There's A New Sheriff In Town, And The NCAA Finally Sounds Like It May Do Something About NIL Mess

Maybe there is hope for the boiling cesspool that college athletics is becoming because of the toxic pollutant known as Name, Image & Likeness that started in 2021.

It may be a shot in dark waters, but at least the NCAA is trying under new president Charlie Baker, the former governor of Massachusetts who took over on March 1 and is a Republican.

NCAA regulatory affairs director Stan Wilcox sent a memo to all NCAA member schools on Tuesday that Sports Illustrated and other media outlets, including OutKick, later received.

The memo basically tells member institutions to cut all the NIL crap.

The memo came on the heels of many SEC area states (imagine that) hurriedly coming up with new statutes and laws to help their various large state schools further enrich their Name, Image & Likeness coffers.

NCAA Needs National NIL Standard

Wow, what a surprise! The SEC states are busy making laws to help their football schools win. Never mind that some SEC states like Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana have some of the poorest areas and some of the worst public education. But, hey, the biscuits and football are good. So, let's go buy some more players, and we need more money.

Some states like Missouri are getting creative.

Incoming SEC member Texas (in 2024), meanwhile, has a law in the works that will award priority points and other perks for NIL-base donations. I can see it now:

"If you help us buy this player, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian will come to your home for dinner."

This is directly against the NCAA's NIL policy.

But Texas A&M is apparently not concerned with the NCAA either. It is starting a spin-off to its 12th Man Foundation fund raising arm called 12th Man Plus Foundation. It takes contributions ticketed for athletes.

NIL Money Not Supposed To Come From Fundraising Arms

The NCAA's original rules regarding NIL prohibited the school's corporate athletic fund raising arms from getting involved with paying NIL money to student-athletes. By rule, the money is supposed to come from private businesses and other entities not closely associated with the schools. Such business leaders formed what are known as collectives to pay the athletes.

A problem developed, though. Some of the people excited about paying the quarterback at their beloved school were novices in such big business ventures. Some went out of business. Even some of the well-run ones started running out of money. Throughout the country, many athletes promised NIL money haven't gotten it, and they have found they have little recourse.

New NCAA president Charlie Baker has his eye on NIL in college football. (Getty Images)

This is the other side of the Wild West of college athletics.

Meanwhile, these fancy fund raising arms are full of skilled, smart and experienced people who know how to raise large sums of money by getting donations from fans - rich and poor. The money helps pay the exorbitant football and basketball coaching salaries across the land. Such fund raising arms have also fueled the facilities arms race that swept college athletics through the first 20 years of this century. That used to be how schools recruited.

"Hey, come see our new weight room."

LSU bragged about sleep pods for their football players.

NCAA Isn't Concerned With State Laws

That was all really cool for awhile. Now, the athletes just want the cash, and they don't care if it comes from a collective or the TAF, for example. That's the Tiger Athletic Foundation. Every major school has a TAF, or a 12th Man-type entity. They all basically print money.

And athletic departments want these fund raising arms to fund and enhance their NIL deals to players.

At the moment, there are new laws in the works in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Texas that are written in such a way that let these fund raising arms pick up the tab on NIL deals. The new laws also say the NCAA or any other entity, such as the SEC, cannot penalize a school for merely doing something that is allowed in their state.

Never mind that the major donors and boosters at major schools tend to swim in the same pools as the most powerful politicians and state office holders and have the largesse to get such laws written. And such arrogance.

"Hey, we need this quarterback from Central High School, but he is going to need a big NIL deal."

"Well, let's get the athletic department's fund raising arm to help."

"We can't. It's against NCAA rules. But we can go by our state laws."

"Well, then, let's write a new law."

NIL Money Is The Secret To Success

In other words, the Good Ole Boys from State U. who fire and hire coaches and get the new facilities built, are getting together with the Good Ole Boys at the state capitol. Now, this Wild West is really getting wild.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said at the SEC Spring Meetings in Destin, Florida, last month that he feared this could happen since 2021.

"Our states are making a mess of college athletics," he said. "Our states are adopting laws that are not helpful to conduct conference competition or national competition."

Yep, the Good Ole Boys are writing laws. God help us all.

This is more proof that college athletics and the NCAA jumped head first into the world of NIL without checking the water. Immediately, individual states were given too much power and leeway, and now they're taking advantage of it, or trying to, as Sankey said.

Beyond the NCAA's own rules, only federal laws should be involved with NIL, so all schools can operate under the same laws. Instead, schools in certain states have been getting advantages that schools in others do not.

"There is no national standard," Texas A&M athletic director Ross Bjork told Sports Illustrated. "It's all local standards."

So, we'll do just do whatever the hell we want, right Ross?

Everything's big in Texas, and A&M and Texas are large enough to make their own local standards in order to beat those in Louisiana and Alabama, so they can beat LSU and the Tide.

Collectives Is Fancy Name For Money Laundering

"Let's be honest, we're all money laundering," one SEC athletic director told Sports Illustrated.

So, finally, the new NCAA president reacted strongly on Tuesday through the Wilcox memo.

"The NCAA maintains that schools must adhere to NCAA legislation or policy when it conflicts with permissive state laws," the memo began. Key word - "permissive." As in, no laws. As in, the Wild West.

"In other words, if a state law permits certain institutional action, and NCAA legislation prohibits the same action, institutions must follow NCAA legislation," Wilcox wrote.

That's simple enough. The problem is edicts or memos from the NCAA don't scare athletic directors and presidents like they used to. The NCAA is now much like a southern sheriff in a small town who means well, but the Dixie Mafia runs everything.

So, "Must follow NCAA legislation," or what? You're going to make me vacate wins from a decade ago? That's what the NCAA just did to LSU. And no one cared. LSU won those games back then. So what if they're officially vacated.

New NCAA Sheriff In Town

But there is a new sheriff in town. We shall see if Baker means business. This memo was a step in the right direction. Basically, the NCAA is seeing the movement from the powers that be at colleges to try to write their own laws. And the SEC is raising them with possible punishment. In other words, the NCAA is saying they don't care what some new state law says you can do. You're following our rules, or else.

Good for them.

"Unless and until the membership changes a particular rule, all schools, as part of a voluntary membership, are required to comply," the memo concludes.

NCAA Doesn't Scare Everyone Now

Now, let's see what happens if a bunch of schools just ignore the NCAA and let their rich fund raising arms start filling player's arms with cash.

"NCAA rules are adopted by member schools," Wilcox says. "It is not fair to the schools who follow the rules to not enforce rules against those who choose not to do so."

Bring it!

Unless the above memo was just lip service, Baker and his deputies will have to slap down some sanctions on some big name schools not complying.

Texas A&M perhaps?