There's an article by Dan Wolken of USA Today about NIL's.

The NCAA is taking the position that NCAA Rules govern.

A Memo sent out Tuesday says in part "If a State Law permits certain
institutional action and NCAA legislation prohibits the same action,
institutions must follow NCAA legislation."

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

It seems clear that NCAA rules do not override State or Federal law. It seems equally clear that the NCAA's power is finite, which is why we have NIL in the first place. That said, it also seems clear that the NCAA's power is not zero; they do have certain powers to determine what things make a school eligible for NCAA competition.

Taken together, if there is a conflict between the NCAA rules and state law, in seems likely that there will be a court case testing whether the NCAA rules are validly within their power, and also if the state laws are constitutional. If the rules are validly within the NCAA's power, then schools will have to follow them or be ineligible for NCAA competition. If the laws are constitutional, the schools will have to follow state law, even if it makes them ineligible for NCAA competition (which will probably lead to a quick law change).

In the end, while it will be interesting, I don't expect any major drama. I just expect a few court cases, and then, depending on the outcome of those cases, NCAA rules and state laws to come back into agreement.

The most important words in this entire article, and is what I have said from day one.

"We have seen enough from the NCAA over the last three years to realize it has no shot of regulating, investigating, or enforcing anything with regard to NIL. And, if the NCAA does try to take a school to task, the threat of litigation will prompt an instant backtrack."

The NCAA and pro sports leagues are much like a country club. They make their own rules. For example, the athletic scholarship. If you were following tax and employment law, the value of that scholarship would be taxable income in the form of a 1099. And that is only if the "student athlete" were an independent contractor. They certainly don't meet that standard, as they can't come and go as they please and make their own hours. They are really employees.

I thought, "Well, duh", when I heard this. Almost everything that the NCAA prohibits, historically or presently, isn't against the law. The guys suspended in the NFL for gambling today didn't break the law. My company prohibits me from doing all sorts of things that wouldn't be against state law. I mean it can be against the law to prohibit things that the law guarantees that you always have a right to but that isn't what we are talking about. I don't see how the state law allows it can even be brought up. That argument should be immediately dismisses by anyone with a brain. It seems to me that the schools are saying we want an edge so we want to cheat so we are going to obviously cheat where everyone knows we are cheating and see if the punishment for cheating from a weakened NCAA can even outweigh the benefits from openly cheating.

If states are hell bent on helping their own programs they might pass laws that prohibit the NCAA from denying schools their right but if that happens they need to be kicked out of the NCAA regardless of if that hurts the school or the rest of the NCAA because they cannot exist within it. I mean you cant let there be an environment where a state says their players have a right to be as physical as they want while playing the game and this would be akin to that. If you are Legislating fake rights to gain an advantage you need to be blackballed.

Still unsure how this does not eventually end up in some sort of collective bargaining on behalf of the players with either the NCAA or conferences at least at the FBS level. At some point these schools have to be looking at the risk of liability with NIL collectives making it up as they go vs. the relative certainty of working within a collective bargaining agreement structure. Also addresses antitrust problems.

I hate to try to debate the Ghost of Don Peden, but it seems to me that once they are employees you have the very unsavory situation of an educational institution running a pro team. We are close to that now, but this would make it so clear that even a Miami graduate could figure it out. This will degrade college football, and I think many people will decide if they want professional football they will just watch the NFL.

https://www.insidenu.com/2014/1/28/5355988/ncaa-student-a...

Interesting piece about the history of the term “student athlete”. This is certainly changing.

What you don't want is the liability of long term disability payments and workers compensation. There is a reason the NFL, MLB, and NBA worked hard to get those exemptions, exemptions that their upstart competitors have never been able to achieve.

Sure couldn't say this today.

The Colorado Supreme Court ultimately agreed with the school’s contention that he was not eligible for benefits, since the college was "not in the football business."

The upstart competitors have always employed “rapidly going defunct” as a strategy to avoid all sorts of long term liabilities