Tag Archives: NCAA

In the NYT here. Similar legislation has already been introduced in a few other states:

Gov. Gavin Newsom of California signed into law a plan to allow college athletes to strike endorsement deals, intensifying the legal and political clashes that could ultimately transform the economics of college sports.

The governor’s signature opened a new front of legal pressure against the amateurism model that has been foundational to college sports but has restricted generations of students from earning money while on athletic rosters.

If the law survives any court challenges, the business of sports would change within a few years for public and private universities in California, including some of the most celebrated brands in American sports. So, too, would the financial opportunities for thousands of student-athletes, who have long been forbidden from trading on their renown to promote products and companies.

“Every single student in the university can market their name, image and likeness; they can go and get a YouTube channel, and they can monetize that,” Newsom said in an interview with The New York Times. “The only group that can’t are athletes. Why is that?

An excellent article by reporter Brady Lim, read it all here. A few snippets:

If passed, the bill would allow student-athletes at California’s 24 colleges and universities to be paid for “the use of their name, image and likeness.” In other words, student-athletes at these schools would be allowed to sign endorsement deals, sell their autographs to sports memorabilia stores and be represented in video games, among other things. What they will not be able to do, however, is sign direct contracts with universities in exchange for their athletic services.

Although the NCAA is not subject to state laws, the bill would make it illegal for the NCAA to restrict or punish athletes for seeking these kinds of agreements. Despite this, NCAA president Mark Emmert has threatened to disqualify all California schools from competing for national championships if the bill passes, citing the potential uneven playing field that the law would create. If the bill is eventually signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom, it would take effect on Jan. 1, 2023.

“It’s going to have to change all across the nation,” Oregon football player Troy Dye said on the issue. “You can’t exclude UCLA. You can’t exclude USC. You can’t exclude Cal and Stanford from the Playoff. Not to mention San Diego State, San Jose State, Sac State, all these other schools that are Division-I programs who won’t be able to play in a bowl game because they’re getting what they deserve. I think the NCAA, over these next couple years, is going to have to do some real deep thinking and really change some of the things that they do.”

“It’s long overdue,” Dye said. “I think everybody can agree with that. The numbers don’t lie.”

Mr. Dye’s Go Ducks profile doesn’t mention his major, but it’s clear he knows some economics.

The NYT reports the FBI will hold a press conference today:

A second indictment charges five people with paying high school athletes or their families to attend particular universities. Those indicted include James Gatto, identified as the head of global sports marketing, basketball for “Company-1.” Though it is not named, Gatto works for Adidas in that role.

The indictment says about $100,000 was paid to the family of “Player 10” to stear him to a particular college. It says press accounts described his college decision as a surprise.

Why does the FBI care that colleges are paying athletes to come play for them? I can see why it infuriates the NCAA cartel, but they should have to hire their own enforcers, or at least pay for federal assistance like the Sinaloa heroin cartel does.

In a normal world the FBI would not be indicting people for breaking the NCAA cartel’s prohibition against paying players, they’d be helping make sure the players don’t get cheated.

But that would mean less money for coaches like Dana Altman and Willie Taggart, AD’s like Rob Mullens and FAR’s like Tim Gleason – who gets to vote on the NCAA’s rules.

In order to maintain their cartel and keep up protection like this, last year the FBS AD’s, presumably including Mullens, formed a PAC. Story here:

The athletic directors at America’s major college football-playing universities are forming a political action committee. The group will be called LEAD1, and it’ll represent the ADs at 129 Football Bowl Subdivision schools. It was announced Thursday morning. The group was formerly the D1A Athletic Directors’ Association. It wasn’t a PAC.

This PAC is being formed to lobby members of Congress in Washington. PACs can give limited donations to specific candidates and parties, and because of the Citizens United decision, they can independently spend as much money as they want to help a given candidate or party win an election. They’re a huge part of this country’s political ecosystem, both at the federal and state level. This one appears to be a federal PAC, though it’s not clear if its members might look for ways to lobby states, too.

“With the PAC now approved, it further ensures that the concerns of the LEAD1 members will be heard by members of Congress, and other key decision makers in Washington, D.C. and across the country,” announced Tom McMillen, a former three-term congressman and Maryland basketball player who will serve as the PAC’s president and CEO.

What’s interesting about this PAC is who comprises it, and how its members could use it. It’s pretty hard to get 129 strong-minded college athletic directors to agree on policy goals. But if the ADs saw fit to start a PAC to lobby politicians independent of the broader NCAA, it suggests they’re prepared to rally around at least one cause.

Let’s not overthink what “concerns” these ADs might have.

This PAC is going to try to keep college athletes from getting paid. …

Oh good, another college-athlete sues the NCAA cartel. Docket here, complaint here:

Blurb from BG&S law firm here:

DAWSON V. NCAA AND PAC-12 CONFERENCE: ALLEGED VIOLATIONS OF THE FAIR LABOR STANDARDS ACT

Lamar Dawson (“Dawson”), a former University of Southern California student-athlete, filed suit against the NCAA and Pac-12 Conference. In the suit, Dawson seeks unpaid wages, including unpaid overtime compensation and interest thereon, required minimum wage payments, waiting time penalties, liquidated damages and other penalties, injunctive and other equitable relief and reasonable attorneys’ fees pursuant to claims for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, California Labor Code, California Code of Regulations, and California Business and Professions Code.

Dawson argues the NCAA and Pac-12 Conference “strictly control and regulate” Dawson’s conduct and prohibit him from 1) rendering himself ineligible, 2) engaging in serious misconduct, 3) engaging in conduct resulting in criminal charges, 4) abusing team rules as determined by the coaches and/or athletic administrators, 5) voluntarily withdrawing from the sport at any time for any reason, 6) accepting compensation for participating in athletic contests in his sport, and 7) agreeing to be represented by an agent. Dawson further argues the NCAA and Pac-12 Conference “strictly control and regulate” student-athletes’ conduct on and off campus, pursuant to NCAA and Pac-12 Conference rules and regulations, including training and game schedules, academic schedules, and other collegiate activities. As a result, Dawson argues he and other potential class members are employees under federal and state law.

Dawson, therefore, requests damages based on the defendants’ alleged failure to pay adequate compensation or otherwise provide for the compensation of Dawson and proposed class members for overtime/premium wages due under the Fair Labor Standards Act, California Labor Code, and applicable California Wage Orders.

Too bad, because they sure need one to deal with the NCAA’s corrupt hiring cartel. Looks to me like a union of *all* NCAA BCS players might still be OK. USAToday has the report, here:

The decision comes as surprise, after NLRB regional director Peter Sung Ohr from March 2014 wrote a strongly worded critique of the entire collegiate system, saying “it is clear that the players are controlled to such a degree that it does impact their academic pursuits to a certain extent.” Moreover, this board, made up primarily ofPresident Barack Obama’s appointees, is considered to be liberal and union-friendly. One Northwestern official said before the decision that a reversal would be the equivalent of Chief Justice John Roberts’ ideological shift on the Affordable Care Act.

Wow, that’s almost as much as Commissioner Larry Scott makes every 4 hours. Former reporter Rob Moseley has the Duck press release here.

In another demonstration of the NCAA’s prime directive that no black man should make money off college sports, it looks like almost none of this money goes to the revenue sports players.

From Ryan Thorburg in the RG, here:

Helfrich would like to see more elite prospects on campus for summer camps, but last month he said Oregon is not going to pay large sums of money to high school coaches just to attract talent.

“We didn’t get some kids on campus this summer because we didn’t pay their coaches,” Helfrich said of the practice, which is commonplace for some power programs.

“That’s a fact.”

Yes, paying those HS coaches would certainly mean a hit to Helfrich’s $3.5M annual take. I can see why he’d take a strong stand against this pernicious practice. And lets not even talk about paying the players.

For a good overall introduction to the workings of the NCAA’s hiring cartel and some of the economics of big-time college sports, see “The Case for Paying College Athletes.” Sanderson, Allen R., and John J. Siegfried. 2015. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 29(1): 115-38.

And for an understanding of just how flush the Ducks are, here’s the contract showing the $450K Mullens is paying Eastern Washington to take a Sept 5 beating at Autzen. Courtesy of the very efficient and friendly EWU Public Records office.

That $450K is for EWU’s coaches of course – the players just get a bus trip and brain damage:

Wait a minute – this game is Sept 5, and classes don’t start til September 28. How much is Eric Roedl going to charge the UO students for this one?