NCAA had no choice but NIL rule will damage college football and basketball

If you’re into college football and basketball, here’s a look at the mantra you’ll hear often by July 6, 2022, slightly past the one-year anniversary of the NCAA ruling (with a powerful multi-state push) allowing university athletes to benefit from the use of their name, image or likeness.

What were they thinking? Yeah, I supported the movement, but hey, uh. Didn’t I know it was going to be like this?

As for “that”, consider The Big Four. . .

(1) The transfer portal is about to go crazy.

It was already crazy before “that”. The NCAA announced in April that major college football and basketball players could transfer once before graduating without spending a year of competition. In mid-May, a record 1,500 players (and rising) had declared themselves for the free-to-play version of the NCAA, and it was just basketball.

Now back to “that”. Since the NCAA board of directors voted on Wednesday to endorse their NIL thing (names, pictures, or likeness), athletes can make as much money as they want by monetizing their social media accounts, teaching camps or courses, signing autographs and a bunch of other entities.

Which means there will be an epidemic of athletes on campus.

With my apologies to all who still believe in Santa Claus and Rudy, winning will become secondary to what is already becoming the most dominant thought for athletes, especially those associated with college football and basketball. -ball majors: where can I go to maximize my financial portfolio? Am I talking about this school, town, and fan base with the potential to give me more followers ($$$$) or that one?

Little things will get big. For example: University of Georgia officials told their athletes that they couldn’t use the school’s “Power G” logo for any of their sponsorship deals, but SEC rival Tennessee has no problem with their athletes displaying the volunteer logo or brand.

Hello, Rocky Top.

Goodbye, UGA X, the Georgia Bulldog mascot, which is presumably also banned from paid ads with athletes on campus. And then, who knows ? Georgian officials might change their mind, especially if LSU lets its athletes at least rent Mike the Tiger’s cage between football matches or something like that.

(2) Pass the ball, without the males.

NCAA says it’s up to member schools to make sure their athletes involved in the NIL follow state laws, NCAA standards, school regulations and a whole lot of other things few people have. taken into account during this process.

Like taxes.

Who will make these young people aged 18 to 21 understand that they have to pay them, and who will show them how?

A new NIL department in your middle college, you say?

Yes indeed. What the NCAA did last week will only increase the workload for the few who avoided layoffs at universities across the country.

Earlier this year, Forbes.com reported: “In a move that is setting alarm bells across higher education, the Kansas Board of Regents voted unanimously this week to approve a policy that would allow six public universities it oversees (Kansas University, Kansas State University, Wichita State University, Fort Hays State University, Emporia State University, Pittsburg State University) to terminate or suspend employees – including full professors – without having to follow established processes such as financial requirement declaration. The policy takes effect immediately and will be in effect until the end of 2022. ”

According to ABC News, when COVID-19 raged in 2020, “The University of Michigan projects losses of $ 400 million to $ 1 billion this year at its three campuses. California’s university system suffered $ 558 million in unanticipated costs in March alone. The University of Colorado’s Boulder campus alone will lose at least $ 67 million over the summer.

To translate: Forget NIL departments.

(3) How much does he earn?

Nothing makes a college football or basketball team sink faster than dissent through the ranks, which means we’re about to see a bunch of water-filled programs on the ocean floor of the NCAA.

Contrary to popular belief, only a handful of players will be paid through these NIL deals, let alone that will get paid. Chet Holmgren will be one of them. He brings his 7-foot skills as the nation’s No.1 rookie in college basketball to Gonzaga, where Holmgren said he wouldn’t dance on TikTok for clicks, but similar to many of his high-profile peers, he’ll power the masses on social media just by breathing inside his uniform.

This will leave a whole bunch of athletes rolling their eyes in the corner of the locker room above the quarterback (or point guard) pocketing something for their nothing.

(4) What else on TV?

Since an epidemic of player movement is on the way, and since college football and basketball coaches have to juggle their egos on their roster like never before ($$$$), and since athletes will be snuggling more with with their accountants than with their teammates, both sports will become less enjoyable to watch.

Just so you know.

It was inevitable, however. Even before Jim Thorpe was stripped of his 1912 Olympic medals for playing the role of an athlete at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School while playing with a professional baseball team for amounts not worth paying for. be mentioned, amateurism has been imagined by many people.

With lots of help from CBS and Turner Sports, the NCAA is getting nearly $ 1 billion a year for staging March Madness in college basketball.

Then there’s the College Football Playoff (CFP), which generates $ 600 million in revenue each season, but only for now. According to USA today, Chicago-based Navigate – operating “on a group of assumptions that start with recent increases in media rights deals brokered by the NFL, NHL and Southeastern Conference” – CFP’s annual revenues will rise to $ 2 billion when it is expected to develop into upcoming seasons of four to 12 teams.

The athletes don’t get any of that.

Amateurism, you know.

Waiting, USA today said 11 college football coaches earned at least $ 6 million last season in “expected school pay,” and the newspaper said 26 college basketball coaches raised $ 3 million or more in that same category.

Our focus here is on major college football (130 Football Bowl Subdivision programs) and college basketball (350 Division I programs) as they provide the bulk of the revenue for the rest of their athletic departments.

So, given the money involved (or not for the athletes), it was inevitable that something like state legislatures would trigger this NIL thing, which is exactly what happened. It all started with the signing of a bill by California Governor Gavin Newsom in September 2019 that, starting in 2023, state universities could not punish athletes for accepting money from support during their university studies.

Other states followed, and soon after, NCAA board members decided on Wednesday to jump on that NIL train instead of getting run over trying to stand in front of it.

They’re hitting the rails now.

What could go wrong?