NCAA looks to be cracking down (wink wink nudge nudge) on certain NIL deals

On3 imageby:Eric Prisbell12/21/21

EricPrisbell

It is not at all clear that the NCAA is serious about levying punishments against schools whose NIL programs are suspected of running afoul of the few rules that exist.

What is clear is that the NCAA wants you to think it is.

When the NIL era began July 1, the NCAA abdicated any discernible enforcement role, handed almost all responsibilities to athletic departments with limited guidance or guardrails and crossed its fingers that federal legislation would at some point arrive with universal regulations. One compliance officer at a top-25 football program even told On3 that he had seriously contemplated leaving his role because performing so much NIL heavy lifting without direction from Indianapolis was not what he had signed up for.

Now all of a sudden, after athletes have been permitted to monetize their brands for six months, the NCAA is signaling that it wants to police the space — or, again, at least it wants you to believe that it wants to police the space. Mark Emmert, the governing body’s long-beleaguered president, said recently that the organization was actively investigating “a number” of NIL deals. Then Sportico reported that the NCAA is looking into group-based NIL deals at BYU and Miami, although the depth of the investigation is unclear. 

“Whenever Emmert says anything, he’s nebulous,” a prominent college athletics source told On3. “The NCAA has said that they can’t do anything, so what are we doing? Is he just trying to say that they are trying?”

BYU actually facilitated its headline-grabbing NIL deal with one of its sponsors, protein bar company Built Bar, an act that is illegal in some states. But Utah does not have a NIL law in place, which prompted BYU associate athletic director Gary Veron to tell ESPN, “We feel blessed because we don’t have a state law on the books.”

In July, American Top Team, a South Florida-based MMA training company, announced it was offering NIL contracts to all of Miami’s scholarship players. Months ago, Peter Schoenthal, the CEO of Athliance, told On3 that the issue with the Miami deal wasn’t that it was so egregious but rather that it would lead to deep-pocketed boosters at other schools “licking their lips saying, ‘Oh, this is what I could do?’ ” 

That was prescient. In recent weeks, the space has seen a variety of booster- and alum-driven collectives take root at SMU, Kentucky and, in the most publicized fashion, Texas, where supporters are pooling funds to give every Longhorns offensive lineman $50,000 annually for charity appearances.

“On the surface, it looks foul. But what is foul right now?” Schoenthal told On3 last week specifically about the Texas deal. “That’s the problem with this space — nobody is 100 percent certain what is foul. In my opinion, it is foul from a legislative standpoint, but until we see certain penalties levied, until we see someone come out and actually say, ‘These are foul and we’re going to take action,’ I don’t know if it is right now.

“At the end of the day, a crime isn’t a crime unless there is a punishment attached.”

Mit Winter, a Kansas City-based sports attorney, tweeted Monday that the NCAA is probing BYU and Miami to give the “appearance it can police NIL deals/collectives it doesn’t like. But as long as deals and collectives follow the current rules there is nothing the NCAA can do.” To that point, Florida-based attorney Darren Heitner, who worked with Miami booster Dan Lambert on the NIL deal, tweeted that NCAA investigations of NIL deals doesn’t necessarily mean anything more than the organization has “decided to go fishing.”

One of the few NIL rules that exist stipulates that athletes actually have to perform a service in order to receive compensation. If it’s discovered that some athletes at BYU or Miami received money but did not perform a service, Schoenthal said, then that’s a violation. 

“Problem is, the rules are so all over the place, this is brand new, and if I’m the NCAA I also want to avoid lawsuits,” he said. “I don’t punish the athletes on this. I punish the schools that allowed this, if there is a violation, for not monitoring and not having institutional control.”

The Miami deal, in particular, raised red flags. The concern was whether it would pave the way for overzealous boosters to find creative ways to get money into the pockets of athletes for recruiting purposes. 

When asked at the time about the Miami deal, one prominent source dug deep into his bag of metaphors, saying, “Maybe this is the fall of the Soviet Union and it’s a free-for-all. But at some point, the sheriff is going to ride in and start enforcing laws. We just don’t know if he’s going to slap people on the wrist or if he’s going to be the hanging judge.”

It remains to be seen whether the NCAA merely wants us to view it as the sheriff or whether it actually has the will to police NIL deals.

3rd season of ‘Elite Youth’ on tap

Some of the most marketable teenage basketball stars will see their games — and their brands — spotlighted in the new third season of “Elite Youth,” produced by Fox Sports Films in association with the athlete empowerment brand uninterrupted. It is set to premiere January 6 at 9 p.m. ET on FS1.

Airing over four consecutive weeks, the series follows the nation’s top high school basketball players through the 2021 Elite Youth Basketball League (EYBL). The series chronicles the trials and tribulations of high school life, high-stakes recruiting and basketball stardom.

It will include interviews and appearances by NBA All-Stars Carmelo Anthony and Russell Westbrook as well as prominent teenage standouts including Kyle Filipowski, Matt Filipowski, Jalen Duren, Derrick Lively II, Dariq Whitehead, Judah Mintz, Dior Johnson, Chris Bunch, Vincent Iwuchukwu and Jordan Walsh.

The trailer for the series can be seen here.