NCAA takes a half-measure in paying players

Happy Wednesday Nova Nation. There’s tons of interesting stuff today about Nova and the Big East, but the big news in college basketball was the NCAA’s announcement that they’re going to pay players!

Well they’re going to think about paying players... or maybe just think about letting players get paid a little... oh and they need over a year to think about it.

In typical NCAA fashion, the organization is trying to appear as if they’re with the majority while changing as little as possible. They have stated that they are open to players getting paid for their name, image, and likeness, which is good. The problem is that they followed it up by saying it has to be clearly different than pro sports (free market), and that they need until January of 2021 to put rules in place. That vague language could mean anything. They could cap what a player could make, they could limit the type of endorsements players could accept (as in nothing that the universities currently make money on like shoes or apparel), or they could put rules in place by January 2021 that don’t go into effect until 2023 (or later). Bottom line, this is another effort by the NCAA to appear to be doing something without actually changing their stance on anything.

This isn’t going to be enough. People are smart enough to see through this, and lawmakers will be to. This announcement isn’t going to stop states from following in California’s shoes to put laws in place to further force the NCAA’s hand, and California’s law will still go further than what the NCAA appears ready to allow. All of this is still going to go to court, and that could be a disaster.

In my opinion, there are three things that need to happen. First, players need to have nearly 100% ability to profit off their name image and likeness. I can accept reasonable restrictions from the university similar to what the NBA or other pro sports have in place (such as you can’t be sponsored by adult websites or gambling organizations) just as long as the University isn’t profiting off anything it’s restricting its players from. Second, the Universities need to be completely separate from the payment process. This whole thing started many years ago so that schools wouldn’t have to pay injured players workman’s comp, and while I may not agree with that either, I can concede that this is the compromise that gets everything pushed through. And third, Mark Emmert and the major players in the current NCAA administration need to go. The organization needs a new face and new thinking if it’s going to survive going forward. The NCAA’s reputation is in the gutter, and somehow it could get worse, all under Emmert’s leadership. How a change hasn’t already been made I have no idea.

Rant over, and we’ll get back to Nova Basketball in a minute, but first let’s hear what you think of the NCAA’s move.

In other ‘news’, Saddiq Bey’s NBA stock is on the rise, Kevin Willard gets a laughable punishment for a not so laughable infraction, and the former Wildcats in the NBA are killing it. Enjoy!

Villanova Basketball

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Big East

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Villanova Football

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Villanova Athletics

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College Basketball

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