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Missouri football coach Eli Drinkwitz didn’t mince words at this week’s SEC Spring Meetings in Miramar Beach, Florida. When asked whether any governing body – the NCAA, College Sports Commission, or the SEC itself – could create rules that coaches and programs would actually follow, his answer was blunt.
“No. Not unless someone can enforce them and there’s not a local judge who’ll overturn it.”
It’s the kind of candid admission you don’t often hear from coaches at this level, and it cuts straight to the heart of what’s been frustrating fans and administrators alike for years.
I asked Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz if anyone — NCAA, CSC, SEC — could create rules that people would follow.
His answer was succinct: “No. Not unless someone can enforce them and there’s not a local judge who’ll overturn it.”
— 💫🅰️♈️🆔 (@ADavidHaleJoint) May 26, 2026
ESPN‘s David Hale posed the question to Drinkwitz during the annual meetings, which kicked off Tuesday. The response was short – but it said everything.
The logic here isn’t complicated. If one program breaks the rules, gains a competitive edge, and faces no real consequences, every other program faces a choice: follow suit or fall behind. That’s not a gray area; it’s just survival.
NCAA Enforcement Has Little Real Power
The NCAA’s ability to actually penalize programs has been steadily eroded over the years, and state courts have made things worse. Friendly local judges have stepped in repeatedly to block or overturn NCAA sanctions, leaving the organization with few tools that carry any real weight. Drinkwitz knows it. His colleagues know it. And now he’s said it out loud, in public, at one of college football’s most visible offseason events.
That’s the part worth paying attention to.
College sports have felt increasingly chaotic since the arrival of NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) deals and the transfer portal – two seismic shifts that reshaped recruiting and roster-building almost overnight. What was once handled through backroom handshakes is now, in many cases, happening openly. The rules haven’t kept pace, and enforcement certainly hasn’t.
Nobody at the SEC Spring Meetings – or anywhere else, for that matter – seems to have a workable solution. Until someone does, the current environment isn’t going anywhere.
