{"id":1066,"date":"2019-10-04T01:02:12","date_gmt":"2019-10-04T06:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/roykessel.com\/?p=1066"},"modified":"2019-10-30T10:08:35","modified_gmt":"2019-10-30T15:08:35","slug":"californias-name-image-likeness-law-wont-solve-all-problems-with-ncaa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/roykessel.com\/californias-name-image-likeness-law-wont-solve-all-problems-with-ncaa\/","title":{"rendered":"California&#8217;s Name, Image, Likeness Law Won&#8217;t Solve All Problems with NCAA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/roykessel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/UCLA-Players-e1572447607535.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1067\" width=\"324\" height=\"199\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>While almost all of us agree that there are some\nexploitations in the way college athletes are compensated, you have to wonder\nwhether the \u201csolution\u201d is the proposed Name, Image and Likeness &nbsp;(NIL) law that was passed in California and is\nnow being proposed in many other states.&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The concept of the law itself is superficially appealing\nbecause it appears to create an avenue for athletes to get compensated for\ntheir Name, Image and Likeness, something that has been prohibited up to this\npoint. The challenge in this situation is going to be how the NCAA attempts to regulate\nthe manner in which the athletes can be compensated.&nbsp; Up to this point, the NCAA has struggled to\nconsistently apply its regulations.&nbsp;\nWhile the attempts by states to influence the NCAA to change are noble,\nlet\u2019s take a look at whether they will really achieve the articulated goals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Reading through the California law, the proposed New York\nlaw and the proposed Florida law, none of them account for the very real\nchallenges and potential for abuse.&nbsp; While\nthe pressure from the states will ultimately force the NCAA\u2019s hand and require\nit to allow NIL compensation, what the state laws do not address is what \u201cother\u201d\nways the NCAA can regulate compensation for athletes and influence athlete eligibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The goal of most fans, most college athletes, as well as the\ncritics of the NCAA, is to find a mechanism to allow the athletes to be\ncompensated during their athletic careers. Some people want to call their\nscholarships compensation, which in and of itself would cause problems with\nworkers compensation, insurance and much more.&nbsp;\nWhile people often say that the scholarship is \u201cnot enough\u201d, at many\nschools, the total cost of attendance is in the range of $40,000 to $50,000.&nbsp; In addition, nobody can deny that the\nathletes (for all sports), get an array of services that is far beyond what the\ntypical student would receive (food, supplements, tutoring, academic support,\nathletic training, medical treatments, strength and conditioning, use of\nfacilities and more).&nbsp;&nbsp; At the recent Chicago\nSports Summit, DePaul University Athletic Director Jean Lenti Ponsetto\nestimated the total allocated cost for supporting an athlete at $250,000 to\n$300,000.&nbsp; Included in this total was an\nallocation of all of the support services for the athletes, other than the out\nof proportion salaries for head coaches for football and men\u2019s basketball.&nbsp; So essentially, her number includes salaries\nfor assistant coaches, athletic trainers, strength and conditioning coaches,\nacademic support services, nutrition, sports information directors, team\nmanagers and more.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When we hear athletes complain that they are not getting\n\u201cenough\u201d, one question that is frequently raised is what type of compensation\nthese athletes would get if they walked out of high school and tried to get a\n\u201cnormal job.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp; In today\u2019s world, I think\nwe would all be hard pressed to find a situation where a high school grad would\nbe able to get a job paying $50,000 per year absent some special skills. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So while we applaud the state\u2019s for pushing this issue and\nforcing the NCAA\u2019s hand, we have to remember that there is going to be a lot of\nwork to handle this enormous change in college sports, one which neither the\nNCAA nor the states are equipped to handle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>THE PROBLEMS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some of the problems with these laws include the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>No restriction on how the athletes can be paid<\/li><li>No restriction on when they can be paid (i.e.\nbefore enrolling or playing in actual games)<\/li><li>No requirement of reasonableness or market rate\n(see below)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>WHERE THE ABUSE WILL COME INTO PLAY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The state laws simple make it illegal to invalidate the\neligibility for players who are compensated for their name, image and likeness.&nbsp; However, without a mechanism to handle the anticipated\nabuses, we are simply going to see some \u201clegitimate\u201d compensation to high\nprofile athletes and a lot of underground payments to athletes who truly have\nno marketability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, look at the NFL.&nbsp; Very few players have actual endorsement\ndeals.&nbsp; VERY FEW.&nbsp; On a national level, the number is probably\nlower than 25.&nbsp; On a local level on each NFL\nteam, with a few exceptions, you might have a dozen players that are actually\nbeing paid for endorsements and perhaps another dozen that are getting\nsomething in trade (restaurants, car dealerships, bars, etc.).&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Under the proposed state regulations, any \u201cpayment\u201d to an\nathlete can be disguised as a NIL payment<em>.&nbsp;\nHey, you are a good looking kid, if you are here in Columbus playing for\nOhio State, we could put you on our car dealership calendar or give you the use\nof a vehicle<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How would that be regulated?&nbsp;\nShould it be regulated at all or should we let the free market forces\ntake over entirely in this space?&nbsp; The\nchallenge is how we are going to make this an allegedly level playing\nfield.&nbsp; If you were to take \u201ctrue market\nvalue\u201d of college athletes, there would be less than a dozen players on any\ncollege team that merit consideration for NIL compensation.&nbsp; It is easy for us to earmark payments to an\nathlete when they are a Heisman contender or star player.&nbsp; We can take a percentage of their jersey\nsales or we can figure out the media value of them being used on a billboard or\nin a promotional advertising campaign.&nbsp;\nBut going into to college, how many athletes have that power?&nbsp; I would hate to see a restriction on when a\nplayer can get paid because they will create too much subjectivity.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My skeptical side says cheating will still go on.&nbsp; Underground payments will still occur.&nbsp; They will just be disguised differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It will be interesting to watch the NCAA\u2019s reaction.&nbsp; With other states jumping on board with\nCalifornia, the NCAA is definitely running out of time and I would anticipate seeing\nsome response from them before the end of 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You have to wonder whether the \u201csolution\u201d is the proposed Name, Image and Likeness  (NIL) law that was passed in California and is now being proposed in many other states.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":114,"featured_media":1067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[513,574,481,317,573,480,6,315,575],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/roykessel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1066"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/roykessel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/roykessel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roykessel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/114"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roykessel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/roykessel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roykessel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/roykessel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roykessel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roykessel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}