The SEC put NIL pay in writing and still left the transfer portal wide open

The Beat | Opinion

College football finally has a paycheck. It still does not have a calendar, and this month showed both halves of that at once.

Earlier this month SEC presidents approved a uniform NIL and revenue-sharing contract for all 16 schools, with sections each school can customize, according to Yahoo Sports' Ross Dellenger. The Big Ten already has one. The same presidents tabled a vote on bringing back the rule that would make a player who moves from one SEC school to another sit out a season.

I have watched this sport long enough to remember when the only people not getting paid on a Saturday were the ones in pads. A standard contract is the most grown-up thing a conference has done in years. Players know what they are signing. Schools know what they owe. That is how a job is supposed to work, and I am glad the players have one.

Then Monday happened. Auburn linebacker Xavier Atkins announced he is no longer with the program and will enter the transfer portal when it opens, the Associated Press reported, and the Tigers took him off their online roster. He said he will keep supporting his teammates and finish the semester. I believe him, and I do not blame him. The rules let a kid leave in October and pick a new school in January, and he followed them.

I am torn on the next part. If he is an employee now, he should have the same thing every other employee has: a term. Contracts that end with the season, a window that opens after the bowl games, and a buyout both sides understand. Instead the money got organized and the movement did not.

Enforcement is the other gap. CBS Sports reported on Oct. 8 that the College Sports Commission is investigating between five and 10 Power Four programs over possible cap evasion through third-party deals, and that none of those long-term investigations has finished. A cap nobody can enforce is a suggestion.

So pay them. Put it in writing, which the SEC just did. Then give the job a season that ends when the season ends. Tabling the transfer vote was the easy call. It was not the right one.

My call: the uniform contract is a win for players, and the SEC should finish the job before the portal opens in January.

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