US Congress and NIL

[1972Shocker]

The Mrs. shares your concern… and she has ‘zero’ sense of humor.

You have something against Arkansas?

[Downtown Shocker Brown]

New guidance from NCAA.

[1972Shocker]

New guidance from NCAA.

Are you referring to this article on that page:

https://www.ncaa.org/news/2022/5/9/media-center-di-board-of-directors-issues-name-image-and-likeness-guidance-to-schools.aspx

Doesn't really say very much.

[Ted Lasso's Neighbor]

Are you referring to this article on that page:

https://www.ncaa.org/news/2022/5/9/media-center-di-board-of-directors-issues-name-image-and-likeness-guidance-to-schools.aspx

Doesn't really say very much.

I think that was just a press release. The new guidelines were sent to the colleges based on this tweet - https://twitter.com/RossDellenger/st...80691862818816

[SubGod22]

I don't want to read through that. I appreciate whoever chooses to and summarizes it for the rest of us.

[Ted Lasso's Neighbor]

I don't want to read through that. I appreciate whoever chooses to and summarizes it for the rest of us.

To paraphrase Michael Scott - 'that's what Boatright said' :)

It's basically about the definition of boosters and when a NIL collective could be considered a booster. If the NIL collective falls under the guidelines of a booster based on the new guidance, then it's a NCAA violation. Here's a good article where they use the Miami NIL as an example - https://www.cbssports.com/college-fo...choppy-waters/

[1972Shocker]

The NCAA Approval of NIL Guidelines Signals a Crackdown on Boosters Could Be Coming

The growing collectives at big-time programs are under threat, but does the governing body have the resources to enforce its new bylaws?

https://www.si.com/college/2022/05/09/ncaa-nil-guidelines-boosters-athlete-funds

Despite the clarity coming 10 months into the NIL era, the guidelines are meant to be retroactive. According to the guidelines, the NCAA enforcement staff is given the freedom to investigate those who egregiously violated bylaws in the past.

The guidance’s primary purpose is eliminating a booster’s involvement in recruiting, members of an NCAA NIL working group said last week. Officials say boosters and booster-led collectives are using NIL-disguised transactions to induce prospects to sign with their school or convince current players to remain on their school’s roster, something SI detailed last Monday.

A booster, or booster-run collective, “cannot communicate with a student-athlete or others affiliated with a student-athlete to encourage them to remain enrolled or attend an institution,” George said, citing the guidelines.

But then, [NCAA] enforcement has to enforce. The schools need to enforce as well. That’s the other part. At the end of the day, you have an institutional responsibility to enforce.”

However, it’s unclear whether the NCAA will suddenly spring into action.

NCAA enforcement has been unwilling and maybe even unable to enforce existing bylaws, George and Smith say. For one, the organization is concerned any enforcement will trigger a bevy of antitrust legal challenges. Second, the NCAA enforcement staff is ill-equipped for a full-scale nationwide inquiry. It is down 15–20 members from pandemic layoffs.

The NCAA’s Supreme Court loss in the Alston case last summer coupled with a bevy of state laws that protect boosters themselves make it difficult for the governing body to enforce its own bylaws.

NCAA sanctions are not expected to be directed at player eligibility but will instead sanction schools in other ways for not controlling their boosters, working group members said.

A plague on the NCAA for years, potential litigation was the primary reason the association abandoned plans last summer to implement a more permanent policy with guardrails governing NIL, opening the door for wealthy donors to creatively maneuver around vague interim guidelines.

Now, 10 months into the NIL era of college sports, as elite Power 5 program boosters bankroll football teams in a high-priced bidding war, the organization is shifting into attack mode. It raises more questions than answers.

“Whether it’s possible to unring the bell, it remains to be seen,” says Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby, on the working group that spent two years on a permanent policy only to see it abandoned at the last minute last June. “Seems to me we would have been infinitely better off had we gone ahead and implemented the guardrails.”

[calfan]

Do you mean like the rules that kept KU and shoe companies from paying players to go to KU? They weren't the only ones, you can add North Carolina, Duke, Miami, Arizona, LSU, and Auburn. I am sure I missed somebody.

The NCAA was already doing a great job making sure schools didn't violate NCAA rules. Now they care about paying players. What a complete joke.

[Rocky Mountain Shock]

The NCAA will “investigate” NIL deals and “crackdown” on boosters and schools who’ve abused it.

Hahahahahahaha…

Ahem…

Bwuhahahahahahah…

[1972Shocker]

SEC commissioner on NIL deals: ‘We’re seeing just straight payments’

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/sec-commissioner-on-nil-deals-were-seeing-just-straight-payments-174126956.html

[calfan]

I can't wait for the first school to sue a collective for being taken advantage of as KU did in the FBI scandal.

[1972Shocker]

I think the NCAA close to taking an important step. Should be announced soon that they are changing their name to the National Collective Athletic Association. The primary objective will be to make sure they get an adequate cut of the collective revenues to allow them to divert their attention elsewhere. Watch out Chicago State.

[Ted Lasso's Neighbor]

As Coaches Squabble About NIL, Enforcement May Still Be Leagues Away

https://www.si.com/college/2022/05/23/nick-saban-jimbo-fisher-nil-ncaa-congress

Interesting article. Here are some quotes related to NIL and the US Congress:

However, while the association released additional NIL guidance earlier this month, there is little evidence it plans to enforce that guidance. The NCAA is paralyzed by legal fears and significantly understaffed, officials say.

But what of Congress? Much like the NCAA, slow-moving and at times ineffective, Congress’s attention is focused on much more important matters in this midterm election year, a time when legislation is often difficult to move anyhow. And don’t look to the states, either. They have no incentive in creating a disadvantage for their own public universities by enforcing an NIL law for which those same colleges lobbied. So what now?

Congressional action, meanwhile, seems a ways away. For three years now, college leaders have visited Capitol Hill to lobby for universal legislation on NIL. Most recently, about two weeks ago, commissioners Greg Sankey and George Kliavkoff met with U.S. senators in another attempt to rally support for a federal law.

However, hurdles stand in the way—the same ones that wrecked a potential compromise last summer between Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.). The two men were brought together by Senate Commerce Committee chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) in an attempt to reach a deal. In the end, they couldn’t agree on the breadth of a bill. Republicans want narrow NIL legislation. Democrats want a broad bill that includes athlete healthcare and maybe even revenue sharing.

This November’s midterm elections could change the balance of power in a Democrat-controlled Congress. Most within college sports believe that a Republican-controlled Senate would create a more simple path to the passage of NIL legislation. A narrow bill has an easier shot.

“If you have Republican chairs of committees, it’s different,” says Tom McMillen, a former Congressperson himself who presides over LEAD1, an organization that represents the FBS athletic directors. “It’s more difficult to get a Democratic agenda through.”

[1972Shocker]

A Candid Lane Kiffin on NIL, Recruiting and Boosters: ‘We’re a Professional Sport’

https://www.si.com/college/2022/05/25/lane-kiffin-nil-recruiting-boosters-nick-saban

Kiffin told SI that 100% of high school players are choosing schools based on the highest NIL guarantee—and he doesn’t blame them.

The NIL-disguised inducements are widening the gaps in FBS, he says, further separating the Group of 5 from the Power 5 but also creating more separation within the Power 5.

Finally, in a dose of honesty and reality that few care to admit publicly, Kiffin does not understand how college football has not yet moved to a professionalized model.

“We’re a professional sport,” he says, “and they are professional players.”

It’s totally changed recruiting. I joke all the time about it. Facilities and all that. Go ahead and build facilities and these great weight rooms and training rooms, but you ain’t gonna have any good players in them if you don’t have NIL money. I don’t care who the coach is or how hard you recruit, that is not going to win over money.

SI: Is there a solution to this?

LK: The thing that seems simple is there’s a cap. How are we not a professional sport? What is the difference? [Players] are making money. They can opt into free agency. We’re a professional sport, and they are professional players. Contracted employees without contracts. They can get out whenever they want. And how is it not being seen that, unless there are changes of rules around caps and contracts, how is every elite college player not at the end of their season [entering the portal]? … Let’s be realistic, in professional sports, if you are the agent of a player, and the player can opt into free agency and come back to where they want after testing the waters, who says, ‘No, I’m not going to do that,’ unless there’s a penalty?

If there’s something big-money people are motivated to do, they do. Everyone wants to own an NFL team. It’s essentially like you’re a minority owner if you are a big-time investor [in a collective]. You get to show up on Saturday and see your product.

That’s a major problem [in college]. Right now, you’ve got good players who are returning starters not making anything because people are paying the ones coming in, trying to get them [in NIL bidding wars].

People are going to criticize me for saying that “people are paying them to come in” by saying that’s not what is happening. That is exactly what’s happening.

There was a player who went to a school that we got beat on, and I asked him about the relationship with the head coach. He had never talked to him. NIL.

Take professional sports. [Imagine if] instead of winning and drafting at the end, you win and draft at the top. You are Team Whatever and you draft in the top five every year and get a higher cap than everybody you are playing against, and in free agency, you get the first pick by using your higher cap. How is that not going to separate?

Watch how coaches take jobs now. Coach is down to these four jobs. Well, before, [the decision was based on] facilities or whatever. If the coach is smart, the first question should be what?

Tell me about your collective?

[SubGod22]

SI - New Draft NIL Legislation Includes Athlete Restrictions, Healthcare and Booster Collectives

Under a draft of the latest name, image and likeness (NIL) legislation, college athletes would be prohibited from striking deals until a semester into their college careers, but booster-led NIL collectives could provide “benefits” to athletes and their parents with a caveat: The collectives must sign a contract with their affiliated school.

A working draft from Senators Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) of NIL legislation grants the NCAA great authority, creates a medical trust for athlete healthcare, includes a bevy of athlete restrictions, requires athletes to use an NCAA-created standard contract and mentions booster-led NIL collectives by name. Sports Illustrated obtained a copy of the draft, which is not complete and could undergo changes as the senators receive feedback from college leaders and others.
.....
Within 30 days of entering into a NIL deal, athletes must disclose the contract with their school, including compensation amounts and other contract particulars. NIL collectives and agents must register with the NCAA and also disclose all NIL deals with the governing body.

Athletes can enter into NIL contracts only if it (1) is in writing and signed by each party; (2) outlines the scope and timeline of work the athlete must perform; (3) states the compensation and has a duration or end; and (4) conforms with an NCAA-developed standard contract template.

In one of the more strict restrictions, an athlete must be enrolled and has to have completed at least one semester of coursework to enter into a NIL deal.
.....
While the draft strictly prohibits recruiting inducements, it specifically names booster-led NIL collectives and offers them many freedoms.

Collectives can promote their program, assist in recruiting and assist in providing benefits to recruits or athletes or parents of athletes but only “if it is formally associated with an insinuation through an official contract.” Also, collectives must provide “equal opportunities” to all athletes in all programs at the school.
.......
Any violation would be treated as a violation of regulations of unfair and deceptive acts under the Federal Trade Commission Act.

The draft empowers the NCAA to investigate and audit compliance with the law while also giving it the authority to distribute penalties including revoking licenses to participate in NIL. The NCAA is to also refer violations to the FTC for potential further action.

If the NCAA fails to comply and carry out duties as part of the bill, the FTC can revoke its tax-exempt status. While the draft preempts state NIL laws, it does not specifically deem college athletes as students and not employees.

It will be interesting to follow this