Courtesy: Texas A&M Athletics
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Senior Jake Gibbons of the Texas A&M men’s swimming and diving team, along with Jailyn Mason of Arkansas women’s basketball and MoMo Sanogo of Ole Miss football, will represent the Southeastern Conference on proposed governance rule changes under the NCAA’s Division I autonomy process as part of the NCAA Convention.
Gibbons serves as chair of the SEC Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), and will attend the NCAA Convention in Anaheim, California to represent the Conference at a meeting of the NCAA Division I SAAC. He is a political science major and is a member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll. A native of Jacksonville, Florida, Gibbons has been one of the Aggies’ top entries in the distance freestyle races. He broke the A&M school record in the 1,000-yard freestyle in 2018 and he currently ranks among the all-time top 10 at A&M in the 500 freestyle, 1,000 freestyle and 1,650 freestyle.
The three student-athletes will represent the SEC as part of the Autonomy Conferences’ (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 12, SEC) efforts to engage and empower student-athletes by giving them both a voice and vote within a transparent decision-making process.
The autonomy governance model grants flexibility to schools in the Atlantic Coast, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 and Southeastern conferences to change specified rules within Division I. The legislative process for these 65 schools includes three student-athlete representatives from each conference who will vote on rule changes. Voting on autonomy issues includes 15 total student-athletes (three from each of the Autonomy Conferences) who, collectively, will cast votes in greater number than four of the five Autonomy Conferences.
Gibbons, Mason and Sanogo were among six student-athletes who attended the SEC Spring Meetings last year in Destin, Fla., where they participated in meetings throughout the week and give institutional leaders feedback on the student-athlete experience while also providing input on proposed SEC and NCAA legislation.