The jokes have been plentiful lately about college athletes staying around for too many years. The “LinkedIn all-stars”, mid-20s players who have waivered their way to extra seasons of eligibility, especially since 2020 when every college player got COVID-19 year.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, speaking Monday in Atlanta to begin the conference’s media days, suggested things might have gone too far.

“My guess is you have to return to the early 1900s,” Sankey said. “Literally, if you go to the first quarter century and look at some of the practices around college sports, you start to see the same things that we are seeing today, an older group of college athletes, constant movement without a lot of oversight, and questions about whether there are real academic standards that apply.”

Over the past year, eligibility standards have been even further compromised. Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia sued for more seasons, arguing that his two years at a junior college shouldn’t count toward his NCAA eligibility.

Pavia got an injunction in his favor, leading to other players receiving seasons of eligibility back. On Monday, Sankey suggested that players sticking around for too long was hurting the younger side of rosters.

“As the world changes throughout college sports, we have to hold on to some values that are at the center of what we do on our academic campuses,” Sankey said. “We need to invite young people into higher education with the goal of moving them from adolescence to adulthood. We need to require unapologetically a person to make meaningful progress towards a degree, and if they don’t make that meaningful progress, then simply understand they won’t be able to participate in the athletics experience.”

Sankey and other commissioners have called for common standards across college athletics, whether regarding revenue sharing, transfer portal issues or NIL. The eligibility issues were no different.

“There is a need to return to a common standard for athletics participation,” Sankey said. “It’s embedded in the undergraduate educational experience that helps foster a college-going culture to the next generation who seeks to enroll and participate in college athletics, all while requiring meaningful academic progress leading to a degree, not subject to the whim of requested or granted waivers, and not resulting in legal decisions that will vary from courtroom to courtroom.”

SEC media days are scheduled to continue through Thursday in Atlanta.