Athletic directors’ fears about name, image, likeness legislation don’t hold up
Random notes:
▪ Never mind COVID-19, budget problems or the possibility of a canceled college football season, what’s really keeping athletic directors awake at night is the oncoming train that is Name, Image and Likeness legislation.
Last week, North Carolina’s Bubba Cunningham said college sports will become “professionalized” if NIL legislation is put into place. He urged NCAA members to fight against abandoning “a model that has provided education and athletic opportunities for hundreds of thousands of student-athletes.”
Then Monday, Duke AD Kevin White released a statement saying he agreed with his nearby friend, citing the “potential for abuse of NIL legislation; you can dismiss our concerns as those of athletic directors eager to preserve the status quo. Much harder to dismiss is the voice of the student-athlete themselves.”
White said that the NCAA Student-Athlete Advisory Committee has expressed concern about possible “unfair recruiting and competitive advantages, difficulty monitoring compensation and ethics, unequal treatment of female athletes and exploiting of athletes.”
One problem with such complaints: There’s little fairness in the current system. Stadiums and arenas are not equal in size. Recruiting budgets are not the same. There is no salary cap on coaching staffs or athletic administrations. Schools can spend as much or as little as they want. That’s true of conferences and the NCAA.
Instead, this sounds more like ADs complaining that money that might go to student-athletes for endorsements or licensing, should instead go to the schools themselves so they can keep the model that has made most of them rich.
▪ By the way, Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski reportedly makes $8.98 million a year.
▪ And as Kelsey Trainor, a New York lawyer/writer, pointed out on Twitter, “Hey, Kev, Title IX isn’t a guideline. It’s the law. If there IS unequal treatment of female athletes (which there already is), you gotta handle it.”
▪ By Sept. 5, is there going to be a 3-year-old left to run in the Kentucky Derby? The Bob Baffert-trained and undefeated Nadal retired with a condylar fracture. The Baffert-trained and undefeated Charlatan is out 45 days because of filling in his ankle. Breeders’ Futurity and Matt Winn Stakes winner Maxfield is out with a condylar fracture. And Louisiana Derby winner Wells Bayou is out with a bone bruise.
When the coronavirus pushed the Derby back from its traditional first Saturday in May start to Labor Day weekend, the thought was horses would be more mature having had a whole summer to gain experience. Instead, the opposite has happened. More time meant more time to get hurt.
▪ Coveted Frederick Douglass offensive lineman Jager Burton says he is still planning on announcing his college choice on Aug. 24. His final five: Alabama, Clemson, Kentucky, Ohio State and Oregon.
▪ Iowa reports that out of 237 athletes and staff who returned to campus for voluntary workouts, only one tested positive for COVID-19.
▪ Florida Sate head basketball coach and former UK assistant Leonard Hamilton in a piece he wrote for ESPN on George Floyd: “In all sincerity, we need to have a call to action of an official, authorized national task force where we bring all public entities together and make a commitment to move forward with the all-out intent of finding a solution to deal with all the ills of our society. All of us have to be a part of it, not just our elected officials. We have a lot of great minds in America, from all walks of life. We all need to chip in and be a part of this and hold ourselves accountable. In addition, exercising our right to vote has to be a priority.”
▪ On a related note, the push to make Nov. 3 a mandated off day for all student-athletes so they can vote is picking up steam. That’s good to see.
▪ And Southern Cal has reinstated its relationship with former Trojans star O.J. Mayo after a 10-year disassociation mandate by the NCAA over alleged violations during Mayo’s time in Los Angeles. You may remember, Mayo played high school basketball at Rose Hill Christian High School in Ashland.
