Managing the NIL: Counter-intuitive approach

May 3, 2022, 4:40 PM

It appears likely that the NCAA is stuck in their 'intellectual mud' as far as attempting to manage the NIL / Portal issue. Suppression of free labor isn't going to cut it.

Here is a counter-intuitive thought about how to make the NIL less palatable to the super wealthy colleges. This isn't the single 'silver bullet' ... it's a 'spread the risk' step towards managing the problem.

First, a question: Does the current NIL deal mandate that the student athlete recipient of the NIL always get the full amount of the NIL deal ... or can the NIL deal be conditional. I.e., can some or all of the NIL get revoked if the player either doesn't play well enough, fails to show up for his or her promotional events / advertising shoots, or if he / she gets suspended or leaves the school?

(*) If any part of the NIL is 'voidable' by the NIL-sponsoring entity, then here is something that the NCAA might be able to do to impose a 'risk variable' to the NIL-sponsoring entity ... and also to the "University of NIL Portal Ho's" finances:

(***) The NCAA should require that all NIL money must be guaranteed to be paid in its entirety to the athlete ... without any stipulations as to the athletes performance, academic eligibility, or criminal record.

(I..) The 'NIL guarantee' must be contractually assured (with an insurance policy behind it ... e.g., a Lloyds of London type insurance company) so that full payout (regardless of conditions or circumstances surrounding the NIL athlete) is assured.

The 'NIL guarantee' can either be done via:
(1) by the private entity(s) which are supporting the NIL
-or-
(2) the University which has the NIL athlete playing for them.

Doing so will introduce a 'risk calculation' factor for the University and/or the private entity which funds the NIL for the athlete in question.

(???) What about this being 'unfair' from a legal perspective to the businesses which want to NIL payments to get athletes to promote their products?

Here goes:

Since the NIL athletes are also full time students, the NIL paid athletes ... same as regular college students (e.g., non-athletes) who take jobs delivering pizzas or painting apartments ... must balance their 'job' with their education. Same with the Portal / NIL athlete.

But (let's be candid here) since there are a large % of athletes who come from not-wealthy families, then it could be considered as abusive for a private entity to 'lure' a not-fully-adult (i.e., less than 21 year old [too young to legally drink]) into agreeing to a NIL deal which is not fully guaranteed.

(II..) Oh yes, and if the Portal Ho' decides to leave his NIL-beneficiary school to pursue another NIL opportunity, then he gets to keep the entirety of his first NIL benefits and also to get new NIL benefits at the next school.

Maybe point (II..) is a bit much, but you get my drift.

Finally ... the P.R. problem for schools who object to such one-sided NIL rules from the NCAA will be viewed as welchers or cheats who are trying to fool kids into a contract from which the school / boosters can readily extract themselves.

SUMMARY: Introduce some risk into the Portal Hog / NIL Universities.

POSTSCRIPT: Also, the NCAA needs to get serious about announcing statutory long term penalties to colleges like UNC who commit academic fraud in order to keep their athletes eligible. This puts further pressure on the colleges to (a) not cheat [because of accreditation risk] and (b) not cheat [because of NIL liability risks].

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Managing the NIL: Counter-intuitive approach

Tldr***

Re: Managing the NIL: Counter-intuitive approach

Re: Managing the NIL: Counter-intuitive approach

Re: Managing the NIL: Counter-intuitive approach

Re: Managing the NIL: Counter-intuitive approach

Maybe try the Mange?***

It's no different than any other problem we discuss here.

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