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NIL, Unionization, copyright law, etc.

Saban talks about the loss of “developing” his players. I’ll be generous and assume he meant as young men, not just as football players. Now he’s worried that they just focus on getting paid. Fair enough. Notice that he didn’t once say anything about education, being a student, earning a degree, etc. Isn’t this instructive about the relationship between the football program and the university? Saban draws the line at development. If he drew the line at earning a degree at the institution of higher learning the athlete attends, he would have had to quit a few decades ago. At least. I know NU has a rich tradition of football players performing well in the classroom. GBR. But that’s not the norm in the FBS. So why do we insist on continuing to insist that football programs be linked to universities? That’s a serious question.
 

HuskerBred said:
Saban talks about the loss of “developing” his players. I’ll be generous and assume he meant as young men, not just as football players. Now he’s worried that they just focus on getting paid. Fair enough. Notice that he didn’t once say anything about education, being a student, earning a degree, etc. Isn’t this instructive about the relationship between the football program and the university? Saban draws the line at development. If he drew the line at earning a degree at the institution of higher learning the athlete attends, he would have had to quit a few decades ago. At least. I know NU has a rich tradition of football players performing well in the classroom. GBR. But that’s not the norm in the FBS. So why do we insist on continuing to insist that football programs be linked to universities? That’s a serious question.
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Because the NFL has zero interest in a minor league system. According to Commissioner Adam Silver's address during the All Star break, the NBA is going to "reassess" its investment in the G League Ignite as well. Neither league will ever spend money to create a minor league system because colleges do it for them for free.

The United States is really too far down this road to "fix it" and eliminate high school and college sports in favor of club sports.
 
Cornhuskers7 said:
Legislation is trying to get passed on antitrust protection on certain regulations by Congress. That said, who knows if it will be something that will actually get passed into law. In Tennessee, a judge ruled that NIL could be used to recruit (pay-for-play) and blocked the NCAA from being able to enforce any rules contrary to that in the State.

Effectively, something is going to have to give. Either the government is going to step in and find a way to protect the college sports model and provide a certain level of stable foundation, the conferences will take it upon themselves to come together and do that, or things will continue to spin into chaos.

There are a lot of egos at play. It will be interesting to see where this ends up, and hopefully a way will be found to protect college sports as a whole.
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The NCAA and some fans thinking it's going to get antitrust protection is absolute fantasy. That will never happen. As even current conservative Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh found, if any other industry attempted to operate with the NCAA model, it would have been found completely illegal decades ago.

Most people think all this is new. IT'S NOT!! The NCAA has been losing antitrust cases ever since Oklahoma Board of Regents vs. NCAA in 1984. The entire college sports model is completely illegal, and always has been.
 
SWVAHusker said:
Because the NFL has zero interest in a minor league system. According to Commissioner Adam Silver's address during the All Star break, the NBA is going to "reassess" its investment in the G League Ignite as well. Neither league will ever spend money to create a minor league system because colleges do it for them for free.

The United States is really too far down this road to "fix it" and eliminate high school and college sports in favor of club sports.
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I agree. Our minor leagues in football and basketball — unlike baseball and hockey — are baked into college athletics. But how things get fixed (under control?) is beyond me. Unfortunately, some of the people capable of helping the most are quitting or selling out. Isn’t that what Saban, Kelly, and TA have done? Instead of fighting the battle where they are needed, they just avoid the conflict. I guess I don’t blame them. It would have taken an elephantine pair for those guys to stay where they were and really stand up, but they are exactly the voices that need to be heard. Now TA is more of the problem. He would have been a tenacious advocate for NU IMHO. Disappointing.
 



Cornhuskers7 said:
The part that needs to be controlled is the money that is be funneled from boosters to the athletes. That money isn't NIL in the same way you are referring. That's just people with deep pockets throwing money around to try and make their team the best. Athletes getting endorsement deals with Dr. Pepper, Nike, or something more local is fine. My issue with it is recruiting/transfers coming down to the highest bidder.

Fix that issue and the rest of it is fine.

I've mentioned in other places: NIL isn't bad and transfer portal isn't bad if done correctly. The problem is that it has quickly been manipulated. Men's college basketball is in a very bad place, and a lot of that has to do with the lack of year-to-year continuity on a lot of these teams. The best players run to the NBA after one season. Other guys shuffle around to a different team. It's like pickup basketball where every year is a brand new start. Women's college basketball is becoming more compelling because it actually has names and storylines you can easily recognize.

Football isn't in quite the same place, but it sounds like it could be heading in a similar direction.
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The reason one and done exists is because of the NBA. The one and done players don't want to be in college in the first place. Schools and the NCAA cannot fix that. The Big Ten already tried by guaranteeing scholarships all four years. Only the NBA can fix that issue, and they never will because it exists so college basketball will continue to act as their minor league system. NBA commissioner Adam Silver actually said during the All Star break that the NBA's going to have to "reassess" its investment in G League Ignite because of NIL. The NBA's going backwards on this issue.

The players "shuffle around" because they want to get paid to play basketball, and get the best coaching so they get drafted. That's their goal, and they have a right to that goal. Furthermore, women's college basketball is heading there. Husker fans just don't realize it yet because Amy Williams hasn't used the portal much (or perhaps can't get much out of the portal because of NIL constraints.) Kim Mulkey at LSU basically put together her team this year using the portal. Every year, there have been more women's basketball players hit the portal than the year before.

EDIT: As a judge already found in granting an injunction against the NCAA, it's patently absurd to assert that NIL can't or shouldn't be used in recruiting. Nebraska, and Husker fans, have a choice. Adapt or get run over.
 
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SWVAHusker said:
The reason one and done exists is because of the NBA. The one and done players don't want to be in college in the first place. Schools and the NCAA cannot fix that. The Big Ten already tried by guaranteeing scholarships all four years. Only the NBA can fix that issue, and they never will because it exists so college basketball will continue to act as their minor league system. NBA commissioner Adam Silver actually said during the All Star break that the NBA's going to have to "reassess" its investment in G League Ignite because of NIL. The NBA's going backwards on this issue.

The players "shuffle around" because they want to get paid to play basketball, and get the best coaching so they get drafted. That's their goal, and they have a right to that goal. Furthermore, women's college basketball is heading there. Husker fans just don't realize it yet because Amy Williams hasn't used the portal much (or perhaps can't get much out of the portal because of NIL constraints.) Kim Mulkey at LSU basically put together her team this year using the portal. Every year, there have been more women's basketball players hit the portal than the year before.

EDIT: As a judge already found in granting an injunction against the NCAA, it's patently absurd to assert that NIL can't or shouldn't be used in recruiting. Nebraska, and Husker fans, have a choice. Adapt or get run over.
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Yes, the NBA is the one with one and done rule, which they have even considered getting rid of and going back to allow high schoolers to move straight to the NBA. In no way am I saying it is a problem the NCAA can fix, but it is still a problem nonetheless. Even with NIL, NBA money is so lucrative, there is no reason for anyone to stay in college any longer than they have to.

There are legitimate non-monetary reasons to go into the portal. I'm a proponent of the portal being available to some degree. Women's basketball is definitely moving in the same way as men's when it comes to the portal. The benefit with women's is you can't go pro until you turn 22 years old (which is backwards considering it is 19 in the NBA). This eliminates the one and dones and gives you some continuity across multiple seasons.

I was going to mention LSU and transfers in a different post, but then I looked it up and was surprised that they only had four, they just happen to be four of their best players. LSU is one of the few places that I think has monetized women's basketball to that level, which is someone like Van Lith was willing to come over from Louisville. Coaches nowadays have to be willing to use the portal. Jaz Shelley is one of the few transfers Nebraska has from a similar sized school. Most were either recruited or pulled up from a smaller school. The dynamics in women's basketball are a bit different from men's. I think recruiting from high school and developing over multiple years is something that will last longer in women's than men's.

The injunction that was granted opened a box that was already mostly open anyway. NIL at this point is in many ways "pay-for-play", just without any standardization and protections that you find in the pros. That part needs to be wrangled in, in my opinion.
 
SWVAHusker said:
The NCAA and some fans thinking it's going to get antitrust protection is absolute fantasy. That will never happen. As even current conservative Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh found, if any other industry attempted to operate with the NCAA model, it would have been found completely illegal decades ago.

Most people think all this is new. IT'S NOT!! The NCAA has been losing antitrust cases ever since Oklahoma Board of Regents vs. NCAA in 1984. The entire college sports model is completely illegal, and always has been.
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It will be interesting to see how it gets handled. It is going to be hard to strike a balance between fair market and protecting amateur athletics. College football and basketball, and a few other sports at certain schools, are highly profitable, and the athletes see none of that money. That said, every other sport, is still very much amateur. They generate little to no money and run at a significant loss.

The United States has long been superior to other countries in many of these amateur collegiate sports, especially women's sports. There are a lot of things broken in the youth sports system, but all of the opportunities available in college athletics is one of the few things that isn't.

If we allow each of these sports to turn into a business, it is likely to kill off these non-profitable sports, beyond what scraps they might have to hold onto to satisfy Title IX. Would this happen across all college sports or just at the highest level?
 




Cornhuskers7 said:
It will be interesting to see how it gets handled. It is going to be hard to strike a balance between fair market and protecting amateur athletics. College football and basketball, and a few other sports at certain schools, are highly profitable, and the athletes see none of that money. That said, every other sport, is still very much amateur. They generate little to no money and run at a significant loss.

The United States has long been superior to other countries in many of these amateur collegiate sports, especially women's sports. There are a lot of things broken in the youth sports system, but all of the opportunities available in college athletics is one of the few things that isn't.

If we allow each of these sports to turn into a business, it is likely to kill off these non-profitable sports, beyond what scraps they might have to hold onto to satisfy Title IX. Would this happen across all college sports or just at the highest level?
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If the Supreme Court ultimately rules that athletes are employees, most schools won’t have athletics programs any further. That would be all junior colleges, NAIA, D3, D2, and much of D1.

Game over.
 
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WestTexasHusker said:
If the Supreme Court ultimately rules that athletes are employees, most schools won’t have athletics programs any further. That would be all junior colleges, NAIA, D3, D2, and much of D1.

Game over.
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They'll all switch to club sports. Things will be much more like the 60's in that regard.

The schools that do keep football as a varsity sport, will kill off nearly all other sports though.
 
NU_Alum said:
They'll all switch to club sports. Things will be much more like the 60's in that regard.

The schools that do keep football as a varsity sport, will kill off nearly all other sports though.
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Good friend of mine is a high D2 AD. He says similar. It also could be that schools can have athletics, but zero remuneration of any kind. Basically D3 for everyone, and the athlete might even have to pay for their own apparel.
 



WestTexasHusker said:
Good friend of mine is a high D2 AD. He says similar. It also could be that schools can have athletics, but zero remuneration of any kind. Basically D3 for everyone, and the athlete might even have to pay for their own apparel.
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Yep. My prediction from very early on is that this is going to hurt way more people than it helps.
 
WestTexasHusker said:
Can anyone imagine trying to employ 500 or so athletes under California employment law?

Goodbye athletics in that state!
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What is hard to imagine is we have posters believing it’s a good idea for a union to negotiate for the employees/players of all 50 states. And believe that all these universities would go along with it.
 

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