Greg Sankey-Hunter Yurachek — SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and Arkansas athletics director Hunter Yurachek talk on the field before the Outback Bowl on New Year's Day with the Razorbacks playing Penn State. (Michael Morrison / allHOGS Images)

Probably All College Folks Will Get from Congress Is Ideas

Legally, the government doesn't have a clear path to order states way to fix NIL

Author:
Andy Hodges
Publish date:
Jun 8, 2023 11:32 PM EDT

In this story:

Arkansas Razorbacks

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — It's been interesting to read all the comments this week about the transfer portal and NIL. As former coach used to say, it's "talking season" so just about everybody has an opinion or viewpoint and this is the time to express that.

Coaches are worked up over the transfer portal, even Arkansas coach Sam Pittman. Now athletics director Hunter Yurachek is getting into, even buying into SEC commissioner Greg Sankey's statements last week at the Spring Meetings in Destin, Fla., that they need federal intervention.

"We need federal intervention to help us get our arms around Name, Image and Likeness," Sankey said. It's unclear they have any authority to do anything other than say they can share the pain. It's mostly a state issue as discovered during some recent things when various governors didn't follow government guidelines. It does give them the public relations angle it's the government's fault.

"Given the realities in college athletics, Congress is the place that can fix the issues that we have," Sankey said. If he actually believes that he needs a history book. Getting that group involved usually just opens the door the more issues because they end up being the problem and not the solution.

There's been some form of payment and money involved in college athletics for 100 years. Former Oklahoma president Leon Cross pointed this out in his book "Presidents Can't Punt" back in the 1970's (don't ask to borrow my copy because it's in the untouchable category in my bookshelves). He was the president at the university that told Oklahoma legislators "he wanted a university the football program could be proud of."

A lot of folks in the world of college athletics appear to want somebody come up with a solution to the problem in a business that has never been equal and probably never will be. If you entered a time warm in the 1930's and popped out in 2023 many of the same teams at the top of the college football poll are still there. For the most part it's never changed, just the order of appearance.

College athletes getting paid above the table is something that was going to happen because legally it's not clear why anyone expects athletes to have a right taken away other students have. Be on a full ride academic scholarship that includes enough for an apartment while studying computer science and create some programming thing big companies pay for and get paid.

Sooner or later, lawyers were going to get involved and it was hard to see 40 years ago how the colleges could actually stop it legally just because some kangeroo court in the Indianapolis says they can't do it. The NCAA was created after the money was flowing, couldn't stop anywhere near all of it when they were created and now other than organizing some tournaments, it's not real clear what power they actually have.

Conferences can't do much other than threaten to kick somebody out and cut off their TV money and that usually is a big enough number to make things happen. They can probably do more than the NCAA who hasn't been successful in the courts since 1984.

Now they want to likely get an opinion from the federal government, which legally is about all they can do. Every state has different rules and legally it's hard to see how that's going to be possible.