Many have opinions. Many do not accept that players were paid under the table prior to NIL. What NIL has done is that it has allowed for so called non blue bloods programs to compete and win the CFP. Technically a g5 can now buy the best athletes and the best coaching staff to win the cfp.
IMO the only way to regulate any types of “NIL guidelines” is to have a “salary/NIL cap” That way every g5 and power schools are on equal footing. But the only way to enforce it is to have an IRS “commission” that overseas it. Without the IRS being involved there won’t be any limit or every upcoming rules will easily be broken. Blue bloods have cheated for decades and they will do it again if given the chance. Getting the IRS involved will mean clear penalties with a possibility of a program being penalized for up to the equivalence of the “death penalty” In the past the ncaa got us or close to the “death penalty” while others that did the same thing walked free and clear. I am all for the NIL with a true “cop” not a bs ncaa that has always sold its soul to a few. You have a better idea? Please chime in.
if you want to get paid to play go pro that should be the guideline
and the under the table part is easily addressed by laws and the IRS being implemented against both the person handing off the cash and the person accepting it…and then penalties against the program as well
player that accepts cash is no longer allowed to play amateur sports, cannot get any federal subsidized loans or grants (including research grants) for 10 years and pays a lot to the IRS for unreported income
the person giving the cash pays the IRS a ton of money and spends 1 year in federal jail at their expense (if they have the money to pay a college player they have the money to pay for their stay in jail)
anyone that acts as a go between faces the same as the person paying the cash and they get twice the penalty if they are employeed by the university
the program that has it happen loses scholarships at a rate of 5X the number of players that accepted the cash for football…5 players then -25 scholarships and 2X for all other sports
players get a “players scholarship” so they are not employees of $1,038 per month which is half the average social security check and that amount is indexed for inflation just like social security
You miss the point. We are talking about NIL. NIL is a form of payment. Amateur sports does not exist anymore and has not existed for a long time.
Thank you.
and you miss the point there is nothing that says that NIL has to stay and cannot go away which is what college sports needs to happen
Some good rules would be
Coaches can leave but only after all bowls and the national championship is played
Push the recruiting cycle back to make it happen bc coaches leave early for recruiting purposes.
Only allow one transfer then if they transfer a 2nd time, they have to sit out 1 yr.
Have nil contracts where if the player isn’t good, you still pay and if the kid leaves , have a penalty $ clause or if given all money upfront, the player has to pay it back / contract that makes all parties have skin in the game.
Have a committee that determines reasonable market value with reasonable services offered as in what did the player do for a dealership etc vs pay for play
Eliminate pay for play
I know about a player from from an SEC school who was on the sidelines with a respectable NIL, but never saw playing time. His dad told him to leave, forget the NIL, and find a school that would put him on the field. He wanted to see his son actually play, not just make a nice chunk of change standing on the sidelines. He ended up transferring to an FCS because they promised time on the field.
- Five years to play. No redshirts. If you get injured, that’s rough, hope you have better luck in the CFL/UFL.
- Players get one free transfer. They can have another in the portal window immediately following degree completion. Otherwise, they have to sit out a year if they transfer. Crucially, entering the transfer portal spends your free transfer.
- Head coaches cannot sign players from their previous school within 365 days of their departure.
- Scholarships and roster spots are unconditionally guaranteed for the length of the player’s eligibility, with an additional year awarded if the player is signed as a transfer.
- Pay the players salaries that are fully guaranteed and cannot be renegotiated except by mutual agreement.
In general, schools and players need to be more committed to each other.
There is no perfect NIL / Transfer model because college athletics (especially football) has always been fundamentally flawed
The only way to fix the imbalances of college athletics is to implement a draft - but this isn’t logistically possible. It’s not possible at all.
5 years max
2 free transfers
Coach leaving sits out 1 year
NIL has to come from social media or company with no college affiliation
School pays the player their portion.
Multiple issues with the college game
Transfer portal
NIL
Lack of employee status / players union
One transfer period after spring training
Only one free transfer pre graduation
5 years to play 4 minimize medial redshirt and special extensions (maybe let a committee on the players union decide is a player gets a 6th year)
NIL. A players union could enact rules to limit how much any player could take from a collective or source that wasn’t for an actual product endorsement or paid appearances
And payments for products and appearances could also have norms associated with them
Violate the norms lose union membership
Non Union players can’t play on the same field as unionized players
Contracts for rev share with conferences decided by players union so all get the same min player payouts and min 2 year contract with 1st school and conferences decide the caps on total that can be shared out. A salary cap as it were.
Auditable records would be turned in on each player and they submit to having bank accounts
Audited on demand and purchases ….only way to discover large bags of undeposited cash are spending habits compared to known intake
I honestly believe there is no perfect solution to this monster the NCAA/Colleges created.
The first thing we need to do is decide what college sports are and what the purpose of college sports is. Are college sports about educating our students or are college sports about creating income? If college sports are about money we should treat them as such.
First, establish what a “student athlete” is and isn’t.
If the kid is an ‘employee’ of the colleges we can stop with the ‘student athlete’ horsesh*t.
Secondly, establish what the parameters for compensation are.
If its about money, then a business contract is needed:
Every kid needs a lawyer, a financial consultant and a tax person BEFORE entering into any contractual agreement.
Agents should have rules and an authority to govern those rules.
If an agent messes up he should be subject to litigation by the school the kid and the authority.
A kid can transfer ONCE. If he transfers a 2nd time he must either pay a penalty to his old school or sit out a year. The penalty must be paid before he can play again.
Contract for 5 years.
Pay scale graded like positions are in the NFL.
Pay reductions/fines for nonperformance on the field.
If a kid quits or transfers he is responsible for the term of a contract with his old ‘employer’ and he must pay it BEFORE he plays for somebody else.
If a kid is injured and can no longer participate the term of his contract must be paid by his "employer’. BUT if the kid rehabs and goes to another ‘employer’ he’s got to pay the contract term to his former employer.
If the coach leaves the kid can transfer to another school without penalty, BUT not the school the coach went to.
If college sports are about “educating student athletes”:
If the kid doesn’t graduate he pays the school back for the ENTIRE term of the contract. YES I said ALL.
Flunking a class results in fines. Bad grades results in fines.
There must be a graduated “Progress toward degree” scale.
Lack of progress toward a degree results in reduction of compensation.
These are a few of my ideas. Lawyers (God forbid) ARE BETTER TO DECIDE THIS STUFF.
This creates a perverse incentive for schools to make it harder for players to graduate, which is the opposite of what anyone should want.
I sound like a broken record but the only way to reform NIL and the Transfer Portal, and for it to survive the courts, is for a collective bargaining agreement, just like the pros.
The college athletes need to form a union that is able to negotiate with a governing body of college sports, either the NCAA (unlikely), or the recently created College Sports Commission.
Negotiating NIL caps and limiting player movement is not in the players’ best interest so there is little energy on the players’ side for any substantive change.
I’m not holding my breath for any change. In the meantime, send your loose change to your preferred NIL.
Right now schools don’t give a sh** if players graduate or not. They just want to maintain eligibility so the kid can play until his eligibility runs out. That’s part of the problem. The ‘employer’ should be incentivized to have players graduate too. Like I said, this thing is for lawyers and people smarter than me to figure out. RIGHT NOW the ‘student athletes’ will lose at least 40% of the time. I think we will end up trying to find the answers that suck the least.
I like Top 25’s rule proposal but I would add something about going to class- I wonder how many kids take the money and classes are not being attended. I would have some strong checks and balances for every school to follow. I still remember the story of the player that was at Okla State that couldn’t read but managed to stay eligible for his four years
Or the Miami QB who said on TV he hadn’t taken classes in two years.
The Miami kid was a grad student. If he was working on a thesis or Doctorate he may not have had to go to class.
Dexter Manley in the late 70’s and early 80’s and fast forward to the Miami QB. This is not new. I am glad you brought it up. What it means friends is that the ncaa is at the very core of this major student athlete issue. The ncaa has always been “driven” by the so called blue bloods. The 1984 SCOTUS decision was highly predictable. The fundamental issue is that we can’t have the ncaa at the helm. The ncaa has to be dissolved and replaced by a Federal commission. Why the Feds? Because most of these schools are public schools. Can you imagine for a minute if the IRS would audit every DIV I FBS program?
You establish a Federal commission with a direct relationship with the IRS with:
Five years eligibility.
Class attendance at a 95% minimum exception for Fridays and other week days.
No more NIL but a $20M’s pot…It puts everybody, be g5’s and p4 programs all on the same page. $20M’s is plenty to distribute around an athletic program.
IRS student athletes monitoring. In case someone wants to “buy” a player like before it became legal.
Rules being broken?
Players have to pay fine or even risk jail time.
Universities risk…Federal funding with IRS monitoring if someone wants to “help”
Clear guidelines should not be hard. Applying true consequences seems to be at the heart of this issue. If p4’s schools are not willing to do the above then college sports is indeed gone.
Only a true monitoring with real consequences can solve this issue. Otherwise we have the same status quo that we have known for decades.
“Yes sir, this is your Trans Am”