A Grip on Sports: It doesn’t seem long now before the NIL shell game crashes down on NCAA, schools
A GRIP ON SPORTS • It was bound to happen. It’s just arrived faster than we thought. A high school football recruit wants out of a letter of intent and is contemplating suing a school. The reason? A canceled name, image and likeness contract.
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• Rumors of such things have been swirling around ever since NIL burst onto the national stage. The idea that school-centric – but, they say, not school-affiliated – collectives could entice recruits to campuses with multi-million-dollar deals was always a given, even if the payments were supposed to be for services already rendered, not future potential.
NIL, as originally envisioned, seemed a win/win for collegiate athletes and the colleges themselves. The players could cash in on their success. The schools wouldn’t be the ones doling out the cash. Players are rewarded, schools keep the rewards.
Devil, meet details. It didn’t take long for smart folks to realize guaranteeing NIL money up front could entice transfers and recruits to pick a new school. Even the NCAA anticipated this – and this is an organization that would have trouble anticipating tomorrow’s sunrise. The few guiding principles the NCAA designed to develop concerning NIL included two main elements: schools couldn’t supply it and it couldn’t be a recruiting tool.
Uh, those two elements aren’t compatible. And are impossible to enforce.
Collectives formed everywhere. Money raised. Promises made. School A wants Player B from High School C or Previous College D? Offer a huge NIL package. Sign here, play here and money will flow to you and yours.
It happened immediately. No one would acknowledge it, however, and, because the collectives are private enterprises, proof is hard to come by. Until now.
Jaden Rashada, a highly touted California high school quarterback, reportedly asked out of his letter-of-intent with Florida on Tuesday night. The reason he wants his release? According to reporting from the Associated Press, Rashada’s four-year, $13 million NIL deal with the Gator Collective fell through for an undisclosed reason.
Rashada, considered one of the best quarterbacks in this recruiting class, signed with Florida less than a month ago. He had been committed to Miami but switched not long before signing. Now he wants out.
If this story is true, and the AP isn’t known for breaking stories unless they are locked in, then Rashada’s decision puts the University of Florida and the NCAA in a tough spot.
An LOI is binding, under NCAA rules. Enticing players to a school with NIL is a no-no under NCAA guidelines. Schools are not supposed to brokering any quid-pro-quos in this regard.
If Florida allows Rashada out of his LOI, isn’t the school acknowledging a deal had been struck and didn’t work out? If it doesn’t, isn’t there a good chance Rashada’s representatives – there are always representatives – will threaten legal action?
This is exactly what the NCAA didn’t want when it decided to wash its hands of the whole NIL-in-recruiting mess. Cover its eyes and ears and pretend it’s not happening. Acknowledge it and the door to publicly paying players opens a bit wider.
And the economic system college sports has been built upon falls apart.
This case might not be the one that brings that about. It might be the next one. Or the one after. But it will happen.
If a player agrees to a four-year contract to play at a school, even if that contract isn’t, strictly speaking, with the school, doesn’t that make them a de-facto employee of said school? It’s not as if the Gator Collective is giving money to kids to play for Florida State or South Florida.
It’s a mess. And we’re only sure of one thing. The NCAA is not equipped to deal with it. It never will be.
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WSU: Jake Dickert has decided on his strength and conditioning group. Colton Clark runs down the new hires who will be in charge of developing Cougar football players. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and college basketball, Jon Wilner has his conference power rankings in the Mercury News. … We found another power ranking to pass along as well. … Colorado is trying to balance out its scoring. … Utah is trying to attract more fans. … UCLA may not have a key player for its trip to the desert. … It’s a good time to be an Arizona State player. … The numbers are startling for Arizona. … On the women’s side, Stanford’s loss dropped it to fourth in the polls. … In football news, we linked this from the Mercury News yesterday but Wilner’s piece on NFL declarations ran in the S-R today. … We laughed at a few of the answers in Stewart Mandel’s Athletic mailbag. … Washington’s defensive depth chart has some holes to fill. … Oregon State was hit by a player defection and by a coach leaving. … A quarterback left Colorado, a cornerback is headed in. … Utah is still trying to get a new indoor facility built.
Gonzaga: The world is full of good basketball players. And the Zags are still interested in bringing the best to Spokane, no matter how much the staff has changed in the past few years. Jim Meehan delves into that aspect of recruiting today. … Elsewhere in the WCC, BYU is finally picking up the pace.
EWU: Felix Van Hofe is best known in Cheney as the guy who took – and made – 3-pointers at an unmatched rate. But in his native Australia, Van Hofe is now known as “that guy on The Bachelor.” He was in town earlier this week and Dan Thompson spoke with him about his life and the Eagles. … A former Eastern football assistant is making news in the Phoenix prep arena. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, Montana State is reeling a bit after its loss to Idaho. … Idaho State has a new player on its roster.
Preps: The best matchup last night in GSL boys’ basketball seemed to be at Ferris, where the Saxons hosted U-Hi. But Reese Snellman’s non-stop scoring made it one-sided from the start. Dave Nichols was there and he has this story. … Dave also has a roundup of the rest of Tuesday’s action.
Chiefs: Riverfront Park’s Ice Ribbon won’t be mistaken for an NHL arena anytime soon. But it is ice and it is a great place to mingling with fans. Spokane used it that regard Tuesday night. Garrett Cabeza has the story.
Seahawks: This offseason is going to focus on Geno Smith, right? At least until he makes a decision. But even Pete Carroll knows there are holes to fill defensively. … Ten players, including former WSU receiver Easop Winston, signed futures contracts this week. … Questions? We can pass along answers. … If one is about Jamal Adams, we have that covered as well.
Kraken: Home, sure. But still tired from the long road trip? Yes. Seattle dropped its second consecutive game, this one 5-2 to Edmonton. … There may be trades made before the deadline.
Mariners: The M’s signed six more international players Tuesday. They have signed 13 in total.
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• It’s probably correct to wonder if, in 2025 or so, we’ll look back at the NIL years as a silly attempt to prop up a failing system. Heck, maybe in February we will be doing that. Until later …