Will enforcement work in revenue sharing and NIL? "We have to agree to be governed"
Schools and coaches who circumvent the rules of the House v. NCAA settlement need to face severe and timely penalties
During his time on the podium at SEC Media Days earlier this week, Brian Kelly shared a story from a recent speaking engagement.
“Every question about the NIL was trying to find a way around it, trying to find a way to bring in revenue in some other way,” LSU’s head football coach said, referring to the new era of revenue sharing and Name, Image, and Likeness that is now part of college athletics.
“Sooner or later, we have to take the stand that transparency, consistency, ethics, and morality are at the core of this.”
The words sound nice in July, but what happens when push comes to shove in the recruiting world? Will every school, coach, and booster adhere to the new rules, staying within the $20.5 million revenue-sharing cap and not seek methods to sidestep the NIL Go clearinghouse to secure prized recruits and transfers?
The two powerhouse conferences — the Big Ten and the SEC — have met jointly twice, and the same message is being conveyed.
“We have to agree to be governed, if this thing is going to work,” Purdue athletic director Mike Bobinski said.
Whether that’s the case remains to be seen.
But there’s no viable alternative if schools and coaches start looking for ways to gain an advantage by breaking the rules. The newly implemented structure will fail, and the landscape of college athletics will return to a free-for-all, which benefits the athletes but creates a lawless environment due to the lack of enforcement.
“If the clearinghouse doesn't work, you don't have a cap,” Bobinski said. “I think everybody of clear mind here understands that for the long-term sustainability of the enterprise, while it's not perfect, it's probably the best available solution at this moment in time.”
All of this falls under the newly formed College Sports Commission, which is responsible for activities related to the House v. NCAA settlement, including enforcement.
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The CSC will examine outside deals worth $600 or more between athletes and sponsors and determine whether they’re for valid business purposes.
“There's been lots of energy and effort put into trying to anticipate how folks might try to work in the dark alleys on this and try to prevent that as best we can,” Bobinski said.
“There's literally no limit to what you can do, as long as it's legit and you actually bring true market value to the table, instead of manufacturing deals for people that don't have any legitimate market value.”
Last week, the CSC said in a letter to Division I athletic directors that it had rejected deals between athletes and donor-backed collectives. In the early stages of NIL Go, Bobinski said deals for Purdue athletes had been accepted.
But how stiff will the penalties be for those who circumvent the rules? And will it happen promptly, rather than waiting for the NCAA Committee on Infractions to issue a ruling, which typically takes several years? The Committee on Infractions won’t be involved.
That’s the old way. We’ll see if the new system will have an impact.
“The penalties have to be timely. They've got to be swift. They've got to be severe. They've got to be behavior-changing,” Bobinski said. “That's the goal that everybody has.”
Kelly said it starts with the coaches.
“We have to be the stewards of this,” he said. “There has to be a moral high ground.”
Help may be on the way from Congress, which has proposed a bill incorporating NIL guidelines and preventing athletes from being classified as employees. If passed, the bill would establish a uniform federal system, bypassing the various forms of state NIL legislation.
“I was in D.C. earlier this year talking about the need for national legislation,” South Carolina football coach Shane Beamer said at SEC Media Day earlier this week. “Something uniform that has some teeth to it. If somebody is not doing what they're supposed to be doing, it's going to be enforced and there will be repercussions.”
The path forward is clear in Bobinski’s mind, assuming all parties commit to living within the rules.
“I know that if we're going to continue to do it the way we were doing it, at some point this whole ship is going to run aground,” he said. “You get to my point in this world where you've been doing it for 40 plus years, you start to be a little reflective and think about, ‘How can we set it on a sustainable path, as opposed to let's try and be opportunistic in the moment and grab all we can?’ You can't live that way forever.”
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Predict in the next 3 years the SEC and Big Ten will each expand to be 28 members and when that happens, they will depart from the NCAA and form their own governing body. They’ll also only play each other, and the guaranteed game will no longer happen.