If you think you had a bad day yesterday, just think what it must have been like around NCAA headquarters.
The Justice Department’s antitrust division leader sent a letter to NCAA President Mark Emmert on Friday that expresses strong concerns about the association’s direction on rules regarding athletes’ ability to transfer and to make money from the use of their names, images and likenesses.
Proposed changes in both areas are scheduled to be on the agenda of Monday’s meeting of the Division I Council and Thursday’s meeting of the Division I Board of Directors.
But in the letter — a copy of which was obtained by USA TODAY Sports — Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim says one part of the NCAA’s prospective approach to regulating athletes’ involvement in name, image and likeness deals “may raise concerns under the antitrust laws.”
If you’re running a cartel, those are seven simple words you never want to hear. And this isn’t going to make things any cheerier:
More generally addressing other rules that will remain in place, he wrote: “Ultimately, the antitrust laws demand that college athletes, like everyone else in our free market economy, benefit appropriately from competition.”
Basically, all three branches of the federal government, plus a number of states, are telling the NCAA and schools to get off their collective asses and do the right thing. Here’s guessing they won’t until it’s too late.
Get The Picture 
Your friendly encouragement from the feds.The NCAA may do what nobody else has been able to do: get the two political parties to work together.
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What will “doing the right thing” look like? I try to follow this a bit but my interest wanes. So is every player a free agent to get paid by whoever they can? No restrictions? Or all players get the same salary, as I’m sure they all “work” equal amount of hours for the same “company”?
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Paying them all the same regardless of ability would be communism.
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I can’t read the news where our 3rd team OT goes home to Waycross for the weekend and his mama beats his ass for not moving up the depth chart and bringing home more money
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Does that happen to NFL players? Should we stop paying them too?
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Will the be allowed to hire agents to negotiate higher pay for an endorsement deal at Rebel Rags in Oxford? I’m not trying to argue with you… just curious what this compensation scheme looks like
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More than likely.
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Boom times for agents on the horizon sounds like. Can’t you see all these 19 yr entrepreneurs on every campus beating down every bar and sporting goods store in town trying to there buddy on the football team an endorsement deal and agent taking a cut. Be fun as hell really.
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Well, let’s start with the 10th Circuit’s analysis that college sports are a different place in the sports market from professional sports and therefore the anti-trust laws permit regulations that protects a distinction between college sports and professional sports.
The 10th Circuit also found that since conferences compete with each other and allowing conferences to set regulations that foster competition within the conference the new normal may allow conferences to continue to regulate benefits.
I also expect that third party payments such as endorsements will be permitted for all athletes, with allowances for limiting use of school trademarks or regulating endorsements that would affect the value of the school’s trademark (think, a ban on endorsements of weed or alcohol or gambling sites.) The SEC schools, for example, compete with schools from other conferences for talent so the SEC’s incentive would be to come up with a plan that would be more appealing to players than what other conferences would offer but restrictive enough to protect inter conference competition.
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Buzzkill. We either free or we ain’t. lol
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I understand. The purpose of the anti trust laws is to foster competition in a market so the law permits restraints that are reasonable to fostering competition. Neither sellers of factors of production or buyers of factors of production are truly free to do what they want. A business that needs widgets isn’t free to just steal widgets.
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CB, when I enrolled at UGA every scholarshiped player received a monthly cash payment as a part of his scholarship package. It wasn’t a lot of money but it was a cash payment. Every scholarshiped player got the same amount.
No one called it “communism” and conservative Georgians still bought tickets to the games.
Thd NCAA changed the rules in the mid 1970s and the month cash payment went away.
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Some still get paid in cash, but the NCAA amateurism propaganda campaign and the acceptance of alleged capitalist fans doesn’t make equal pay regardless of ability any less of a Marxist ideal.
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No one is even asking the schools to pay them (more – since they already get a stipend). Just stop colluding to restrict their ability to earn from third parties. Olympic model. And on allowing transfers, that is as simple as treating them like any other student.
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That’s fine. See comment above. Hundreds of budding 19 yr old entrepreneur agents coming to campus. Now starting at RT ….from Commerce and representing general boeregards saloon in downtown Athens ….Trevor pickleman. Crowd goes wild
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And I assume as a paid representative you can work in free drinks after a win in the endorsement deal. Just brings everything above board. Unlike the odyssey back in the 80s. When Goldberg’s crew drank free all night
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With Covid-19 wreaking havoc with most universities finances, I could see a concerted effort by the leadership of these schools begging congress not to make them pay out “money they don’t have”. Of course the money is there, but as you have pointed out before, educational purpose bookkeeping is really creative when it comes to profit/loss statements.
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The NIL doesn’t come from the schools as someone noted above. It’s all third party endorsement payments, so won’t cost the schools anything. Also, the $75M+ spent on coaching buyouts the past month kind blows that “we’re broke” argument out of the water.
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I think that the NCAA’S concerns include a fear that a star player, such as Trevor Lawrence will receive advertising money that would otherwise go to the school.
It doesn’t bother me but the NCAA sees that bogeyman.
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Just implement the Olympic model.
Even if they went to the whole pay-for-play employee model, each player could negotiate his or her best deal. Some may elect for a guaranteed 5-year scholarship.
What I don’t want to see is some mish-mash of how the NFL does things with how colleges do things. In other words, I don’t want to hear the following: “With the first pick in SEC player draft, the Vanderbilt Commodores select Gunner Stockton, Quarterback, Rabun County High School, Tiger, Georgia.”
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I wonder if endorsement deals will be limited to the geographical area you are employed (in the good ole days called play football)? Or you are free to have endorsement in college town and then also in your own hometown? These players are about to make so much money they will never want to turn pro. Every team will be full of 5 th year seniors
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And snappy dressers. Imagine all the free tux’s at Pernos. And nice clothes at Dick Ferguson’s up for grabs
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Any analysis of whether a restriction is permitted or prohibited under the Sherman Act includes analysis of whether the restriction is reasonable. Ask yourself if preventing Trevor Howard from endorsing the Ford dealer in Valley, Alabama is reasonable to the viability of college sports and competition in the ACC.
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You sound to reasonable and switched on legally for a Saturday morning. Ha
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I was not switched on enough to call Trevor Lawrence his real name. 🙂
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Remember that the NCAA and the conferences are able, under antitrust law, to enact reasonable rules to promote college sports ‘ place in the market. Also, a high school player draft is a restriction upon a high school player’s ability to sell his services and is a violation of anti trust laws.
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If there is a collectively bargained arrangement between the schools and Power 5 college football participants, it will likely be a closed shop just like the NFLPA. If you want to be eligible to play Power 5 college football, you join the association and are subject to its requirements.
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I guess said differently, “Does Trevor Lawrence really want to go play for the Jacksonville Jaguars?” If not for the CBA, he could in theory negotiate whatever contract he wanted with whatever franchise was willing to sign him.
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A CBA means a labor relationship between employees and management. That is significantly different from NIL at this point.
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I understand that. I’m talking about those who want to see the relationship change to employer/employee.
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Paying the players, sounds just like the NFL. Which many of y’all seem to loathe…yet, many want the players paid. Confounding for sure.
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Speaking for me, I’m a supporter of the Olympic model and transfer reform. I’m only a supporter of pay-for-play if the NCAA doesn’t get its act together.
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Now on the 8 meter dive board from Westminster, Claire Katherine Mary Elizabeth Chandler…..she is forgoing the 2022 Olympics for her senior year which is sponsored by the Chandler Foundation and Coca Cola.
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🙄. From wanting Daniels to stay and not turn pro to a panic that 5th year seniors will all stay…as if endorsement money would A) be worth more than a pro contract and B) the endorsement money won’t follow him to the pros.
What do you care if a swimmer gets a deal with a swimwear company? And how does that exclude her from competing for UGA and in the Olympics? Do you really think an Athens clothing shop is going to shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars for 3rd string OLs? The boosters have already set market rates at $100 handouts. Kyle Trask isn’t worth millions to the most deranged gator alum.
If you want to be in a panic and keep clutching your pearls, then here is the problem I’ve not seen addressed…what stops a Bama booster giving a deal to Daniels to transfer? The intersection of unregulated NIL agreements and De facto college free agency is upon us. The minute Pickens cuts and runs to Clemson is the minute I’m done with college football. The NCAA needs to get out in front of this…and they won’t.
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Fake news man. I don’t care either way. What makes you think I do.
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What’s to stop him now?
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In theory, a booster paying direct compensation to a player to transfer is illegal under NCAA rules and something I believe Saban would neither risk nor needs. But you know that, so I don’t understand your question. If just about JT’s ability to transfer now, then yes that bothers me but keeps a thin thread of romanticism that he’s doing for other than immediate economic gratification. Please…there’s probably only a season or two left before they ruin CFB. Let me enjoy what little is left.
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Boosters pay money under the table to recruits all the time now. What you’re worried about is already a reality and ending NCAA restrictions on college athletes’ financial rights wouldn’t change that, other than to bring it out in the open.
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They do so now at risk of severe penalty (well…assuming the NCAA bothers to enforce this ever again). That’s why, we trust, Bama isn’t stealing him from us next season. But when Bama can openly and legally buy Daniels via guaranteed endorsement deals then college free agency becomes a reality. Good for the kids, good for the fans of CFB’s equivalent of the Yankees, but bad for fans overall IMHO…YMMV.
To be clear…I’m in favor of NIL rights but would like the playing field to be level for all schools. If that were even legal (leveling the field), I have zero faith the NCAA would know how to do it AND be able to enforce the rules.
I’ve always inferred you agree that this would be the beginning of the end for you too but maybe I’m wrong.
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We’re way past the end. Money corrupted college football a long time ago.
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You fixin’ to THINK “money corrupted college football a long time ago….”
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I keep reading this, but until I see proof, I’m going to file “Boosters pay money under the table to recruits all the time now” in the same bin as “66,248 underage teenagers voted.”
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Sure, sure, whatever. Pay no attention to the FBI’s investigation of the shoe companies, or Cam’s daddy, or the LSU dude embezzling from a hospital, or…
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Yeah, but “all the time”?
Senator, is it really what you want, to make it easier for players like George Pickens to move freely from team to team? To make high-school athletes decide on colleges simply by who’s going to pay them the most money? I understand everyone’s desire to treat athletes fairly, and I’d actually have no problem with allowing a player to make money over the summer doing clinics; or paying him a percentage of whatever money is made from selling a jersey featuring his name and number; or allowing him a percentage of whatever someone will pay for his online presence.
But Cory Booker’s bill “requires schools to share 50% of their profit with athletes from revenue-generating sports, after accounting for cost of scholarships” and would “lift all restrictions and penalties that prevent athletes from attending the school of their choice, including transfer penalties and those tied to national letters of intent” (SI, Dellinger, 12/17/20). College football won’t be college football anymore, it’ll just be another version of pro football, but without any of the binders that tend to keep pro football players playing with the same teams.
I’m not interested in that. I’ve already got the Falcons. Don’t need another pro team 60 miles up the road.
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Sharing 50% of their profit…that should be real easy to enforce with the way athletic departments manage their financials! Good luck with enforcing that Corey Booker🤣🤣
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It’s about damn time that the DOJ rediscover the anti-trust section of the law!
Personally, the Olympic model is the way I would go.
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I have no idea how this thing shakes out. I just hope we can get one more MNC before it implodes. However, it is the irony of ironies that the NCAA (read: universities), the hotbed of liberalism in the US, is being attacked on all fronts for anti-capitalistic behavior.
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