Jay Bilas reveals how NIL destabilized NCAA

On3 imageby:Sam Gillenwater07/05/22

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NIL has left the NCAA in a position where they have egg on their face. After going back and forth for years on amateurism, NIL prevailed and athletes have been profiting for the last year. ESPN’s Jay Bilas says it’s left the NCAA completely broken down.

Bilas recently wrote an article on the effects of NIL so far. He says the NCAA’s mistakes can be traced all the way back to the Supreme Court decisions that opened these floodgates.

“Due to stunning leadership failures and a sorry lack of vision, the NCAA was caught flat-footed and without a plan for NIL,” said Bilas. “The NCAA miscalculated its position in the Alston case and was eviscerated before the United States Supreme Court.”

The way things have worked out with NIL has the NCAA behind the eight ball. The lack of regulations has given some schools an advantage early on with NIL. It’s just the latest in a string of frustrations people around the sport have with the NCAA. In Bilas’ opinion, the opinion of the association has never been lower.

“The NCAA seems to be held in the lowest regard in its history at this moment. It is seen as directionless, ineffective and powerless, and it is difficult to argue otherwise. Going forward, more decisions will be made by the schools and conferences and the market competitors themselves. The NCAA’s power and autonomy in the industry will be further diminished,” Bilas said. “While there were fair criticisms of the leadership, structure and policies of the NCAA, nobody could have predicted how swiftly and unceremoniously the NCAA would fall from grace and from authority.”

More changes will come as we go further in to the NIL era. A lot of the issues will get ironed out as the regulation’s framework gets reworked over the next few seasons. Still, that may not be enough. Faith in the NCAA needs to be restored if it’s going to remain the commanding body of college sports. To Bilas, it may take even more than a personnel change to flip that script.

“To have a governing body and leadership held in such low regard is a negative, and it will take far more than leadership change to turn that clear negative into a positive.”