The NCAA Is Dead, And Pay-For-Play Is Alive, Well And Now Out In The Open | Trey Wallace

The news of an East Tennessee judge granting an injunction in the lawsuit between the NCAA and the States of Tennessee and Virginia should be the final nail in the coffin of the NCAA's enforcement staff. 

A ruling by Judge Clifton Croker seemingly told the NCAA it can no longer enforce any rules related to how a prospect or portal player uses NIL to determine where they want to play a sport. In reality, this was a death blow to the NCAA, and it will have a hard time coming back from the ruling. 

Even though the NCAA attempted to use Congress as a way to help enforce rules pertaining to student-athletes being paid, folks in Washington aren't coming to save the day. What was once a feared organization in Indianapolis has been driven into the ground, at the fault of the NCAA's own greed. 

We all knew what NIL would lead to in college athletics, a form of pay-for-play. But the NCAA decided it wanted to enforce it from behind, now realizing the fault of its late and flimsy guidelines once NIL was introduced. 

Now, collectives can go about their merry ways and talk about specific numbers when it comes to luring a prospect to their school of choice. A Tennessee collective can now sit-down with a player and tell them exactly how much they will be paid to attend school in Knoxville, without hiding behind a hypothetical figure. 

If you were wondering how this injunction pertains to other states and colleges, Attorney Tom Mars had this to say about the ruling. 

"One federal court injunction against a defendant is just as good as fifty as long as the Order doesn’t specifically limit the scope of the injunction to a particular plaintiff or jurisdiction. This order does neither."

At this very moment, there are collectives reaching out to high-school or transfer portal athletes and explaining to them how much they will be paid to attend a certain school. No more hiding in the dark and not calling it what it is, which is inducements. And the NCAA has to watch this all unfold in real time. 

If we're being honest, this has been part of the selling point of NIL since its birth. Another way to pay players to attend a school and contribute on the field or court. But one of the main problems with the NCAA's enforcement was centered around these athletes not being able to have a straight-forward conversation on how much their athletic ability was worth to a school. 

That part of the circus is in the past, or at least until a judge hears the entire case from both states and the NCAA, if it gets that far. What this does to the NCAA is cut off its arms when it comes to enforcing any rules that were classified under impermissible benefits that involved NIL. 

It's over, the NCAA might as well get rid of enforcement staff members, because Friday's ruling makes them useless when it comes to financial penalties or recruiting violations. 

Where Do We Go From Here, With NCAA And Universities? 

The simple answer to this question is making student-athletes employees of the school. Have them sign contracts that bind them to the agreement signed to play at one particular school and figure out a way to compensate them through the university. 

Sure, collectives can hang around as a third party, but what they are currently doing when it comes to negotiating a players' NIL contracts could easily be done inside an athletic department. Figure out a way to pay these players and have it come from a separate arm of the department. Raise funds, set a salary cap, appoint a general manger at each school. This is the future of college athletics, and the NCAA will be begging to have some kind of input in the process. 

We also don't have to tip-toe around the subject of players being paid because of their athletic ability, and not how many followers they have on social media. It's obvious that these athletes are already being paid because of their athletic ability, so we should all stop making a big deal out of what it's called, which is inducement. 

Some fans will continue to act as if a certain 5-star player only signed with their favorite school because of the assistant coach, or even the courses offered at one particular university. It's ok now, we can call it what it is, which is the same thing we've been doing for the last 40 years. 

Court rules in favor of  Tennessee and Virginia in fight over NIL rules, thanks to injunction.

YOU'RE PAYING A PLAYER TO ATTEND YOUR SCHOOL BECAUSE THEY ARE GREAT AT WHAT THEY DO ON THE FIELD. 

Now, say that a few more times, outbloud, and hopefully some folks will come out of their shell and stop freaking out when this type of language is used. 

By the way, the schools are not going to get in trouble over this in the current landscape. Those investigations into Tennessee and Florida for NIL violations might as well be used for toilet paper. They're worthless at the moment. 

I wrote last week that the upcoming transfer portal period in April will be the wildest one we've seen, and I'll double-down on that after today's injunction. 

College Football's Next Transfer Portal Period In April Has The Makings Of The Wildest One Yet

If you're wondering who to send an early Christmas present to, for pretty much putting the NCAA out to pasture, the main recipient is located in Knoxville. Sure, they might have broken some rules that were hard to interpret in the first place, but you can thank them for telling the NCAA to kick rocks, by way of its Attorney General. 

The NCAA has been dropped into a black hole, and I don't see how it makes it out alive.