Sankey has never, will never, and is not trying to help us. If he wanted to help us, he would advocate the NCAA walking away in light of the NIL changes. Hell, 2 aTm players got $10K each for an "interview". And we are going to NCAA jail for simple booster payments?? Laughable.
As for the second part of your post, the rules have changed in a quantum way since January. This isn't a criminal matter. It's an NCAA compliance issue. NCAA compliance is bleeding out, and the last thing they want is to enforce any of the prior rules right now.
Don't worry. Hand wringing will win the day, we will self-impose substantial penalties, and we will go down as the very last program that ever faced NCAA sanctions.
In other words....another exciting edition of "That's So Tennessee!!"