NFL Influence on SEC's Reversal in Stance After 4 Years of Passiveness

Over the last 4 years, the fabric of college football & the landscape was being radically changed. However, the conference executives never made a single effort to stop it (likely too busy to care as they counted their money, realigned conferences that make no geographic sense or expanded further so they could count more money).
 
All of a sudden - the SEC comes out and creates unilateral powers to stop basically anything with punishments that are harsher than anything thrown around before - Why now?

Trying to make sense of this ridiculous situation, the only thing I could rationalize is - that the NFL stepped in and used their influence to immediately put a stop here & now before this progressed any further.

The mobility between the NFL & NCAAF is novel, and the NFL might be thinking that it creates the potential to meaningfully blur the lines between their monopoly machine and the minor league NCAAF system that feeds the machine for free exploitation.

Other consideration that supports this theory is that it also isn't just the conferences - The Entire Media (which we know the NFL controls) has completely crafted the narrative that 'LSU is actively targeting / recruiting "professional NFL players" to return to college'.

Hardly ever a mention of other teams/situations & what was allowed vs not allowed. They just point to Lane Kiffin as the pariah who created this entire mess. Heck, more than 50% of folks actually think LSU sued the SEC & NCAA to start the fight!

It wouldn't take much reporting to provide the audience more context.

(A) Little to no mention / attention on the issues surrounding the 5 for 5 & the Class of 2022

(B) No mention or attention on the amount of money these "NFL Players" received from their "contracts"

(C) Not even a single breakdown on how the process / agreements are different for rookies attending mini-camps (who are allowed to play) & players that attended training camp.

How is this not explained when the outcome/punishment couldn't be more different - Player is allowed to play without punishment if attended only rookie camp vs. Player is not allowed to play & the school athletics are kicked out of conference for even thinking about it

I am open to other ideas if other have them.

However, if this is simply the SEC targeting LSU, and particularly the methods used by Lane Kiffin / Will Wade / LSU athletic department for going all-in & leveraging alignment with the State to rebuild winning football / basketball programs, then that is absolute BS & insert Lane's halftime speech for my final commentary

--sorry for the long post--