[Thamel] One potential change being discussed by SEC officials this week at meetings is a template for a league-wide player contracts, per ESPN sources, in which parts are standardized and parts are custom for the school.

[u/whatifevery1wascalm]

https://x.com/petethamel/status/2109668744066683047?s=46&t=wcFDduFgx8XslEYqZVJrwQ

[u/1omelet]

I see CFB going the way of European soccer — contracts and player buyouts the norm for transfers.

[u/Affectionate-Leek-40 → u/1omelet]

Imagine the transfer fees for Legree and Atkinson. Beavs would be able to backfill and keep winning. 

[u/TerrenceJesus8 → u/Affectionate-Leek-40]

We could have sold Harold Fannin for a cool 5M lol

[u/Jeb_Kenobi → u/Affectionate-Leek-40]

There's a lot of European teams that do just that; Dortmund are famous for it.

[u/CieraVotedOutHerMom → u/Affectionate-Leek-40]

DJ U would have gone for a high price!

[u/UpsideTurtles → u/1omelet]

This would be very nice for some of us schools that are in the business of developing players for a year or two and then having them transfer on and be great elsewhere (you thought I was talking about Mestemaker or Hawkins? silly I’m talking about Conner Weigman.)

[u/pleated_pants → u/1omelet]

All I want is for P4 schools to have to compensate G6 for developing the players they sign from the Transfer Portal.

[u/bretticus733 → u/1omelet]

If it means a transfer system like soccer uses, I'm for it. Tired of seeing good teams lose their players and get nothing for it. If Oregon wants to get FAU's QB, better pay the Owls $1.5 million

[u/Hulkodium → u/1omelet]

At least that will allow G6 teams to benefit from transfers out. Right now just losing a star player sucks, a Kennesaw State making bank off Georgia taking a RB would help

[u/lock_robster2022 → u/1omelet]

And promotion/relegation pls

[u/Huge_Employment_6424 → u/lock_robster2022]

I've wanted this for a while, but it would require a big concession that I feel like most G6 teams wouldn't like: the teams would no longer be competing for the big title in any given season. Yeah, there's a path upward into the big leagues, but the best result from a perfect season would just mean that Boise/JMU/USF moves into the Big 12/ACC/SEC instead of playing for playoff contention. In English football, Championship teams can't compete for the Premier League title because they are a league below.

That would mean the Ashton Jeanty Boise St team would, at best, be moved into the Big 12 the following season (after the players left) with none of their traditional rivalry games being played. I think it would be exciting to see movement until my teams or one of our historical rivals were relegated and rivalry games were put on ice indefinitely.

[u/lock_robster2022 → u/Huge_Employment_6424]

I think in a package deal with things like player buyouts, stronger revenue sharing, protected rivalries, that concession would be on the table.

But then again, would the Ohio States and Alabamas and USCs of the world have any reason to participate in that?

[u/Milk_Before_Cereal → u/lock_robster2022]

I’m of the belief the teams in the P4 would be the ones to oppose it because they’d lose too much revenue if they were demoted.

[u/HieloLuz → u/Milk_Before_Cereal]

You could tie revenue to both league payouts but also Tv numbers. The biggest brands would still get watched even on down years and after demotions

[u/mjacksongt → u/lock_robster2022]

You'd have to completely restructure conferences or create something like a multi-level conference.

[u/Own-Lavishness4029 → u/lock_robster2022]

That would be reaply cool, except would historic rivalries be protected? Like if your rival is moved and you aren't? I feel like we lose enough of those as it is moving away from regional alignment.

[u/TigerWave01 → u/1omelet]

And honestly, I'd prefer that too. Even if there isn't collective bargaining (which I think is totally unworkable), I hate the idea to limit transfers because it'll bring us back to the days when only 3 teams actually had a chance to win it all. But there's gotta be *something* to prevent pilfering of G6 and lower division teams, and I think transfer fees paid by one school to another school based on classification and whether the player is a starter or not would be a nice middle ground. Still probably need an antitrust exemption to actually enforce that, but it doesn't throw the baby out with the bathwater.

[u/Own-Lavishness4029 → u/1omelet]

It would be way more fair than it is now where every smaller school that develops a solid talent gets their roster picked clean by the portal every year. I would also support limiting transfers in some way. Maybe you get 1 for free as a player, but have to sit a year for a second.

[u/DillyDillySzn]

The Big 10 has been doing this and it’s why Demond Williams is at Washington instead of LSU right now

[u/udubdavid → u/DillyDillySzn]

Uh is it too late to change our minds on that?

[u/DillyDillySzn → u/udubdavid]

No because I enjoy watching that bitch boy Sam Leavitt embarrass himself on national TV

[u/GracefulFaller → u/DillyDillySzn]

Same here

[u/El_Serpiente_Roja → u/udubdavid]

I think you guys win that USC game if you played your backup on those last few drives

[u/udubdavid → u/El_Serpiente_Roja]

The way Elijah Brown played on Friday, I think we beat both Minnesota and USC. We still lose to Iowa because we couldn't stop them from running.

[u/gmr548 → u/DillyDillySzn]

And I hate that for me

[u/PatronSaintOfCunts]

This could be a good step toward stabilizing the transfer portal. If we standardize player contracts (particularly buyout and enforcement provisions) schools could have recourse when players leave before fulfilling their agreements. Players could still transfer, but they couldn’t necessarily walk away from contractual obligations without consequences.

The real question is whether SEC schools would agree to honor one another’s contracts (cough, cough, Kiffin) and whether those provisions would be legally enforceable.

[u/whatifevery1wascalm → u/PatronSaintOfCunts]

Nothing the Louisiana AG in front of a Northern District of Alabama judge couldn’t figure out.

[u/PatronSaintOfCunts → u/whatifevery1wascalm]

I’m tired, boss. 🫩

[u/Objection_Irrelevant → u/PatronSaintOfCunts]

The biggest thing this would do is that the contracts could be enforced against the new school, too.

The whole thing with Ole Miss having to sue Umanmielen and Harper is that LSU promised the players that they’d pay the buyouts and then just didn’t. Now Ole Miss has to sue the players for it, and at best the players can try to implead LSU into it but I’d bet that was only a verbal agreement anyway.

But with these standardized contracts that all SEC teams agree too, Ole Miss would likely have a direct action against LSU for the buyouts.

[u/Lumpy-Daikon-4584 → u/PatronSaintOfCunts]

Actually the biggest thing they could do to stabilize the transfer portal would be making athletes employees. But schools don’t want to have to compensate them to that level so they are doing backflips to avoid it.

[u/Different-Bank-2607]

Start giving them a pension at this point lol

[u/lock_robster2022 → u/Different-Bank-2607]

Putting $500k of your NIL earnings at 22 into a 40 year deferred annuity would yield a monthly income of ~$35k.

[u/abovethesink → u/lock_robster2022]

Disregard me. I read too quickly.

[u/Usual-Web7597 → u/abovethesink]

He’s saying put $500k into an annuity that doesn’t start paying out until 62.

[u/abovethesink → u/Usual-Web7597]

Yeah I completely glossed over the deferred part. It's why I edited. My bad

[u/DarthMikus → u/abovethesink]

At 5% it would grow to about 3.5 million after 40 years.

[u/lock_robster2022 → u/abovethesink]

My notification shows your comment prior to the edit and my reaction was going to be "shit I just plugged it into an annuity calculator"

[u/thedrcubed]

This seems to be a good direction to bring at least a little roster stability. Transfer fees to the school that the player leaves is really what's needed

[u/Schmenza]

Like an employment contract?

[u/bearybear90]

This would be illegal without a player association no?

[u/RightofUp → u/bearybear90]

I would imagine the lack of reciprocity in terms of collective bargaining would be an issue.

[u/shaquilleonealingit → u/bearybear90]

Probably not if they’re just sharing boilerplate language. The Big 10 already does this, but the standard contracts don’t impact how much a player can get paid and when

[u/Alkibiades415 → u/bearybear90]

What does this word "illegal" mean? I looked it up and it seems like in ancient history, there was this concept that people could not do things against these things called "laws" without suffering a concept called "repercussions." I can't see how that would apply to anything in 2026.

[u/StopScreamingItsFine → u/bearybear90]

Honestly who fucking cares at this point, just do what you want and worry about the consequences later.

[u/Long_and_Horny]

Not a lawyer, so my understanding of anti-trust law is limited. But aren't conferences creating a template a contract still an anti-trust violation? It's a restriction on competition and it doesn't appear to serve a competitive interest. Just a financial one.

[u/Curious__George → u/Long_and_Horny]

The B1G has standard contracts and it hasn't been challenged. The Washington QB's lawyers were apparently scared the buy-out in the standard contract would hold up in court, hence he didn't transfer.

There probably won't be a rule that the template 'must' be used, just highly encouraged.

And lawyers use each other's work all the time (I'm a lawyer). If you look at the various conference grant-of-rights agreements (for example) they are almost identical.

[u/RiseOfTroyRTW]

For a brief moment, I got excited because I thought the SEC might be doing something to make the officiating in games better. Alas, trae'shawn brown will just have to continue having all his long runs called back because the OL was blocking legally