One Takeaway for Each SEC East Team After 2023 SEC Media Days
Missouri – State NIL law causes controversy
The state of Missouri is one of the states at the forefront of Name, Image, and Likeness controversy at the moment. The state recently voted in new state NIL legislature that has caused some debates and controversy. The legislature essentially allows Missouri High School seniors to begin earning NIL money while still in High School, as long as they have signed to play for an in-state school. There is hope from some in Missouri that this new law will make incentivize top Missouri HS talent to stay home.
The discussions and controversy surrounding the legislature seemingly continued during the opening day of media days on Monday, in which Missouri was there on the same day SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey gave his opening remarks.
In his opening remarks, Sankey potentially called out the new Missouri state law (although he never mentioned any state, school, or coach by name) by saying “The reality is our student-athletes deserve something better than a patchwork of state laws that support their name, image, and likeness activities, if support is the right word. Our student-athletes deserve something better than a race to the bottom at the state legislature level. As the efforts are made to create what are perceived as a competitive edge through state laws that are not overseen.”
Sankey went on to mention the importance of uniformity on the NIL front, and expressed frustration with the way some states were not enforcing NIL rules. While Sankey was careful never to mention any states in particular, many assumed that he was talking about Missouri as they read between the lines. It can be dangerous to make assumptions about whether Sankey was calling out a state that one of his institutions resides in, but if he was then this could be something to watch.
Missouri head coach Eliah Drinkwitz then had his own take on the NIL law during his speech on Monday. When asked about the new state legislature, Drinkwitz stated “I’m going to let the administration and the presidents and the ADs and the commissioner work together on that side of it. All I know is what I’m responsible for right now and what the state law is right now for the University of Missouri, and that’s what’s going to affect us currently, and that’s what I’m going to operate on. There’s a lot of things that we wish for, but we actually know what is right now in college athletics, and I’m going to embrace what is and what currently is the reality on the boots on the ground or cleats in the grass, so to speak.”
“Our state legislature, and I’d like to thank Governor Parsons, Lieutenant Governor Kehoe, Attorney General Bailey, Senator Rowden, Curtis Gregory, Dean Plocher, Speaker of the House, all those guys working really hard to try to do what they can that’s in the best interest of our student-athletes at the University of Missouri and providing them the opportunity to utilize their name, image, and likeness to the best of their benefit, and there you go.”
It will be very interesting to see how the NIL landscape evolves in the coming months and years, and the state of Missouri is very interesting on that front at the moment.
South Carolina – Building off the end of last season
Not many teams picked up bigger wins at the end of last season than South Carolina. The Gamecocks knocked Tennessee out of CFP contention with a blowout 63-38 win. South Carolina then followed that up with a comeback win over arch-rivals Clemson (won 31-30 after trailing 14-0). While the Gamecocks lost by a TD to Notre Dame in their bowl game, it’s easy to see why many South Carolina fans are excited coming off the end of last season. Another key piece of building of the momentum is that Spencer Rattler elected to return for another year as South Carolina’s quarterback, and South Carolina also returns the likes of Juice Wells.
When asked about building off of those two late season wins, South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer stated “Yeah, those were two monumental wins for us. There’s no question about it. I was telling somebody earlier, proud of the fact that coming off that win in Columbia against Tennessee, to not just go on the road the next week and win but to be down 14-0 on the road to Clemson and come back and win that game, that’s what I’m so proud of…But our guys battled back, so to me the mental toughness and fortitude our guys showed that day was awesome. It absolutely has springboarded us in a lot of ways.”
“The momentum that we took from the month of November into recruiting and into 2023 within our facility, but then outside the facility from a recruiting standpoint and just national narrative, without a doubt. But also we understand, we have got a lot of work to do, too. Yes, we had those two great wins but we are also — that’s the same team that didn’t score an offensive touchdown the week before against Florida as well. We have got to be more consistent, starting with me, but certainly there’s a lot that you can take from those two games that will help us going forward.”
On those two late wins, Defensive Lineman Tonka Hemingway said “I just feel like we was all loose. We ain’t played tense. We play more I don’t want to say wild, but we was loose. Like we played together and everything like that.”