Great Article on NIL Issues

[Mike West]

This may end up behind a pay link (Forbes has been notorious of pay walls).

 

Excellent article about the intricacies of NIL contracts.  
 

What Nico Iamaleava’s Holdout Means For The Future Of NIL Contracts

WWW.FORBES.COM

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Tennessee's situation with Nico Iamaleava may impact how both schools and...

 

 

[30Duck]

It's a mess. Back in the 70's when Curt Flood wanted to play for a different team, he took legal action and free agency was born, The difference is that this was professional baseball, and there are rules. Baseball doesn't have a salary cap, teams, players work around that by deferring payments.

 

The NFL does have a salary cap, and it works, though every year players renegotiate their deals. Now, Iamaleava wants to renegotiate, but with no guidelines or structure, it's beyond tricky. This can't make him look good, but Tennessee, nor any other school, wants to get the label of being unreasonable, unyielding, with players.

[Jon Joseph]

 

Thanks, Mike. And thank you, 30, for the insightful comment.

 

Baseball does not have a salary cap, but it does have a Luxury Tax that, in some respects, keeps contracts under control. (For a guy who recalls when a $100,000.00 a season was a huge salary for a baseball player, I swallowed hard when typing the previous sentence.) 

 

Baseball has enforceable contracts that control free agency. Baseball has federal protection from antitrust litigation. In MLB, like the NFL, NBA, and NHL, a player's union negotiates with management as prior agreements expire or new proposals are made by management. No professional athlete in any of the big four pro leagues can take his talents to the market anytime he so desires.

 

CFB today is a professional league, except that the players do not have a union. Even without a union, players have been able to pressure the NCAA on matters like reduced practice time. No matter what lawyers come up with, NIL contracts will not hold up in Restraint of Trade suits.

 

In Nico's case, when the NCAA came sniffing around, attorneys for the Vols NIL collective brought suit, and the Tennessee Attorney General jumped in to help keep the NCAA at bay. Before the approval of the House settlement, we have legislators in several states filing legislation that will exempt House and NIL income from state tax. The House settlement will not end state by state, piecemeal legislation designed to give Good Old State and U a competitive leg up. 

 

The House settlement is a stopgap designed to keep the NCAA involved with FBS college football. Athletes will be paid directly by their school, but they are not employees who can form a bargaining collective? Seven accountants will rule on whether any NIL deal over $600 reflects 'market value?' It's SSDD, and NIL collectives and boosters bidding for an athlete's services are not going away. 

 

Until the athletes can collectively bargain with "management," there will be no federal protection from antitrust and other litigation. Existing antitrust suits against the NCAA, like Reggie Bush's suit, and future suits are not affected by the House settlement. The brightest contract lawyers can gin up a 'bulletproof' NIL contract. No verbiage will stop plaintiffs' attorneys, aided by sympathetic courts and legislators, from shooting holes in any contract.

 

Size goes to size in business. College football is Big (B1G/SEC) Business, and a Super Conference notwithstanding House is coming. And it most certainly will not have sixty to seventy teams involved. OBD will be involved.