The Only Thing Worse Than Participating In The Ugly New World of NIL …

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The Only Thing Worse Than Participating In The Ugly New World of NIL …

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SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey and Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff met with congressional leaders this past week, seeking national legislation for uniform Name, Image and Likeness rules.

Why?

Because the NCAA wasn’t able to get its act together and agree to its own set of rules before state laws went into effect last summer.

Did Sankey and Kliavkoff get anywhere?

Of course not.

One of the senators the commissioners met with was Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.). Blackburn’s statement after the meeting:

“For far too long, the NCAA has refused to allow student-athletes to benefit from the use of their name, image and likeness (NIL). NCAA president Mark Emmert’s resignation is one of many necessary structural changes that will enable the NCAA to support our student-athletes. During my meeting with SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and others today, I continued to push for the accountability and fairness measures our student-athletes deserve.”

Sound like NIL legislation coming down the pipe anytime soon?

So, with Congress a no-go – until after the mid-terms, at the earliest – the NCAA and its members are left to try and regulate themselves.

Seriously.

… (Pause to wait for you to stop laughing) …

Now, it is being reported that an expedited NCAA enforcement process addressing name, image and likeness rights abuses is expected to pass as early as next week.

Gene Smith, the Ohio State athletic director, is a member of a little-known NIL working group formed about two months ago to deal with growing questions of illicit activity. Despite the threat of legal liability, Smith said the NCAA and his subcommittee are determined to put up meaningful guardrails around NIL, which in some cases has edged close to pay-for-play.

The working group’s recommendations submitted this week primarily deal with booster involvement. Several monied boosters have developed “collectives” establish NIL opportunities for athletes. NCAA stakeholders have long been suspicious of such collectives becoming direct inducements for recruits and transfer candidates.

How effective it will be – as the NIL culture chaotically spreads – is up for debate.

“We know we’re going to get lawsuits,” Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith told CBS Sports on Friday.

Way too little, and way too late.

“By preventing boosters/collectives from being involved, the NCAA is acting to reduce compensation earned by athletics,” said Mit Winter, a Kansas City-based attorney who deals in NCAA matters.

Pick your metaphor … The NCAA is trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube, or closing the barn door after the horses have gotten out.

Ain’t gonna happen.

The world we now live in – and a world which is likely to remain in place – is a world where, Jordan Addison, a Biletnikoff Award winning wide receiver playing for the ACC champion Pittsburgh Panthers, can enter the Transfer Portal, lured away to play for (in all likelihood) USC.

If the ACC champion cannot hold onto players, what chance does a team like Colorado have for keeping its rising stars?

Two chances – fat and slim.

Buff fans witnessed the brave new world of the Transfer Portal payoffs this off-season, with CU’s leading receiver (Brenden Rice to USC), leading running back (Jarek Broussard to Michigan State) and top defensive backs (Christian Gonzalez to Oregon; Mekhi Blackmon to USC) bolting for greener – quite literally, greener – pastures.

Assuming that the Transfer Portal and NIL money are here to stay in some shape or form, what are teams like Colorado supposed to do?

Well, in CU’s case, more than what is being done …

“Buffs with a Brand”

Colorado set up its “Buffs with a Brand” system over a year ago, with the concept of teaching its student-athletes how to better market themselves, and to pursue NIL options. CU worked with INFCR to set up a clearinghouse so that boosters – er, NIL sponsors – could be cleared to communicate with CU athletes.

In other words, CU put in place a system which was designed to be effective in a world which was supposed to exist in the new world of the Transfer Portal and NIL … but never had a chance of existing.

Other schools and their boosters, not bound by the principles of NIL and what it was intended to allow for, rushed into the void.

We now live in a system where players are openly being played to pay, and recruits are being offered seven-figure contracts to sign on with certain teams. George Kliavkoff and Rick George can pontificate all they want about how inducements are ruining the game, but that doesn’t stop everyone else from using inducements to lure players to their schools.

So, what should CU do?

For starters, get its boosters to form a “collective”, like everyone else is doing.

Rick George is a savvy administrator. He has worked for the Texas Rangers and professional golf tours. He raised $105 million in three years to build the Champions Center, at a school which had never raised more than $15 million in any one year before George returned to Boulder in 2013.

Collectives are not run by the schools, but they are certainly in close contact with the schools – It’s beyond naïve to assume otherwise. Think Texas boosters are going after high school recruits and potential transfers the coaching staff aren’t interested in?

Puh-lease.

Pretty sure Rick George could tell you off the top of his head the names, addresses and phone numbers of CU’s top ten donors. CU can, and should, be actively working on getting a collective formed.

The “CU Collective” could be run through the Buff Club, Buffs4Life, or other CU supporters, with the full knowledge and consent of the CU administration. It could still try and do things the “right way”, by creating business opportunities for Buff athletes, opportunities which are not inducements but genuine compensation packages. It wouldn’t be as successful as the pay-for-play collectives which have been formed, but it beats the crap out of doing nothing.

And yet … CU still doesn’t have a collective.

How in God’s name is that possible?

What can CU be doing differently?

While the “CU Collective” is technically out of the hands of the CU administration, there are plenty of actions the CU athletic department could be undertaking to make CU competitive.

Let’s start with scheduling.

CU will be playing TCU, Air Force and Minnesota in this season’s upcoming non-conference schedule, with two of those games on the road.

UCLA, meanwhile, will be playing Bowling Green, Alabama State, and South Alabama – all at home.

When CU and UCLA meet in the Pac-12 opener on September 24th in Boulder, UCLA will be 3-0, with its team well rested, focused, and having had the kinks worked out in their “preseason” warmups.

CU, meanwhile, will be … what? 1-2? Perhaps 2-1 if you are an optimist. The Buff will be coming off of two straight road games against tough opponents.

Which program will be in better shape come late September?

Yes, I understand the argument that CU needs to have quality non-conference opponents to put butts in the seats and dollars in the coffers.

Three years ago, UCLA hosted Oklahoma in the Rose Bowl. A crowd of 52,578 was on hand for the spectacle, along with a national television audience … to watch UCLA get spanked, 48-14.

Last fall, UCLA opened at home against Hawai’i. The crowd? 32,982. UCLA won, 44-10.

The bean counters at the UCLA financial office preferred the LSU game and the 20,000 extra tickets sold.

Which game do you think the Bruin supporters preferred?

CU simply cannot afford to go 1-2 in non-conference play year-in and year-out and expect to go bowling. The Buff program, as it currently is situated, cannot be expected to go 5-4 or better in Pac-12 play (which would be necessary to get to 6-6), a feat which the Buffs have accomplished exactly once since joining the conference in 2011.

And yet … CU has more games scheduled against Power Five non-conference opponents for the remainder of the 2020’s than any other Pac-12 school.

CU can be proud of its tough non-conference scheduling, and its adherence to NIL rules which are supposed to be in place.

And can take its award for doing things the “right way” all the way to the basement of the Pac-12 South … again.

But wait, there’s more …

Pay more for coaches and recruiting

Duh.

Yes, if more money was available, more money could be spent. And yes, I get the irony of advocating for boring wins over G5 non-conference opponents over money making losses to P5 non-conference opponents.

But CU needs to take a long look in the mirror, and decide whether it wants to be a true Power Five conference school – or is willing to accept some sort of relegation when the top 24-36 schools break off to form an elite brand of college football where the dollars, and stakes, are higher.

The big time donors who stepped up to build the Champions Center have to step up again.

The CU assistant coach pool will top $3.5 million this year, the highest total in school history.

It needs to be doubled.

Just like CU lost Christian Gonzalez, Brenden Rice, and Jarek Broussard, the Buffs lost Demetrice Martin and Vic So’oto … and Jim Leavitt … and Mel Tucker.

It’s all about the dollars. Either pay to play, or leave the table.

I did an interview with CU defensive lineman Jalen Sami recently (podcast to be posted next Sunday, the 15th). Sami still has two years of eligibility remaining, yet he is not only on his third head coach, he is on his sixth position coach at CU.

No one can look at that turnover and expect great results from its student-athletes.

You want better results? Pay to hire – and retain – quality coaches.

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There are other topics of conversation, including making it easier for transfers to get into CU, but that will have to wait for another day, as I have rambled on too long already.

I, like many members of the Buff Nation, am beyond frustrated. It’s like a malaise has descended upon the CU fan base, one I haven’t seen since at least back to the Jon Embree years, and perhaps as far back as the baby blue years in the early 80’s.

CU is not only losing, but there doesn’t seem to be an obvious path for that to change. If CU has some sophomore breakout this fall (Nikko Reed? Montana Lemonious-Craig? Jayle Stacks?) whose to say that they will still be wearing black-and-gold in 2023? Karl Dorrell could build a program, but not if his top players (and top young assistant coaches) have to be replaced every off-season.

College football is out of control. Top programs are simply buying up the best players, and the NCAA seems to be in no hurry to corral the worst offenders (as Rick George pointed out in a podcast interview this past week with John Canzano, the rules against inducements are already there in the NCAA By-laws. They’re just not being enforced.

And any attempt to do so now will be met with lawsuits (You’re going to tell a Texas offensive lineman that he can be paid $50,000 to breathe in 2022, but not in 2023? Plaintiffs’ lawyers will fall all over themselves filing lawsuits asserting their clients’ rights to make money off of their Name, Image and Likeness are being infringed upon by the NCAA enforcement of its rules).

So, if CU is not going to be reduced to a glorified G5 school, and act as a minor league feeder program for USC and Oregon, it has to get in the game. CU may not like the current landscape of college football, but it can’t compete by standing on the sidelines and allowing other schools to take its best players and coaches.

The only thing worse than being an active participant in the shady new world of the Transfer Portal and NIL pay-for-play … is not participating at all.

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This post, about the Spring/Summer game, from the 2022 Season, is filed under Article.
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