SBJ College: NCAA Goes With The Flow On NIL

I will be in Boone on Thursday to see if Appalachian State can keep it going against Georgia Southern. Newsletter will be in the capable hands of Austin Karp.

Here is what's cooking on campus:

NCAA MOVES FORWARD WITH NAME/IMAGE/LIKENESS

• Chalk up a win for the NCAA today. By announcing that it would begin “modernizing” its policy on an athlete’s name, image and likeness rights, the NCAA got the headlines it wanted. Its ship pointed in a new direction for the benefit of the athletes. As always, though, the devil is in the details and there is much to do, judging by the eight bullet points near the bottom of today’s news release, which emphasize the restrictions on NIL.
  
  
• What makes this so tricky is that the NCAA is trying to fit new NIL opportunities into the old collegiate model. The NIL working group, chaired by Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman and Ohio State AD Gene Smith, tried to set up these bumpers to guide the process. Here are the three I found most compelling:
  
  
  • Compensation for athletic performance is impermissible. This is what the NCAA means when it says, “No pay for play.” Athletes cannot take money for the game-winning free throw or the winning touchdown.
    
    
  • Student athletes are students first, not employees. When it turns out the 5-star running back can’t play, the school is not allowed to fire him.
    
    
  • Protect the recruiting environment. This is where the NCAA prohibits paying recruits to sign at a particular school, which history tells us can’t be policed. Just because an athlete might now make $500 at an appearance doesn’t mean he’ll turn down the $50,000 check to go to a school.
    
    
• These NCAA bullets are like a funnel. The further you read down the list of restrictions, the more opportunities are taken away. By the bottom of it, athletes might be able to benefit from an EA Sports group licensing arrangement, hat and jersey royalties and maybe a school-run speakers bureau.
  
  
• The main thing today’s news acknowledged was that giving athletes their NIL rights is the right thing for the NCAA to do. It accomplished one goal of getting on the right side of history by allowing athletes to benefit from their NIL. Ultimately, today marks the first phase of a long journey for both the athletes and the NCAA.
  

PAT FORDE CONFIDENT IN NEW PLAN FOR SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

• I was surprised when I first heard the news that Pat Forde was leaving Yahoo Sports for Sports Illustrated. Why would one of the country's pre-eminent college football writers go to a publication that laid off nearly half its staff -- as many as 40 people in editorial -- earlier this month? That was my first question to Forde when I spoke with him this afternoon.
  
  
• Forde told me that the recent round of layoffs gave him pause, too. He had been negotiating a deal with SI for several months before slamming the breaks on talks when he heard about the layoffs. But new CEO Ross Levinsohn and managing editor Ryan Hunt remained persistent until they finally persuaded Forde to end his sterling eight-year run at Yahoo and join the new SI. “They convinced me that their vision for SI was going to be first rate,” Forde said.
  
  
• I’ve known Forde for two decades; we worked together at the Louisville Courier-Journal in the early 2000s. I did not see this coming. Over the past eight years, Forde established himself as an authority at Yahoo, especially in the college space. Along with reporters Dan Wetzel and Pete Thamel, the trio broke just about every news story over the last two years about the FBIinvestigation into the college basketball scandal. But Forde clearly is energized by the roadmap described by Levinsohn and Hunt to put SI back on course. He says it was one he couldn’t turn down.

SPEED READS

• Pat McAfee’s profile continues to grow. The former NFL punter was the guest picker on “College GameDay” from the site of North Dakota State-South Dakota State. He talked extensively about the experience on his eponymous podcast, giving credit to Kirk Herbstreit for making the appearance happen. Despite having few local connections, the Sioux Falls Argus Leader wrote McAfee was a “home run selection,” as he “engaged with fans on his way in and before his segment, taking a few selfies (and videos).” McAfee looks like he could be a fit for “GameDay” in the future.
  
  
• Jacksonville certainly ponied up to keep the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. The annual Florida-Georgia football game has been played there since 1933, and city leaders weren't about to let it slip away. Each school this year gets $250,000, and under a new deal starting in 2020, that jumps to $1 million, followed by an escalator to $1.25 million for 2022 and 2023. A big-game comparison: the city of Dallas pays Oklahoma and Texas $500,000 each for playing at the Cotton Bowl annually -- along with a split of the ticket sales -- through 2025.
  
  
• CBS Sports' "Cover 3" podcast imagined what relegation might look like between the Power 5 and Group of 5. The conference pairings were: ACC-Conference USA; Pac-12-Mountain West; SEC-AAC; Big 12-Sun Belt; and Big 10-MAC. In one scenario, Appalachian State was promoted as a replacement for Kansas in the Big 12 (no argument here). SBJ's Austin Karp was not too pleased to hear Georgia Tech was relegated to C-USA for UAB. Other “what if” moves: Boise State replacing Colorado; Toledo replacing Rutgers and UCF replacing Arkansas.
  
  
• It’s always a special time to hang out with Pat and Jim Host in Lexington. I was in town over the weekend with SBJ Publisher & Executive Editor Abe Madkour to present Kentucky's Mitch Barnhart with our AD of the Year award.

UK's Mitch Barnhart receiving his award; Hanging with Jim and Pat Host in Lexington

Enjoying this newsletter? We've got more! Check out SBJ Media with John Ourand on Mondays and Wednesdays for insights into all the latest news around the world of sports media. Also check out SBJ Football from Ben Fischer on Friday afternoons.

Something on the College beat catch your eye? Tell us about it. Reach out to either me (msmith@sportsbusinessjournal.com) or Austin Karp (akarp@sportsbusinessjournal.com) and we'll share the best of it. Also contributing to this newsletter is Thomas Leary (tleary@sportsbusinessdaily.com).