining other ways for the Power Four conference to police themselves when it comes to player compensation rules.
And, at least according to Byrne, that could include the SEC and other Power leagues potentially barring schools that are found to blatantly flout player compensation rules established by last summer’s House v. NCAA settlement from future competition in said league.
“We’re going to see, I think, a potential crossroads, on whether schools should be allowed to participate in conferences if they are choosing to not follow the rules,” Byrne told AL.com on Thursday.
The House settlement paved the way for Division I schools to directly compensate athletes through revenue-sharing, and provided a cap of $20.5 million for the first two years of its installation. But several prominent programs have vastly exceeded that cap, and quite boldly, by utilizing other revenue streams through their school’s NIL collectives, and there have been several legal challenges to the College Sports Commission’s NIL Go clearinghouse process that is meant to regulate those NIL deals.
Alabama AD Greg Byrne: ‘There should be consequences’ for schools that break rules
But, if individual schools or athletic programs are found to be purposely defying CSC regulations or House rules in order to gain a competitive advantage due to a significantly larger payment pool, Byrne believes “there should be consequences for those actions.”
“Schools who are just choosing to not report, or if they end up choosing to not follow the guidelines of the House settlement, that is going to be very interesting to watch and see where we go with that,” Byrne told AL.com. “Because if those aren’t followed, then the unregulated, challenging market that everybody has been dealing with will continue, and the agents will do their very best to push it further.”
While Congress remains at a standstill on potential legislation, the NCAA has made an effort to hold teams accountable for breaking transfer rules. The NCAA DI Cabinet passed emergency legislation Wednesday that levies strict penalties against coaches and schools that acquire “blind-transfers,” or athletes that leave from one school to another outside of their sport’s designated transfer portal window. Among the potential penalties include a six-game suspension for the guilty school’s head coach and a 20% fine of a team’s sports budget that year.
Alabama AD Greg Byrne calls for an end to SEC Championship Game: ‘The ship has sailed’
Byrne wasn’t done making sweeping declarations Thursday. The Alabama AD also called for the end of the SEC Championship game ahead of the league’s move to a nine-game conference schedule beginning this upcoming season.
“I think the ship has sailed,” Byrne told USA TODAY in an exclusive interview published Thursday. “It’s run its course.”
With the advent of the ever-expanding College Football Playoff, which is entering its third year with 12 teams but could expand further in the near future, the reality of playing conference championship games has become much trickier. Teams are trying to prepare for the postseason and there’s often little tangible benefit to playing an extra title game for teams that have already reasonably secured a playoff berth.
“It’s a great event,” Byrne said of the SEC championship game. “I don’t like the idea of it going away, but I think it’s reality, with an expanded playoff.”
— On3’s Thomas Goldkamp contributed to this report.
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