The NCAA is dead and floating in the water. Following a court ruling that said that the NCAA has no power to enforce any rules regarding NIL until a later decision is made, the question becomes, do they really have power over anything in college sports, particularly college football?
After NIL exploded and became bigger than anyone thought that it would in less than three years, the NCAA was attempting to reign in the rules a bit to set up stricter boundaries to how the process is done. The court ruling, however, says that the NCAA can have no power over that because it is market value-based, and the NCAA doesn’t have the authority to determine what a fair value is for a player/market.
The NCAA Ruling
The court released the following statements following the decision:
“Without relief, the NCAA will continue to deprive Plaintiff States’ athletes of information about the market value for their NIL rights, thereby preventing them from obtaining full, fair-market value for those rights…Their labor generates massive revenues for the NCAA, its members, and other constituents in the college athletics industry — none of whom would dare accept such anticompetitive restrictions on their ability to negotiate their own rights. Those athletes shouldn’t have to either.”
The NCAA responded to the decision by releasing the following statement.
“…turning upside down rules overwhelmingly supported by member schools will aggravate an already chaotic collegiate environment, further diminishing protections for student-athletes from exploitation. The NCAA fully supports student-athletes making money from their name, image and likeness and is making changes to deliver more benefits to student-athletes, but an endless patchwork of state laws and court opinions make clear partnering with Congress is necessary to provide stability for the future of all college athletes.”
While the fight technically isn’t over, the court did rule that until a final decision is released, the NCAA will have no power over NIL. Knowing the recent track record, the odds aren’t looking good for the NCAA.
What Does This Mean For the NCAA?
The next logical step is to wonder what is next for the NCAA and its power. A court already ruled against them a few months ago regarding transfers being ineligible after a second transfer, so it seems they have no power there, either.
The NCAA currently doesn’t run the College Football Playoff. With the playoff going to a 12-team format, the bowl games that do fall under the NCAA jurisdiction are going to be diluted even more. It isn’t hard to see that we may not be far from college football completely breaking away from the NCAA.
One of two things may be going to happen in the coming years:
- The NCAA completely goes away, and colleges and conferences band together and create their own governing body. This seems a little unlikely as it would be tough to have Title IX and other standard procedures unless Congress got involved and created a board to oversee all college athletics under a name other than the NCAA.
- Football becomes its own entity completely unrelated to college sports and the NCAA. The NCAA would run every other sport and, without football in the mix, could actually support more men’s sports, which has been a complaint for many schools that, because of football, are unable to have track, volleyball, or soccer teams, to name a few. This feels likely and perhaps only a few years away from happening.
Conclusion for College Football, NCAA Sports
After years of making rules and restrictions that didn’t make sense and only filled the pockets of the NCAA executives, it is nice to see the NCAA get a taste of its own medicine. At the same time, however, it is also concerning to see these court decisions being made without a backup plan or way for things to be overseen.
College Football can’t function without some kind of oversight committee. The college football landscape is already compared to the Wild West. Still, if things continue to keep spiraling pretty soon, it will be a completely nomadic-like society with absolutely no laws or accountability.
More than 1,000 institutions are members of the NCAA.
A court ruling on NIL policy enforcement impacts just 10% of schools and 5% of student-athletes.
90% of schools and 95% of student-athletes will be unaffected and still need the infrastructure NCAA provides. https://t.co/lKGYF34JKI pic.twitter.com/qwRWbGq0EZ
— Blake Lawrence 🚪 (@Blake_Lawrence) February 24, 2024
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