Senate Hearing to Discuss NIL Today
Yeah, we have a pretty good track record for the NCAA not addressing pressing issues that affect their bottom line, so it makes sense why people wouldn't be inclined to trust them now as well.
Might have been a good idea to include... I don't know... an NCAA athlete or two?
Sure, but what would they say? Yes, we would love to have more money. Of course we would accept offers to sell our NIL to the highest bidder. No we don't think it's fair that our compensation is limited by NCAA rules we did not get to decide on.
I think it would be useful to have them describe their responsibilities as student athletes, especially how much time they spend on what are essentially marketing tasks and events for their university.
Yes, that's exactly what the lawmakers should hear, as an alternative to Emmert and a series of pro-NCAA witness recite the usual arguments why the NCAA deserves a continuing antitrust exemption.
Agree with this take from WaPo (LINK):
This is a witness list outrageously stacked with pro-NCAA advocates, from Few — an institutionalist who has suggested politicians stay in their lane and leave the NCAA to solve its problems — to Emmert, who a full decade ago convened a “summit” to discuss issues plaguing college athletics and neglected to invite a single athlete.
Only occasionally do lawmakers hear athletes’ personal accounts — usually privately. Sedona Prince, a basketball player at Oregon, has spoken with legislators and will offer testimony to the Commerce committee, but it will be in writing. If she were allowed to speak publicly along with Emmert, this is what she would say: As a freshman at Texas, she badly broke her tibia and fibula. After multiple surgeries, she transferred to Oregon, where she struggled to pay medical bills in the tens of thousands of dollars, while the NCAA denied her so much as a GoFundMe campaign.
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So why on Earth should the NCAA be permitted to tell Sedona Prince that she can’t have an Instagram sponsor on the 240,000-follower account she built by herself?
For every one Sedona Prince example, there'll be 100 of NCAA boosters offering to buy 100k signed autographs for $10 each. This opens up a Pandora's box of fraud that will crush college sports.
That box is so open right now the top has been broken off. Having a framework out in the open that allows players to earn a little bit of the billions of dollars they help generate off their name and image seems far less likely to produce widespread fraud and exploitation than purchasing player commitments by funneling and laundering money through churches, high school coaches and AAU programs which is the model we're operating with today.
Pretty easy solution. If you can make money on your NIL, you are allowed to make it...but you forfeit your college eligibility.
I for one am getting sick of hearing about how a league that provides the training, facilities, strength and conditioning, education and audition platform is somehow "exploiting" those same athletes.
But these idiots will kill the golden goose for a chance to get their bling early.