Football season is coming. Promise.

Step inside the Grand Hyatt right there in the heart of Nashville and the indicators are there. Football helmets garnish the hallways jam-packed with the assembled press eager to talk ball.

It’s SEC Media Days week on Broadway but it felt like a carryover from spring meetings in Destin. Before we get to position battles and where dynasties fall on the life/death spectrum death, the important political matters led off.

For nearly 50 minutes, commissioner Greg Sankey’s opening address at the four-day festival of words had a clear objective and an audience that reached well beyond the conference footprint.

Again, the NIL concerns took center stage, and the intended listenership was elected.

“The reality,” Sankey said, “is only Congress can fully address the challenges facing college athletics. The NCAA cannot fix all of these issues. The courts cannot resolve all of these issues. The states cannot resolve all of these issues, nor can the conferences.”

That’s bleak.

Banking on that third of the governmental branches feels ominous if the need is as dire as presented.

Sankey’s next sentence at least acknowledged that reality.

“Whether Congressional action is achievable is a matter of debate, much debate,” he said.

The ever-expanding web of state NIL laws that don’t just ignore NCAA rules but now openly mock them are creating an ungovernable environment. New York’s law forbids the NCAA from sanctioning schools for participating in NIL activity. California’s law that past the legislature goes as far as to require revenue sharing with athletes.

These elected officials at the state level smell the NCAA’s blood in the water and they’re going for the throat. Using that weakness to their constituents’ favorite school as a potential edge in recruiting isn’t a hard sell. The collective appetite to solve issues on the national level isn’t quite as ravenous. That school spirit dies at The Beltway where power struggles and poison pills sack bills before the snap.

Not much has happened since Sports Illustrated obtained a draft of a NIL bill by senators Tommy Tuberville and Joe Manchin. As the publication noted, this effort for federal action is four years old and eight hearings yielded a dozen potential bills, but none have reached a committee for debate.

Anyway, good luck.

But after a summer of NIL, gambling scandals and other general existential threats to the billion-dollar college sports industry, it’s clear Sankey has concerns about action away outside the fall Saturday action.

The increasing power of NIL collectives and their place in this ecosystem is on the list.

“One of the concerns that I’ve been public about this is transferring control at an institutional level of rosters, who’s on a roster, pressure on playing time from coaches, and then up the chain of command to athletics directors and presidents or chancellors to an outside entity,” Sankey said. “People have opined about booster influence, but with collective activity about which we’ve read, I think it magnifies that concern, who’s really in charge.”

The level of coordination between collectives and coaches has long been a concern in this space as boosters’ power increased as it emerged from the shadows. Combine that with the power associated with recruiting and … another concern and mole the SEC hopes Congress can whack.

Talk shifted more to Xs and Os once Sankey ceded the stage to the football guys.

While the nearly 50 minutes of Monday’s Commish talk wasn’t exclusively dedicated to politics, it was the biggest takeaway.

“We acknowledge that we’re going to have to change,” Sankey said while wrapping up his opening statement. “We’re going to have to collaborate, as I said, in new ways to find solutions to some of the longstanding challenges and observations.

“But I remain optimistic about our future.”

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.