AP article here:
The schools’ Last Stand will be an attempt to police NIL incomes. Is the deal a fair market reflection or does it cross the line into inducement?
This effort will also fail. It’s something simply impossible to evaluate. When the smoke from the last battleground clears, school supporters and marketers will run unfettered through the player ranks and there will be nothing that schools can do to stop them.
Looks like the NCAA blinked - the Division I Board of Directors, at the recommendation of the Division I Council, is expected to vote Wednesday to allow all athletes to accept Name/Image/Likeness payments, even in states without NIL laws, and have “professional services providers” (i.e. agents) for NIL purposes.
There are some unspecified restrictions against “pay-for-play” and inducements to have an athlete attend a particular school, and also schools and conferences can set restrictions of their own.
This was as predictable as the sun rising in the east. See my post above, once the states with large numbers of D1 schools (and in big media markets) passed NIL, the writing was on the wall. The NCAA’s last ditch pitch to Congress failed and the courts were handing down unfavorable decisions all over the place. A class all the way, the NCAA. Decent people don’t wait until a gun is held to their head to make the right call.
It’s quite easy to evaluate. It’s not about “fair market value.” It is an inducement if the deal is conditional upon the athlete in question attending a particular school and was made before the athlete enrolled (or signed a National Letter of Intent). I can see, say, Titleist offering a deal to a golfer regardless of where they attend, and in a case like that, I don’t think the NCAA would care about the amount. Maybe the NCAA will raise an eyebrow if a basketball player’s fee covers his tuition, with the idea of freeing up a scholarship for that school, but even that is pushing it.
Also, like I said earlier, the NCAA’s “last stand” will be to make sure that any NIL deals have a clean separation between the dealmakers and the school. “Why, yes, the school did fly the booster and his family to the bowl game - but the fact that they license the star QB for $500,000 a year is merely a coincidence!” won’t cut it.
Walls… crumbling…
This is a good day.
Next – let’s work on turning the boosters loose. Inducements to attend and stay are not against the law.
Let’s make a deal: NCAA athletes cashing in on name, image and likeness (espn.com)
The article says that a Georgia Tech basketball player knows how to play the clarinet, saxophone and piano, so he’s planning to offer music lessons.
It is ludicrous that the NCAA didn’t allow this before.
Perhaps you don’t remember (or know about) the words of Shabazz Napier, from 2014:
He was literally unable to afford food and forbidden from accepting any from anyone, because “amateurism”, while his school and its sponsors made millions and millions and millions of dollars off his labor.
I’m hearing talk about Reggie Bush getting his doorstop and stats back. Woot Woot!
I only caught a little bit of yakky-yak, and the opinion seems pretty split with it leaning to ‘Ain’t gonna happen, but they should issue a statement’. That seems kind of pointless.
Hell with it! He earned it on the field. He’ll always be the winner in my mind. And I still count 'SCs Championship, too.
That doesn’t sound right…let me look that one up:
“A student-athlete may establish his or her own business, provided the student-athlete’s name, photograph, appearance or athletics reputation are not used to promote the business.” (NCAA Division I Bylaw 12.4.4)
I can see it now: “Music Lessons - I can’t tell you who I am, or what I do, or show you what I look like…”
Bush’s case is different. He became ineligible when he agreed to be represented by an agent. This is still in violation of the NCAA bylaws. An athlete can sign an agent only to represent his NIL interests - not to negotiate a future NFL/NBA contract. Yes, that’s different.
Huh. I admit I should know more about this than I do, but I thought Bush’s problem was that his family was getting free rent and cash on the side for ‘expenses’. I don’t give a shit either way. He pushed Matt into the endzone to beat Notre Dame (among other feats of Magic over the years). He earned that fucking ugly statue.
The articles I’ve read aren’t completely clear on this matter. Did he have his Heisman physically confiscated? Was it just never issued? Does he still have the actual trophy, with this being more a matter of what the record books say?
He gave it back. Sitting in a basement in New York I imagine. There is not one on display in Heritage Hall on the campus.
Some of the opinion leaders on this issue are already moving on to advocating for athletes to organize and negotiate collectively. If you’re a traditionalist who just suffered a major setback, this must be exasperating. “They never stop asking for more!”
Apparently, the leader so far in the endorsement race is Hercy Miller, an incoming freshman basketball player for Tennessee State, who signed a four-year $2 million deal with Web Apps America. Say…you don’t think that any of this has to do with the fact that his father is rapper Master P, do you?
Some of these young people are reportedly in line for seven figure earnings by becoming an influencer on social media.
Now being an old guy I really don’t understand exactly how that works. But it seems to me that it is tapping into an entirely different revenue stream than the traditional ones supporting school’s athletic programs.
A “social media influencer” is the modern-day equivalent of a “celebrity spokesperson,” only the “celebrity” is someone with a significant Twitter/Facebook/Whatever following for whatever reason. Some “influencers” are notorious for demanding free stuff from businesses in exchange for an online mention - the online equivalent of “being paid in exposure” (“I can’t give you any money for your product/service, but look at all of the exposure you will get!”).
This was just posted on the AP: University of South Dakota volleyballer Brooklyn Bollweg is the first college athlete in the state to sign a sponsorship deal.
Meanwhile, Florida State QB McKenzie Milton and Miami quarterback D’Eriq King have gone into business for themselves…representing other college athletes’ NIL interests. Up until now, an athlete could not go into business for themselves if they used their “name, photograph, appearance, or athletics reputation” to promote it.
Okay, it has only been six days, but I am a little surprised that there haven’t been reports of big-name schools’ athletes getting licensing deals from local boosters.