SEC president issues ultimatum to Congress if they won't "act as they should"

While the popular national narrative right now seems to be centered on playoff expansion from 12 teams to at least 16, and as many as 24 teams, college presidents and athletic directors continue to pound the table for legislation and some guardrails to help govern the train that continues to veer off course.

Despite a whole lot of hype, the House settlement has failed to provide the stability and clarity that so many leaders in college athletics believed it would, and the newly founded enforcement agency for third-party NIL deals has only added to the frustration as millions of dollars that were promised by schools to student athletes are trapped in limbo with no answer in sight.

Earlier this month, Georgia president Jere Morehead - who has been part of the college sports roundtables with President Donald Trump - didn't mince words when asked about the House settlement, telling Yahoo Sports, "The House settlement has been nothing short of a disaster."

"All the assurances from conference lawyers about this settlement solving any of our key issues have not materialized because of the loopholes around so-called third-party NIL deals," he added

While the Big Ten will be looking to capture their fourth national title in as many seasons, following titles by Michigan, Ohio State and Indiana, the SEC has watched their reign atop college football crumble as the cost of rosters continues to climb with plenty more questions than answers in sight on the path forward.

Today, after an athletic board meeting, Morehead shared more of his frustrations and this time they included an ultimatum of sorts. 

"If we don't get federal legislation in my opinion, we're going to have do this conference by conference because we can't allow the wild west to continue any longer."

Then came the ultimatum, with Morehead prepared to take action at SEC meetings next week in Destin, FL.

"I'm prepared next week in Destin to be ready to vote on creating an SEC mechanism, SEC rules that we have to do if Congress isn't going to act as they should.  We just cannot continue down this current path. We have waited months after months for congress to act and it hasn't occurred yet."

SEC meetings, and all league meetings for that matter, are always interesting, but those comments from Morehead are going to have people keeping an eye on those meetings in Destin even more so now. Is it just hot air and politicking at its finest, or is there something more to those comments?

Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.