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January 11, 2022 By: Mark Knudson

New Constitution: Will NCAA put guard rails on the evil twins named NIL and the Transfer Portal?

Cracks are starting to show in the solidarity among those who were so quick to endorse the opening of the twin Pandora’s Boxes of “Name, Image and Likeness” and the Transfer Portal in collegiate sports. Now that these disasters have been turned loose on college athletics (most specifically football thus far) we’re starting to see all the bad elements bubble to the surface.

Texas boosters offering high school Offensive Lineman $50,000 to sign with the Longhorns. Charlie Batch offering Oklahoma transfer quarterback Caleb Williams $1 million to sign with Eastern Michigan.

This stuff is going on everywhere, unchecked.

Before the season, we had BYU’s addition of 36 football scholarships under the guise of NIL. Remember, it’s been the 85 scholarship limit per program that’s maintained whatever semblance of competitive balance that’s existed in college football. Now that’s been totally eradicated.

Then there’s the poster boy for what ails college football: Quarterback Qwinn Ewers skipping his senior year of high school and taking $1 million and a brand new truck from Ohio State boosters before he ever played a game for the Buckeyes…then playing two snaps all season before bolting the program and transferring to Texas.

The inmates are in charge of the asylum.

The “poor exploited collegiate athletes” – those who prior to NIL were already getting the opportunity to earn a college degree for free with no graduation debt, who already get a cost of attendance stipend, and who are given the chance to move on and earn millions in and outside of playing sports after college – nevertheless won over the act-first-think-later politicians with their “poor us” argument…and the college game has been thrown into disarray as a result.

Even the “athletes first, game second” folks – who are more concerned about the name on the back of the jersey than the name on the front – are beginning to wonder where all this is going to go. Currently NIL and the transfer portal have no guard rails. No rules, regulations or protections. It’s a free for all.

In response to the madness, the NCAA is in the process of re-working their governing document. No one is certain what that will look like, but there are some obvious things that need addressing. The word is that each division within the NCAA – D1, D2 and D3 – will be given authority to create their own playing rules. That means that if they see fit, the D1/Power Five can set up guardrails on their own if they so choose. They have to do something. With both the NIL and the Transfer Portal operating without boundaries or guidelines, the sport is heading for a cliff.

There are plenty of things that need addressing. It starts with out-of-control coaches salaries. There are significant legal hurdles to clear to institute anything like a coaches salary cap. It’s failed before. But someone has to get a grip on this because spiraling coach’s salaries have been the impetus for all the bad decisions that have followed.

Very few followers of college football would argue that the sport is quickly transitioning toward becoming a full fledged professional minor league operation, especially at the highest level. So why not institute some NFL-ish rules?

Follow the NFL model and institute a “free agent period” for both players and coaches. Stop allowing coaches to change teams while the season is still going on. What Lincoln Riley and Brian Kelly did to their former teams this year was despicable.

There’s no way you can make coaches fulfill their contracts if they want to move, and in Riley’s case, Oklahoma’s impending move to the Southeastern Conference apparently wasn’t to his liking.

So be it.

But wait until after the season is over to leave for Southern Cal. That’s only fair. Kelly’s move can’t be defended. When he bolted South Bend, his Notre Dame team was still in the thick of the chase for a spot in the College Football Playoff. Amazingly awful timing.

Same thing needs to be done with players and the “grass is always greener” urge to head for the portal. Designate a specific period of time for player movement – just like the NFL does – and do not allow mass exodus events during the season.

That happened to the University of Nevada, which saw a dozen or more players leave to follow their coach Jay Norvell as he and his coaching staff moved to Colorado State. Never mind that the Wolfpack still had a bowl game to play.

It was worse for the University of Hawaii. While COVID was the biggest reason they had to back out of participating in their bowl game at the last minute, the glut of still-in-this-season transfers was cited as a reason, too. These things shouldn’t be allowed to happen. There could be designated periods, say from January 15 – March 15, and then again from May 1^st – August 1^st, for players and coaches to transfer if they so choose.

University of Colorado Athletic Director Rick George has voiced what many people feel. The NCAA has failed to properly regulate NIL to this point.

On top of that, currently schools themselves are forbidden from participating in Name, Image and Likeness deals, so they can’t put up guardrails themselves. But if the NCAA wanted to get a handle on this mess, they’d develop a way to regulate it the way George is pleading for.

One possible method would be to A) register all “boosters” who want to offer NIL deals and make said deals follow rules that do not allow money to be used to lure players to change schools, and B) find a method to do revenue-sharing among ALL athletes, not just selected stars.

Ironically, the deal Texas boosters put into place for the incoming Offensive Lineman could be a blueprint of sorts. It’s not a deal for any specific athlete, but rather rewards a group. The sharing of all marketing dollars the school brings in with the athletes, thus adding significantly to their stipends, would be a just reward for their efforts without totally disrupting what’s left of competitive balance.

Regardless of how they choose to do it, the NCAA has to take action. The way things are going right now is creating a mess that will ruin college sports.

Listen to Mark and former college Commissioner Karl Benson on the “Knudson and the Commish” Podcast, available on all your favorite podcast platforms.