MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — Testifying before a Senate committee regarding Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) rights for college athletes, Gonzaga men’s basketball coach Mark Few basically put himself at the mercy of the national government and pleaded for assistance.
“We need your help. At this point this is not an issue the NCAA or individual states can fix,” Few said. “We can’t run competitive fair championships if every state has a different rule. Only action by Congress can maintain some sort of semblance of a level playing field.”
To keep it short, NIL basically allows college athletes to profit off their names while enrolled in school, which the NCAA currently prohibits.
That profit could come from a variety of ways including endorsements — the big money — or from something as simple as charging for autographs, organizing and charging for a summer camp or even making money from making popular YouTube videos.
Currently, 19 states have passed NIL laws — West Virginia is not one of them — and Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and New Mexico are about to have NIL laws go into effect on July 1.
For the record, Few is not against athletes profiting off their names. His interest is having the same law in all 50 states.
And this is where I sort of branch off from the “level playing field theory” that Few would like to see and that the NCAA’s absurdly thick rule book attempts to create across its 351 Division I member schools.
Why? Because there has never truly been a level playing field in college athletics.
Look at Milan Puskar Stadium and Michigan Stadium and tell me there is a level playing field.
Compare Texas’ recruiting budget to Kansas State’s recruiting budget and tell me there is a level playing field.
Compare West Virginia’s basketball practice facility to whatever Bowling Green or Ball State have to work with and tell me there is a level playing field.
Compare coaching salaries. Compare the median family incomes across all 50 states. Compare ticket prices.
Compare just about anything you want and it will likely point to a conclusion that some universities have a distinct advantage over others, whether it’s from location, tradition or most likely a simple matter of economic resources.
For NCAA President Mark Emmert to get up in front of that same committee and testify that NIL is some sort of game changer that will obscure the line of fairness in college athletics is simply ridiculous.
That line has been blurred for generations.
Emmert told the senators the NCAA could pass its own NIL legislation later this summer — about two years too late and only after being dragged into the conversation kicking and screaming to begin with — but its rule would likely be more restrictive than some state’s laws that have already passed.
In other words, the NCAA would be in favor of setting some sort of cap on what a college athlete could earn off his name.
It’s made no similar statements to its member schools in capping a football coach’s salary or setting limits on recruiting budgets or facilities.
The governing body set no limits on itself when negotiating an extension with CBS and TBS to continue to televise the NCAA men’s basketball tournament through 2032, an extension that cost the networks $8.8 billion.
But sure, when a star quarterback becomes a national figure, like Johnny Manziel was at Texas A&M for example, the right thing for the NCAA to do is cap how much he could have made in a commercial.
To the NCAA, that makes sense, which sort of tells you in a nutshell how twisted and cut off from reality the NCAA really is.
OK, we’re getting off point here.
NIL is coming and it is gaining momentum as it comes barging down the road.
What the NCAA needs to do is quit hiding behind the “level playing field” argument and realize there are other steps to be taken once all 50 states pass a NIL law or Congress passes a national one.
To be sure, NIL is a scary thought for athletic administrators and coaches for a number of reasons.
It does add to an already unlevel playing field and it could open a type of Pandora’s box when it comes to cash and college athletes.
Pass the law and the rich booster all of a sudden feels maybe it’s much safer to help his favorite school by shoving bags of cash at the star point guard.
Pass the law and all of a sudden it becomes the wild, wild west in terms of what one school can offer over another to potential recruits.
It is going to take a sound mind, a keen eye and a ton of patience and education to ensure NIL rights are being used correctly by both the schools and the athletes.
This should be where a forward-thinking NCAA has its eye.
Instead, it clings to the out-of-date attempt to keep a mythical level playing field, which hasn’t been the case, probably, since the 1940s.
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