Today’s guest blogger is Joe Moglia, head of sports and administrative assistant to the leader at Coastal Carolina University.
It’s the two- second warning when it comes to the NCAA’s losing battle against spend- for- perform in college football. The Power Five’s spin- of seems inevitable–it’s only a matter of when.
And, sometimes, here’s the day.
The last several days have seen many hits against the business. A judge in Tennessee has quashed the NCAA, possibly putting an end to their ineffective prohibition on using NIL deals as incentives when recruiting from move portals or high schools. Finally, the Dartmouth men’s basketball team voted to join a union, blazing a path that could lead to undergraduate athletes—at least those in income producing sports—being classified and paid as people of their institutions. Additionally, it makes it possible to bargain collectively in school sports.

There’s no doubt at this point that NIL has completely reshaped school sport, especially when it comes to Division I football, which generates trillions in TV income.
Despite previous president Mark Emmert’s inaction on NIL, the NCAA and its leader Charlie Baker have certainly made a significant progress. The organization struggled to support its authority or goal yet after Baker took over. The NCAA sought to hold back the rising sea with sandcastles rather than trying to design the NIL time, aid players, and enable the Power Five schools to operate independently.
Consider the NCAA’s recently rejected restrictions on using NIL as an incentive. To begin with, it was a crazy law. From time one, instructors were talking to people about NIL. Plus, there were several gaps. The NCAA failed to grasp the fact that the primary purpose of NIL is to give people. Any student’s first question is then,” What’s the NIL position look like”?
In fact, renowned Alabama coach Nick Saban just made a statement on Capitol Hill that stated that while coaching used to be all about “developing players” and “helping people become more successful in life,” that is no longer the case.
Saban also described how his partner rang the concern as the surroundings changed. She had frequently match with recruit mothers and discuss how she would influence their sons and ensure that they were well cared for. She came to me straight before I retired and said,’ Why are we doing this?’ I said,’ What do you think?’ She said,’ All they care about is how much you’re going to give them. They do n’t care about how much you’re going to develop them.'”
It is a tragedy for an institution like the NCAA to give up on the idea of developing players and allow conflict to rule on the site. These players are young people who are only beginning to understand what it means to own character.
It was also completely predictable.
Whether the NCAA intended for NIL to be or not, it became a factor for players and a recruiting tool for tutors. Instead of developing a method based on robust contracts and safeguards for players and schools, the organization made the decision to market an unrealistic, illegal rule. And they did this even as they removed the limits on the move website, setting up a virtual auction house each year for participants while pretending no one was buying.

Of sure, once again, a jury has ruled against the NCAA. Their effort to have NIL failed. Also, with the Dartmouth effect, they’re failing to prevent the rising tide of expertise. The NCAA and Baker have repeatedly missed their chance to take the lead on these problems, and they have instead merely watched as their reputation suffers as their costs mount.
Baker is once more urging Congress to end the clutter by granting the NCAA an competitive exemption in place of taking a proactive role in shaping the age of college athletics. It’s a desperate attempt, which only serves to make the business appear even less successful and weak. And he’s laying it on thick, claiming that if college athletes were paid, it would endanger the existence of sports at “95 % of colleges”, because they do n’t make money on sports.
This place is absurd for two reasons. First, even if athletes are categorized as employees, it does n’t mean they’d all necessarily earn huge salaries. The majority of students would probably make the minimum wage, which is equivalent to the salary of many, many other students who have college jobs. Next, Baker significantly overstates how many colleges may struggle to pay their student athletes. And just because some colleges may struggle to pay their students, it’s still acceptable to do it!
Imagine if we had the same company debate. It would be absurd to say that no one should be required to pay wages because a few businesses could rely on unpaid labor and would n’t be able to survive without paying their workers. It’s a funny plan.
Of course, Baker may be working to put items on a better training than trying to get Congress to protect him. Spinning off the big revenue sports —especially Power Five football—could help protect non- revenue sports, from fencing to shot put, from the ( supposedly ) undue financial burden of paying minimum wage. It may help to limit the scope of social negotiation among the TV sports and teams.
And the fact of the matter is, even as the NCAA spends million on activists, Congress is also tired of the complaining. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn. ) made the obvious statement to the AP:” Now that the courts and states are forcing them to start treating athletes fairly, the NCAA is spending even more on expensive lobbyists in an effort to persuade Congress that all of a sudden, college sports are broken.”
Murphy suggested that the NCAA rather if” start negotiating directly with athletes to develop a completely new design that gives them the pay and protections they have huge deserved.” Simply asking Congress to bail them out until the NCAA takes these fundamental steps is not a reasonable plan.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn ( R- Tenn. ) said it even more succinctly:” The NCAA has a well- established history of backroom deliberations that produce unfair punishments for athletes, coaches, and universities”, and that it has “damaged its priorities in Congress”.
I agree.
Congress does n’t seem interested in the products the NCAA is selling, and it certainly does n’t act in the best interest of the athletes who work with NIL on a daily basis despite their best efforts to care for their players.
What are the power conferences waiting on because the NCAA is unable to come up with a winning strategy? There is no better time to launch a new business model for college sports and start making money.
Moglia was TD Ameritrade’s CEO and chairman before becoming the company’s chairman and managing director. In 2012, he became Coastal Carolina University’s head football coach, leading the team to four conference championships and an overall record of 56- 22. He is currently Coastal Carolina’s Executive Director for Football and its Executive Advisor. You can find him on his website, on his LinkedIn page and on Twitter.