Sankey 'concerned' women's sports could lose funding if male athletes get NIL money

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SEC commissioner Greg Sankey was one of five witnesses testifying in front of the U.S. Senate committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. The NCAA is pushing for Congress to write federal legislation governing how athletes can get sponsorships and endorsement income.

In his prepared statement to the committee, Sankey reiterated that the Power Five conferences don’t want incoming freshmen to be able to receive endorsement or sponsor money until their second semesters.

Sankey also noted that he wondered if the money that star male athletes at schools could earn from third parties would then, somehow, have an effect on female athletes.

“I am concerned that the amount of NIL activity around football and men’s basketball will pull away funding from women’s sports,” Sankey told Sen. Shelley Moore Capito.

Sankey’s concerns likely stem from a fear among colleges that businesses will stop advertising with and donating to athletic departments and instead give that money directly to players, though it’s absolutely not clear at all if that would actually happen. The phrase “unintended consequences” was uttered a lot throughout the nearly three-hour hearing.

Eric Winston, the former head of the NFL Players Association and a former player at Miami, testified “There’s a perceived, seems like fallacy going on right now that there isn’t already massive inequity in the college athletic system,” Winston said. “Take a look at the facilities at Ohio State compared to Ohio University. At Ole Miss, compared to Southern Miss. There’s massive disparities already.”

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