Trump Education Dept rescinds Biden administration's 'profoundly unfair' guidance on NIL

But will this help the gators? That’s all that counts here

 

This has more to do with the House agreement that will allow the schools to pay directly to the athlete. It is set to gain approval in April and allow schools to pay this year. Each school will be able to pay athletes out of a pool of approx 23 million a year. Rescinding the order will send more money to revenue generating sports which are predominately male.

 

The schools are clearly arranging these deals though, and it’s also become part of “recruiting”. Not sure just setting up a 3rd party entity and going “see guyz, we’ve got nothing to do with it!” really passes the smell test. The main problem with Biden’s order is that it pretends these are still collegiate sports. What you watch is definitely no longer collegiate sports.

The NIL as it was originally pushed was supposed to allow athletes to individually pursue endorsement deals and sell their likeness (didn’t it originally evolve out of that video game lawsuit?). That’s why it’s called Name, Image, Likeness. Instead of that it’s quickly evolved into pay for play with professional salaried contracts. Except minus the structure of actually having enforceable contracts! We now see crazy stuff like players quitting before they even finish 1 season or going to 4 “schools” in 4 years. It’s become a joke and this is happening because the NCAA, as feckless as it was, has been totally kneecapped. I think the main issue with Biden’s order is it was too late if not symbolic (toward women’s equal pay), after the judicial system and parties involved (many bad actors) already wrecked havoc on the old NCAA.

 

Well with the understanding a bunch of teams were probably cheating and blatantly paying players under the table anyway, I’ve thought it might help us. Seems it’s definitely been good for the basketball roster. Football maybe not so much (UF doesn’t have the deepest pockets, so that might have something to do with it).

There are good aspects to it. A player that is maybe a borderline draft pick can stick around an extra year and still get payed. It gives players from smaller schools a chance to move up more easily. What I don’t like is the way players are moving 4 times in 4 years, or basically extorting teams/renegging on deals. At some point it makes a mockery of being collegiate sports and is just straight up minor league pro sports. There has to be some limits to keep attached to college, otherwise what are you even watching? Why even care? Even pro leagues have multi-year contract and salary caps. College is almost like “no contract” and “everyone is always a free agent, even in the middle of a season”. Most of the real world operates like that, doesn’t work well for sports.

 

Well, scholarships are one year deals so why can't a player sign 4 of them? as far as the NIL deals. I have mentioned this in SG. I have a client on the inside of USF/NIL and he has said that at least at USF, these deals are really month to month despite what you hear about a player getting a "2 yr deal". Yes, the studs get their money but if a depth player who has a deal decides to transfer the faucet is immediately turned off.

 

Because I like to pretend they are going to class.

But seriously, at some point if players are moving in and out so quickly it becomes a chore to even track who is on a roster. I checked out of even following recruiting years ago, of course some might argue that’s a pointless/degenerate activity in the first place (and they’d probably be right). But my point is the more players move, and this is particularly true when starters bail out, the less attachment fans are going to have to these programs, which in turn crushes fan interest. Seems to be self defeating overall.

 

Interesting...

As long as student athletes are never employees of schools... that fine by me. Tell me when that happens, or is clarified.

 

But if they’re not going to be employees of the school, and get W-2’d by the school, then we really need collective bargaining so that there is a predictable, level playing field. We may all hate this, but the reality is that College Football is now glorified minor league football, where everyone is being paid. It’s time to stop pretending the game is something wholesome,which it is not.

 

Shut it down.

 

If you give to a collective that is more or less run by the school or acts as an extension of it, it probably should be distributed in a way that elevates all sports and operates in the spirit of Title IX. But that is not the only avenue for NIL. You could literally just pay the QB of the football team to sponsor your car dealership. That is not anything to do with Title IX. No one is going to say that car dealer has to give the same deal to a mid-level softball player.

 

Although probably not the case anymore this is the athlete who had the most lucrative NIL deals obviously not a white male. FYI: She's Livvy Dunne an LSU gymnast.