Paul Finebaum believes NCAA can no longer enforce its own rules after Tennessee ruling

In a lawsuit over NIL that was filed against the NCAA by the Tennessee and Virginia attorney generals, a judge recently granted a preliminary injunction. Because of that, analyst Paul Finebaum believes that the NCAA is no longer going to be able to enforce its own rules moving forward.

Finebaum, while making an appearance on Always College Football, expressed his concerns about the NCAA’s enforcement moving forward.

“The easiest thing to do on a talk show or anything is to say the NCAA is dead,” Paul Finebaum said. “It’s not really dead because we’re a couple weeks away from the biggest show really in sports, in many respects, and that’s the NCAA basketball Tournament. But, what is dead is the NCAA’s ability to enforce its own rules.”

The lawsuit was brought forward shortly after news broke that the NCAA was investigating Tennessee over potential NIL violations. That news was on the heels of similar investigations at schools live Florida and Florida State. In particular, those investigations were about potential violations relating to the schools’ NIL collectives. The lawsuit itself has to do with NCAA rules around NIL being violations of anti-trust laws.

An injunction is a ruling from a judge that restrains continued action that could potentially invade the legal rights of another. The main issue the judge took with NIL rules was that there was a “suppression of negotiating leverage.” With that, the NCAA was restrained from enforcing its interim NIL policy.

“Friday afternoon, that was the final blow because the NCAA has nowhere to go. They’re not going to fight this in court because they don’t have a path,” Finebaum said. “They, essentially, waved the white flag with a typically stupid NCAA statement, which is as disingenuous as anything I’ve seen from them. Basically saying we need Congress’ help.”

So, what does all of this mean? According to Paul Finebaum, it means that there’s no way to punish teams who break the rules in place.

“In terms of what it really means, it’s already been said, but if you want to cheat, go ahead and cheat. You’re not going to be caught. Until now, we’ve called it the Wild Wild West. Now, essentially because of this judge in East Tennessee, you can do whatever you want and nobody can do anything about it, and that’s really the first time that the NCAA has been brought to its knees. They deserve all this because they are an arrogant, out-of-control group of people who have lost their grip on the world of college athletics for a long time,” Finebaum said.

“Now, the only difference is Mark Emmert, the president, was until recently someone that was easy to hate. Charlie Baker is a likable guy, but he basically is a politician in a $3,000 suit who sounds good and looks good, but is not changing or moving the needle one iota.”

NCAA responds to judge’s decision to grant preliminary injunction in NIL lawsuit

Following the decision to grant the preliminary injunction, the NCAA released a statement on the judge’s decision.

“Turning upside down rules overwhelmingly supported by member schools will aggravate an already chaotic collegiate environment, further diminishing protections for student-athletes from exploitation,” the statement read.

“The NCAA fully supports student-athletes making money from their name, image and likeness and is making changes to deliver more benefits to student-athletes but an endless patchwork of state laws and court opinions make clear partnering with Congress is necessary to provide stability for the future of all college athletes.”