BTI's Rants and Ramblings: Anybody Else Have Some Questions Concerning NIL?
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Since the announcement of the NIL executive order from Governor Beshear, the Supreme Court's decision on the Alston case, and multiple other states passing legislation on Name, Image, and Likeness, everybody else has been asking a lot of questions in their head, right? So why not do a little stream of consciousness post with all the questions I could think of and what this could make college sports look like moving forward?
First off, who is going to police, document, and regulate all of these potential deals? The NCAA? Do we really trust them? The schools? Do we trust them any more than the NCAA? Governor Beshear's order prohibits schools from arranging the deals but what if other states don't? And so what if the Governor says you can't? Does he have any power over the schools, really?
Will every kid's business deals be public knowledge? And will the amount of the deals be public knowledge, too? And what impact could that have on many factors? Will one player try and renegotiate deals he/she already agreed to if they find a teammate or another athlete inks a better deal? Will fans become frustrated if they feel players are being "paid too much"? And what if the team is failing but the players make lots of money? Can you imagine how enraged many fans would have gotten last season during a 9-16 year if players had all kinds of sponsorship deals?
The Governor's order prohibits deals with alcohol, tobacco, firearm, and sexually-oriented business but what about those perceived to be political? Will players face backlash if they get a Chick-fil-A sponsorship? Or what about a Planned Parenthood sponsorship? What if a Black Lives Matter organization wants to sponsor a player? So many companies have social causes now so how will schools navigate that with their fanbases? Can players record commercials endorsing political candidates during election years? What impact could all of that have on fan relationship with players?
What role will agents play in all of this? Does anybody thinks agents will be completely on the up and up? And how will the NCAA regulate and navigate those murky waters? Will coaches have to develop relationships with all of their players' agents? And how big of a headache will that be? What if an agent wants a player to record a commercial or go to an event that conflicts with a team practice? What kind of awkward position will that put some players in?
How will high-level players navigate national companies, like Nike and Adidas? Will these players have to leave their teams during the season to attend corporate events and promotional appearances? Can coaches prevent that? Would a coach actually hamstring their best players from doing things like that? What if the national companies conflict with a school's already existing promotional deals?
Will schools have to increase their legal departments to handle all of these issues? How soon until we have lawsuits about what kids can and can not do with all of these deals? And what about the non-revenue athlete parent/player who will eventually sue claiming the whole system is unfair to them? Will all of these new contracts be legally binding deals? Is this all sustainable?
How much will this change the recruiting landscape around football and basketball? If one player gets x-amount of dollars one year, can/will coaches promise future recruits similar amounts for future years? And can businesses back out of deals if they don't like the players? Or if the team does poorly? Can all of this chaos lead to an even larger transfer market year to year? And will these deals be the top motivating factor for why players might transfer more easily?
Will "college town" teams have a competitive advantage over "pro towns" because of the lack of competition from other teams? And how bad could that hurt many teams in Power 5 conferences? Can USC, UCLA, Cincinnati, Georgia Tech and Miami compete with Kansas, Michigan and Kentucky? Will this force the NCAA to put limitations on totals players can make? And can they even do that if they try? Because they will eventually try, right?
Is anybody else half-excited, half-nervous about what is coming to college athletics? Are there going to be unforeseen ramifications from changing the very nature of college athletics? Does everybody have all of these questions?
Getty Images[/caption]
Since the announcement of the NIL executive order from Governor Beshear, the Supreme Court's decision on the Alston case, and multiple other states passing legislation on Name, Image, and Likeness, everybody else has been asking a lot of questions in their head, right? So why not do a little stream of consciousness post with all the questions I could think of and what this could make college sports look like moving forward?
First off, who is going to police, document, and regulate all of these potential deals? The NCAA? Do we really trust them? The schools? Do we trust them any more than the NCAA? Governor Beshear's order prohibits schools from arranging the deals but what if other states don't? And so what if the Governor says you can't? Does he have any power over the schools, really?
Will every kid's business deals be public knowledge? And will the amount of the deals be public knowledge, too? And what impact could that have on many factors? Will one player try and renegotiate deals he/she already agreed to if they find a teammate or another athlete inks a better deal? Will fans become frustrated if they feel players are being "paid too much"? And what if the team is failing but the players make lots of money? Can you imagine how enraged many fans would have gotten last season during a 9-16 year if players had all kinds of sponsorship deals?
The Governor's order prohibits deals with alcohol, tobacco, firearm, and sexually-oriented business but what about those perceived to be political? Will players face backlash if they get a Chick-fil-A sponsorship? Or what about a Planned Parenthood sponsorship? What if a Black Lives Matter organization wants to sponsor a player? So many companies have social causes now so how will schools navigate that with their fanbases? Can players record commercials endorsing political candidates during election years? What impact could all of that have on fan relationship with players?
What role will agents play in all of this? Does anybody thinks agents will be completely on the up and up? And how will the NCAA regulate and navigate those murky waters? Will coaches have to develop relationships with all of their players' agents? And how big of a headache will that be? What if an agent wants a player to record a commercial or go to an event that conflicts with a team practice? What kind of awkward position will that put some players in?
How will high-level players navigate national companies, like Nike and Adidas? Will these players have to leave their teams during the season to attend corporate events and promotional appearances? Can coaches prevent that? Would a coach actually hamstring their best players from doing things like that? What if the national companies conflict with a school's already existing promotional deals?
Will schools have to increase their legal departments to handle all of these issues? How soon until we have lawsuits about what kids can and can not do with all of these deals? And what about the non-revenue athlete parent/player who will eventually sue claiming the whole system is unfair to them? Will all of these new contracts be legally binding deals? Is this all sustainable?
How much will this change the recruiting landscape around football and basketball? If one player gets x-amount of dollars one year, can/will coaches promise future recruits similar amounts for future years? And can businesses back out of deals if they don't like the players? Or if the team does poorly? Can all of this chaos lead to an even larger transfer market year to year? And will these deals be the top motivating factor for why players might transfer more easily?
Will "college town" teams have a competitive advantage over "pro towns" because of the lack of competition from other teams? And how bad could that hurt many teams in Power 5 conferences? Can USC, UCLA, Cincinnati, Georgia Tech and Miami compete with Kansas, Michigan and Kentucky? Will this force the NCAA to put limitations on totals players can make? And can they even do that if they try? Because they will eventually try, right?
Is anybody else half-excited, half-nervous about what is coming to college athletics? Are there going to be unforeseen ramifications from changing the very nature of college athletics? Does everybody have all of these questions?
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