SoCalPatrick
Member
SCOTTSDALE Ariz.—College leaders are gearing up to issue a warning to hundreds of wealthy boosters who are using name, image and likeness (NIL) ventures to involve themselves in recruiting.
University administrators, part of a task force to review NIL, are finalizing additional guidelines that are expected to clarify that boosters and booster-led collectives are prohibited from involvement in recruiting, multiple sources tell Sports Illustrated. The guidelines will provide more guidance to member schools on what many administrators say are NIL-disguised “pay for play” deals orchestrated by donors to induce prospects, recruit players off other college teams and retain their own athletes.
The new directives will highlight existing NCAA bylaws that outlaw boosters from participating in recruiting, reminding member schools of guardrails that, while in place for years, have been bent and broken during the first 10 months of the NIL era, officials say. Under a long-held NCAA rule, boosters are a representative arm of an athletic department and are not supposed to associate with or persuade prospects.
The guidelines, still in draft form, outline that booster-backed collectives should be prohibited from associating with high school prospects and college transfers, potentially opening the door for contentious legal challenges between the association and booster groups.
Schools that do not control their donors’ spending could be found to have violated NCAA rules and will be punished, according to the document. The NCAA enforcement staff have made inquiries only into a small handful of programs so far, but the guidelines could spark deeper investigations into improper inducements tied to NIL payments.
“We let things get out of hand,” says one official with knowledge of the guidelines. “We have to get [the boosters] out of contacting recruits and bartering with them.”
A new NCAA working group tasked with reviewing NIL spent the past month creating the multipage document of guidelines, an addendum to the organization’s interim NIL policy released last summer. The guidelines are being rushed through the NCAA governance system and could be approved within a week’s time, sources say. They are expected to be the first of what could be ongoing clarity from leadership about the new and complicated space.
The draft of guidelines is being circulated this week in Phoenix, where more than 200 administrators and coaches from at least four conferences hold their annual spring meetings. The administrative council of the NCAA Board of Directors meets Monday, at which point they can rubber stamp the draft.
In a seminal chapter in a seismic moment for college sports, the recommendations and potential subsequent investigations could have sweeping impacts on the current landscape, where individual donors (directives) and groups of donors (collectives) have been communicating with prospects or their agents to arrange NIL deals. Sports Illustrated spoke to more than two dozen college sports stakeholders over the past six months for a wide-ranging story that revealed the unregulated, high-priced bidding wars for college football and men’s basketball players.
www.si.com
University administrators, part of a task force to review NIL, are finalizing additional guidelines that are expected to clarify that boosters and booster-led collectives are prohibited from involvement in recruiting, multiple sources tell Sports Illustrated. The guidelines will provide more guidance to member schools on what many administrators say are NIL-disguised “pay for play” deals orchestrated by donors to induce prospects, recruit players off other college teams and retain their own athletes.
The new directives will highlight existing NCAA bylaws that outlaw boosters from participating in recruiting, reminding member schools of guardrails that, while in place for years, have been bent and broken during the first 10 months of the NIL era, officials say. Under a long-held NCAA rule, boosters are a representative arm of an athletic department and are not supposed to associate with or persuade prospects.
The guidelines, still in draft form, outline that booster-backed collectives should be prohibited from associating with high school prospects and college transfers, potentially opening the door for contentious legal challenges between the association and booster groups.
Schools that do not control their donors’ spending could be found to have violated NCAA rules and will be punished, according to the document. The NCAA enforcement staff have made inquiries only into a small handful of programs so far, but the guidelines could spark deeper investigations into improper inducements tied to NIL payments.
“We let things get out of hand,” says one official with knowledge of the guidelines. “We have to get [the boosters] out of contacting recruits and bartering with them.”
A new NCAA working group tasked with reviewing NIL spent the past month creating the multipage document of guidelines, an addendum to the organization’s interim NIL policy released last summer. The guidelines are being rushed through the NCAA governance system and could be approved within a week’s time, sources say. They are expected to be the first of what could be ongoing clarity from leadership about the new and complicated space.
The draft of guidelines is being circulated this week in Phoenix, where more than 200 administrators and coaches from at least four conferences hold their annual spring meetings. The administrative council of the NCAA Board of Directors meets Monday, at which point they can rubber stamp the draft.
In a seminal chapter in a seismic moment for college sports, the recommendations and potential subsequent investigations could have sweeping impacts on the current landscape, where individual donors (directives) and groups of donors (collectives) have been communicating with prospects or their agents to arrange NIL deals. Sports Illustrated spoke to more than two dozen college sports stakeholders over the past six months for a wide-ranging story that revealed the unregulated, high-priced bidding wars for college football and men’s basketball players.
Task force to big-money boosters: NIL sanctions could be coming - Sports Illustrated
College administrators are finalizing guidelines expected to clarify that boosters and booster-led collectives are prohibited from involvement in recruiting, sources tell SI.
www.si.com
While I haven't researched it a tweet from Finebaum suggested CA has a "pay for play" bill running through their legislature right now.
