Thursday

[Bobby Burton]

The NCAA just picked a fight with the University of Tennessee over NIL. And Tennessee has volunteered for the rest of the country to fight back.

The Vols' response?

The school president wrote a scathing rebuttal on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the attorney generals of the states of Tennessee and Virginia joined together to sue the NCAA over its NIL policy.

The funny thing here is, those attorney generals weren't defending the institutions. No, they were defending the rights of the individuals - the young players - in those states to be able to capitalize on NIL in any way they see fit.

So the state of Tennessee didn't argue NIL for the University of Tennessee. They argued on behalf of the players/recruits.

That may be an end around the NCAA just didn't see coming.

Right now, the NCAA is embroiled in so much litigation. A tweet below details many of them.

My take is this: The NCAA can't get out of its own way fast enough. While well meaning, the current governance was set up for a different era of college sports. Not a bad era, just not the multi-billion dollar one we have today.

Today, the labor should be compensated more equitably. Therein lies the crux of the problem. The NCAA and many of its member institutions don't want to call athletes "labor" because that might jeopardize the schools' tax exempt status.

I don't know the right answer. I don't even know if there is a right answer. The questions and problems are multifaceted.

Someone needs to take the reins soon, or college sports is going to be a muddled mess of epic proportion in two years time.

 

 

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[BurntOrangeHorn]

Perhaps the NCAA is attempting self extinction?

[Bobby Burton]

I think they just may be, at least as it relates to big-time college football.

They are forcing the hands of the membership.

[t.newman]

This may be a stupid question, but what is the source of money for the NCAA?  I'm assuming fighting all these legal battles requires a great deal of funding? 

[Bobby Burton]

14 minutes ago, t.newman said:

This may be a stupid question, but what is the source of money for the NCAA?  I'm assuming fighting all these legal battles requires a great deal of funding? 

Membership dues from universities, corporate sponsors and the biggest - and about 80% of all revenue - is the NCAA basketball tourney. That's why they care so much about basketball and the 300+ NCAA institutions.

[SuperDave0805]

The SEC and the Big 10 need to secede from the NCAA (At least in football) and setup their own rules and regulations 

[BurntOrangeHorn]

46 minutes ago, SuperDave0805 said:

The SEC and the Big 10 need to secede from the NCAA (At least in football) and setup their own rules and regulations 

Sadly, that might happen.   Only about 5 other programs outside of those conferences are self sustaining.

[horns96]

3 hours ago, t.newman said:

This may be a stupid question, but what is the source of money for the NCAA?  I'm assuming fighting all these legal battles requires a great deal of funding? 

~ $1B a year from mens basketball tourney alone (but more than half gets redistributed to member schools).

Still, a steady income stream for NCAA.

 

Edited February 1, 2024 by horns96

[Jerry K]

NCAA is a mess. They have so many more pressing issues they should be addressing instead sounds like they’re tying up the entire staff on legal battles. But then again this shouldn’t be surprising it is the NCAA. 

[Orngblud05]

The product on the field on Saturdays is what I care about.  The pageantry of the game. The tailgating. All the NIL and transfer portal noise is just that, to me.  I like having my head in the sand fwiw 

[Bevolorian]

1 hour ago, Jerry K said:

NCAA is a mess. They have so many more pressing issues they should be addressing instead sounds like they’re tying up the entire staff on legal battles. But then again this shouldn’t be surprising it is the NCAA. 

The retainer fees alone...a careers worth of work there 🤑

[Jerry K]

1 minute ago, Bevolorian said:

The retainer fees alone...a careers worth of work there 🤑

Hopefully they work in 15 minutes or so between now and the fall to rework the portal schedule. 

[DanielOnorato]

Hard to know the right way to go about this as the evolution of things has been so crazy. 

I'm just glad we'll have an NCAA video game to play with Texas in July.

Eventually there will have to be a salary cap per conference and equity distribution or something along those lines. 

[Bobby Burton]

4 minutes ago, DanielOnorato said:

Hard to know the right way to go about this as the evolution of things has been so crazy. 

I'm just glad we'll have an NCAA video game to play with Texas in July.

Eventually there will have to be a salary cap per conference and equity distribution or something along those lines. 

I think that’s the only way to go. Lots of possibilities if you go that direction, like minimum two or three year contracts, etc. 

[Big Ernie McCracken]

This has always been my issue with the NCAA.  No matter how you feel about the innocence of the College Football/Student Athlete model, you can not get past the fact that a, not insignificant, number of student athletes are being economically exploited to benefit other (wealthy) people. This is the Achilles Heel of the NCAA because it calls into question issues of fundamental economic fairness that have always broken in favor of the party creating the economic wealth.

[gus fleener]

5 hours ago, SuperDave0805 said:

The SEC and the Big 10 need to secede from the NCAA (At least in football) and setup their own rules and regulations 

I'm just thinking out loud here but, if the top tier of college football separated itself from the NCAA as much as possible, including the Big10 and the SEC, they would still have to deal with the NCAA on some level. The NCAA would still control portal and other calendar issues for the lesser schools. Some of the players at the lesser schools would still be looking to portal up to the higher tier schools. There are probably other considerations I haven't thought about.

It's definitely a mess and it will take somebody smarter than me to figure it out.

[BurntOrangeHorn]

19 hours ago, Big Ernie McCracken said:

This has always been my issue with the NCAA.  No matter how you feel about the innocence of the College Football/Student Athlete model, you can not get past the fact that a, not insignificant, number of student athletes are being economically exploited to benefit other (wealthy) people. This is the Achilles Heel of the NCAA because it calls into question issues of fundamental economic fairness that have always broken in favor of the party creating the economic wealth.

The NCAA is structured for the benefit of its members.  Protecting student athletes was always a false cloak.

[BurntOrangeHorn]

20 hours ago, Orngblud05 said:

The product on the field on Saturdays is what I care about.  The pageantry of the game. The tailgating. All the NIL and transfer portal noise is just that, to me.  I like having my head in the sand fwiw 

First thing I would do is eliminate the canned music.  Give me the bands, the crowd, the cheerleaders and the mascots.

[TexasLonghorns]

 

[Bobby Burton]

1 hour ago, BurntOrangeHorn said:

The NCAA is structured for the benefit of its members.  Protecting student athletes was always a false cloak.

Amen!