'This is a start-up': Meet the man in charge of policing the new world of college sports

Last Monday morning, Bryan Seeley began his archetypal authoritative time arsenic Employee No. 1 astatine the College Sports Commission by doing immoderate online shopping.

The revenue stock era of assemblage sports has arrived. Paychecks from schools volition commencement to onshore successful players' slope accounts this week. The endorsement deals that the CSC volition request to vet are already pouring in. As helium attempts to tally an enactment liable for bringing bid to a chaotic industry, Seeley has a agelong to-do list: prosecute a staff, found investigative processes, find just punishment standards and physique relationships crossed hundreds of schools and dozens of sports.

Seeley finished the erstwhile week by returning his bureau instrumentality to Major League Baseball aft a decennary of rebuilding and overseeing their league investigations department, which handled high-profile issues specified arsenic gambling, intersexual misconduct and sign-stealing scandals connected his watch. At his caller occupation he's backmost to quadrate one, which means his apical precedence past Monday was scrolling done Wirecutter, a merchandise proposal website, for proposal connected buying a caller laptop.

"This is simply a start-up," Seeley told ESPN during an interrogation astatine the extremity of his archetypal day. "It's not similar I'm walking into nothing, but successful galore ways this is simply a existent start-up."

The erstwhile national authoritative with degrees from Princeton and Harvard estimated it would instrumentality 2 to 3 years to enactment done the kinks of this caller strategy earlier anyone could reasonably justice if the CSC was successfully fulfilling its mission. Despite the unit to enactment down rails to steer a bid that is already moving astatine afloat steam, Seeley is approaching the occupation with patience.

His occupation statement is elemental but acold from easy. Seeley and the CSC indispensable enforce a caller acceptable of rules that dictate however players tin beryllium paid. The rules are present backed by a negotiated people enactment settlement, which successful mentation should assistance Seeley debar immoderate of the ineligible pitfalls that made beingness hard for his predecessors astatine the NCAA. But helium and his caller bosses admit their high-stakes start-up works lone if Seeley tin gain and support the practice of the coaches, administrators and players helium has been asked to police.

To gain the spot of the mostly skeptical radical of schools helium has inherited, Seeley says helium volition request to rapidly make a justness strategy that is transparent and casual to understand. He plans to commencement by listening to their concerns alternatively than by flexing the important powerfulness of his caller post. "If anybody thinks he's going to travel successful guns blazing, that's conscionable not his style," said Jean Afterman, a New York Yankees enforcement who credits Seeley with restoring "integrity" to MLB's probe team. "He's going to perceive to everybody."

And that, much than his awesome résumé, is wherefore the leaders of assemblage sports accidental they judge a soft-spoken outsider who doesn't similar the limelight tin beryllium the sheriff they request to hole their breached industry.

"I don't deliberation what's been going connected the past fewer years successful assemblage sports has been bully for assemblage sports, has been bully for pupil athletes, has been bully for schools, and I deliberation the House colony is simply a conveyance to get to a amended place," Seeley said. "And I presumption that arsenic portion of my ngo to assistance get america to that amended place."

In a backstage country astatine the Grand Hyatt San Antonio Riverwalk successful April, Seeley took his spot for a 7 a.m. Saturday interrogation astatine a rectangular array crossed from ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark and SEC commissioner Greg Sankey.

The 3 powerfulness brokers were successful Texas to ticker their leagues' apical hoops teams vie that evening successful the NCAA men's Final Four, but archetypal they wanted to size up the campaigner who mightiness soon articulation them among the astir influential leaders successful their business. Seeley, who says helium is awake astir mornings by 5:30, was unfazed by the aboriginal interview. He joked helium had lone 1 coffee. "From the infinitesimal that helium walked into the room, helium gained instant control," Phillips said. "It's precise hard to do, with our radical successful particular."

In his erstwhile beingness arsenic a national prosecutor, Seeley shared tables with murderers, corrupt authorities officials and CEOs. He faced disconnected with immoderate of the biggest stars successful nonrecreational sports during his clip astatine MLB. He learned to power those rooms with a communal consciousness demeanor and meticulous preparation.

"This is not the occupation for a thin-skinned person," Seeley said. "Let maine accidental that. I've had jobs passim my vocation that required a batch of heavy skin." Before that morning, Seeley had already made a chiseled content successful one-on-one Zoom interviews with each 4 powerfulness league commissioners. Sankey says helium was struck by the elaborate questions Seeley had astir the House Settlement agreement, the ineligible papers that volition signifier the instauration of the CSC's authority. "A fewer of them were truthful circumstantial -- paragraph such-and-such and enactment whatever: 'What's your presumption of this?'" Sankey said. "He was the lone idiosyncratic who had that benignant of wide preparation."

Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti, the lone powerfulness league person absent from the interrogation successful San Antonio, said helium knew what to expect from Seeley. They had worked unneurotic during Pettiti's astir six years arsenic MLB's main operating serviceman from 2015 to 2020. Pettiti had a front-row spot arsenic Seeley rebuilt baseball's probe process and installed a unit to instrumentality it. He saw galore parallels to the relation arsenic CSC's archetypal CEO.

"When I recovered retired helium was funny successful the position, I knew helium brought a precise uncommon operation of skills," Petitti said. "It seemed similar the cleanable fit. I cognize the enactment ethic and however helium deals with people. I've seen him bash it." The commissioners each admit that Seeley volition request help. They've made emphatic nationalist promises that coaches and schoolhouse officials are anxious to abide by caller regulations.

Those promises, of course, are casual to marque close up until the infinitesimal your schoolhouse is connected the incorrect extremity of an investigation. Though schools are expected to soon motion relation documents that could forestall them from challenging CSC rulings done the tribunal system, Seeley is inactive stepping into an manufacture that has a century-old past of clamoring for stronger rules, but warring backmost whenever the NCAA attempted to enforce them. "We're going into this caller property of assemblage athletics, and we request to alteration behavior," Yormark said. "We request to alteration mindset and approach. Bryan faces a immense relation successful doing that." Seeley said immoderate civilization changes successful assemblage sports volition instrumentality clip and a way grounds that shows determination are existent consequences for breaking the rules successful the CSC's epoch of enforcement.

"This is historical, transformational change," Sankey said. "It doesn't mean everyone is acceptable oregon it's easy. The mediate of alteration is ever messy. He's stepping into that with each of america and it's not conscionable his responsibility.

"He's not bearing this load alone. This load of making a caller strategy work, it's connected commissioners, presidents and chancellors and connected diversion directors and coaches."

Seeley has built his vocation by convincing radical to speech to him.

As lawman wide counsel for the MLBPA players' union, Jeff Perconte was a predominant adversary during Seeley's clip moving successful baseball. When Perconte was preparing players for an interrogation portion they were nether investigation, helium would archer them Seeley wasn't going to shriek astatine them, bully them oregon effort to prevarication to them. He ne'er utilized his almighty presumption to go a crusader.

"It would've been casual for him to spell into cases with a black-and-white view: 'This is simply a atrocious guy. We're going to hammer him.'" Perconte said. "Bryan was consistently capable to spot the gray, which I deliberation is 1 of the biggest compliments I tin springiness to a lawyer who is successful that benignant of a presumption of power."

Perconte says Seeley built spot by skipping the table-pounding theatrics and posturing that tin often situation labour disputes. Afterman, the Yankees' adjunct wide manager, said Seeley was ever much funny successful knowing a occupation than rushing to its solution.

He developed his accomplishment for meticulous mentation portion prosecuting white-collar transgression arsenic an Assistant U.S. Attorney successful Washington, D.C., according to Michael Atkinson, who worked with Seeley connected respective cases including a crowning accomplishment known arsenic "Operation Five Aces."

Together, they unwound a analyzable web of ammunition companies to uncover much than $30 cardinal successful bribes that U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials accepted from contractors successful what the U.S. Justice Department referred to arsenic "the largest home bribery and bid-rigging strategy successful the past of national contracting cases." Seeley helped person a cardinal witnesser to deterioration a ligament during the probe and yet obtained blameworthy pleas that landed respective CEOs successful prison.

Atkinson said helium and Seeley often invited the attorneys for their targets into the bureau for a treatment earlier pressing charges successful a bully religion effort to marque definite they understood some sides of the story. That transparency, helium said, went a agelong mode successful getting high-powered, first-time offenders to cooperate.

Seeley archetypal chopped his teeth arsenic a authoritative successful Washington D.C.'s Superior Court, wherever helium was assigned to screen 1 of the city's astir convulsive and chaotic districts, according to erstwhile workfellow Chris Kavanaugh. The Ivy Leaguer should person been retired of his element, but Kavanaugh says Seeley was capable to stitchery accusation and person witnesses to attest successful his cases by spending clip successful the vicinity and getting to cognize the radical who lived there.

"It takes a peculiar idiosyncratic to beryllium capable to link with everybody from the idiosyncratic connected the thoroughfare astatine 3 a.m. each the mode to the commissioner of a nonrecreational sports league," Kavanuagh said. "That doesn't travel rapidly oregon easily. But what allows him to bash that? He leads with empathy."

Seeley said helium views empathy arsenic an important instrumentality successful his caller role, and agreed that his aboriginal days successful D.C. made that accomplishment a cornerstone of however helium approaches his work.

"I'm not a raconteur oregon a salesperson. I can't gaffe into that skin," helium said. "But I deliberation I tin pass authentically and honestly with people."

Seeley's occupation volition besides necessitate him to navigate immoderate important grey areas wrong the caller limits connected subordinate payments.

The CSC present oversees the 2 main channels schools tin present usage to steer wealth to their athletes: nonstop gross stock payments with a clear, hard headdress starting astatine $20.5 million, and further name, representation and likeness (NIL) deals with nary existent bounds and an untested acceptable of guidelines that are expected to halt endorsements from becoming a thinly-veiled mode for a squad to pad its payroll.

While those further deals volition request to beryllium funded by 3rd parties, galore of the richest schools person already established interior selling agencies that are designed to facilitate opportunities for their players. Finding originative ways to nonstop "above-the-cap" third-party payments to players is the caller frontier of the recruiting arms race.

The instauration of the CSC alleviates a elephantine headache for the NCAA, which has been heavy criticized for its enforcement impotence for generations. NCAA president Charlie Baker told ESPN that "there volition beryllium enactment up to specify each organization's relation erstwhile it comes to enforcement," and the NCAA plans to absorption connected each members, careless if they opt into the settlement, including connected issues specified arsenic eligibility, sports betting and recruiting calendars.

Seeley said helium has had regular telephone calls successful the past fewer weeks with the squad astatine Deloitte that has been hired to measure those third-party NIL deals to marque definite they are for a "valid concern purpose" done a programme called NIL Go. He plans to marque his archetypal 2 caller hires successful the coming weeks but says the eventual size of CSC's unit volition beryllium connected however galore deals are flowing done the NIL Go strategy and however galore allegations of wrongdoing his bureau receives.

He said his squad volition request to accommodate arsenic the caller iterations of cat-and-mouse spending games go much clear, but helium added they won't beryllium attempting to reinterpret oregon agelong beyond the circumstantial rules agreed to successful the House settlement.

"We're going to look astatine the tone of things successful presumption of interpreting what the rules are, but yet the colony connection is the starting spot for each those interpretations," Seeley said. "And it's often the ending place."

If the CSC is incapable to halt third-party NIL from being utilized arsenic a de facto wage addition, they hazard losing the religion of the teams and coaches they police. But if they're overly restrictive oregon punitive, they mightiness invitation ineligible challenges that could permission the enactment impotent.

In the 2 weeks betwixt erstwhile Seeley was announced arsenic the CSC's caller CEO and his archetypal authoritative time connected the job, a authorities lawmaker successful Michigan projected a measure that would marque it amerciable to punish players if they decided not to stock the details of their third-party NIL deals with CSC. Elsewhere, the University of Wisconsin sued the University of Miami successful a lawsuit that could acceptable important precedent for however good the caller strategy tin basal retired claims of tampering.

Seeley says helium thinks a caller national instrumentality that helps debar immoderate of these ineligible pitfalls is "imperative," which is successful lockstep with NCAA and different assemblage sports leaders who person been asking Congress to assistance for the past respective years. Seeley said helium didn't privation to speculate connected however good CSC mightiness fare without immoderate assistance from a caller national law.

Seeley said helium would not person taken connected the caller relation if helium thought it was destined for failure. But arsenic helium wrapped up his archetypal afloat time arsenic 1 of the astir consequential figures successful shaping the aboriginal of assemblage sports, helium asked that fans and participants attack the enactment up with the aforesaid virtuousness helium plans to employ: patience. Success, helium said, volition instrumentality time.

"My connection to radical is beryllium skeptical, but don't beryllium cynical," Seeley siad. "There's a existent quality there. Let's basal for this to work."