NCAA and NIL: The Wild, Wild West
If you are not a college football fan, you are likely not aware (or only vaguely aware) of what is going on in college football right now. A variety of issues, spurred in part by lawsuits in recent years, have conspired to create an absolute shitshow in college football and basketball right now.
First, the NCAA lifted its ban on an athlete’s ability to profit off their own “Name, Image, and Likeness” (“NIL”). The NCAA did this because, first California and then other states, began passing laws affirming that athletes attending colleges in those states could profit off their NIL. The NCAA, seeing which way the wind was blowing, opened up NIL in Summer 2021.
Next, the NCAA granted all athletes an extra year of eligibility due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Concurrently, the NCAA eliminated the one-year mandatory sit-out when a player transfers colleges. Previously, a player looking to transfer had to sit for one full school year before playing for their new team. A player can now transfer twice with no penalty – once as an undergrad and again after receiving their degree, as a grad transfer, if they still have college athletics eligibility. To do so, players enter their names into a “Transfer Portal.” Once they do, opposing coaches are free to recruit them. The portal is open for a few weeks, twice a year: from December 5 through January 18 and May 1 through May 15.
Mix these things together and you have a college sports molotov cocktail. Recruiting season generally has only involved high school, and to a lesser extent junior college, athletes. Recruiting has been the lifeblood of a program. Coaches had to recruit high school seniors who could contribute to their teams two, three, and four years down the road. There were a lot of “misses” but generally the teams that recruit the best also play the best. And once a player got to campus, transfers were pretty rare. No player wanted to sit a year.
But now, coaches don’t have to only recruit for the future of their roster. They also now have to recruit college athletes who have entered the portal. And on top of that, they have to recruit their entire roster, every single year to keep their players happy and prevent them from entering the portal. This is particularly helpful to a new coach taking over a program. For example, USC and new coach Lincoln Riley had twenty players transfer in and twenty six players transfer out.
So how do they recruit established players from other teams and retain their own team? Enter: NIL.
Note: NIL cannot be paid directly by the school. NIL is not supposed to be “pay for play” (“P4P”), even if I think the distinction is practically non-existent. Instead, NIL has been weaponized by school through the creation of so-called “collectives.” Groups of boosters pool their money and use those funds to pay players for their NIL.
Cal football has one such collective, created in conjunction with Marshawn Lynch’s Beast Mode line. It is called California Legends Collective. There, fans can donate to the collective. Or they can donate directly to a sport. Or a position group. Or a specific player. Fans can pay even for services, like a “shout out” (think: Cameo) from a Cal athlete, or even pay for a live video chat. You can buy merchandise, too.
The collective then takes the money and distributes it to the players. As you might imagine, bidding wars have been sparked. One of Cal’s best players, redshirt freshman J. Michael Sturdivant, a very good wide receiver, received word through back channels that his services were greatly desired by other schools. Cal reportedly made its best effort, but UCLA doubled the offer. JMike entered the portal, and a larger bidding war broke out. Ultimately he chose UCLA, for what some estimate is $500,000. For a frosh wide receiver who caught 65 passes for 755 yards last year. Again, he’s very good! But if a WR with those numbers is getting that kind of money, what are the best players getting? What did USC give Caleb Williams to get him to leave Oklahoma and join his coach, Lincoln Riley, in L.A.? Well, consider the story of Jaden Rashada.
Rashada is a 5* QB. Last fall, he was a senior at Pittsburgh High in the East Bay. He had offers from almost every program in the country. He initially committed to Miami but flipped to Florida. The estimates were that Florida offered him $8 million dollars. That’s an 8 with six zeroes after it. But that estimate is now now believed to be low. Rashada went to Florida this week, prepared to enroll in school. But he hasn’t done so. Why? The proverbial check bounced. And the reported amount of that check, per the Orlando Sentinel? THIRTEEN MILLION DOLLARS. But the collective didn’t have the money. Rashada, though, signed his National Letter of Intent, meaning that either he has to use his one free portal transfer or he has to convince Florida to release him from his letter of intent.
I’m telling you. It’s a shitshow. So what needs to be done?
First, the portal needs to be adjusted. A six week window over the holidays, in the middle of bowl season, makes very little sense. Shorten it to three weeks and have it start in February, finishing up before spring ball begins.
Second, yes, he can file a lawsuit against the collective that he signed his contract with. But there needs to be recourse for a player like Rashada. If the collective signs a contract to pay a player an amount certain for going to a specific school, and the player relies on that promise in signing with the school, but then the collective reneges on the deal, the player should be able to transfer without penalty. Let’s stop pretending this isn’t pay-for-play and stop acting like the schools don’t know what’s going on and aren’t part of the deal.
Those two changes wouldn’t be a perfect system, but it’d be a lot better than it is now. -TOB
Source: “How the $13 Million Recruitment of Jaden Rashada for Florida Fell Apart,” G. Allen Taylor, The Athletic (01/13/2023)
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