A Few Thoughts on the NIL Lawsuit and Player Compensation
My voice is on the shelf, but my brain isn't, and the ground is shifting underneath the business model that is college football.
My voice for this week’s podcast was a game time decision. Like Michael Vick’s ankle against Miami in 2000, 60% just wasn’t going to cut it.
Unfortunately, it’s weaker today than it was yesterday, and it was pretty weak yesterday. So, I put off recording this week’s podcast and instead will share some thoughts on the NIL lawsuit that the Virginia and Tennessee Attorneys General filed recently and for which they won a temporary injunction last week.
First, I’ve given a lot of thought as to why the Virginia AG would join in this case. Not the made-for-the-media reasons, but the real reasons. So far, I have come up with these two:
This is an attempt to curry favor with the SEC on behalf of Virginia and Virginia Tech, who may be looking for a new conference home sooner than later.
A Virginia school, I won’t speculate as to which one(s), may have been in the NCAA’s crosshairs for the same alleged violation.
Both are decent reasons, but I’m not sure either one alone merits Virginia’s AG getting involved. I can see a case for the Virginia AG to act if both were true, but I suspect there is more to the story than has publicly been revealed.
Beyond factors that would cause the political wheels to start turning in Virginia, there are real questions about the ramifications of this case, which appears likely to be decided in Tennessee’s favor.
Virginia Tech, neither by culture nor by resources, is the kind of school looking to pay big money (or perhaps any money) up front in NIL to high school recruits.
So, if the final judgement comes down as expected, Virginia Tech will probably be in a weaker position in the short-term. But long-term, it seems increasingly likely that the universities will have to employ players directly, which would make multi-year contracts easier to write and manage.
The stage was set earlier this month in a ruling by the National Labor Relations Board. As reported by the Associated Press:
A National Labor Relations Board regional official ruled on Monday that Dartmouth basketball players are employees of the school, clearing the way for an election that would create the first-ever labor union for NCAA athletes.
That leads me to my final provocation, I mean point.
Perhaps you chuckled a bit at the notion of some Ivy League basketball players gaining employment status and, likely, union status as well.
Well, chuckle ye not, because if suddenly all athletes become employees, I don’t care how much boosters in the Southeast give to their favorite athletic department, the Ivy League will win if it decides to play the game.
In terms of endowment size, four of the top six universities nationally are in the Ivy League.
Texas A&M, at seventh, is the only current member of the SEC in the top 10.
Once upon a time, the Northeast schools dominated college football. The famed Yale-Georgia series in the 1920s marked the passing of the baton.
But if money really equates to winning, the big money remains in the Northeast. And if those schools decide to start spending, well, all bets about the P2 would be off.