The NCAA Will Allow Athletes to be Paid

The NCAA announced today that they will allow their student-athletes to profit off their name, image, and likeness.  First off, this is really big news and not just in sports but also national and world news.  The NCAA has held really tight to their old rules of not allowing athletes to be paid.  However, earlier this month California Governor signed the “Pay-for-Play” bill that allowed college athletes to profit off of their name, image, and likeness.

NCAA Board of Governors starts process to enhance name, image and likeness opportunities: https://t.co/tQaLUBgton pic.twitter.com/QaSYMAUfKn

— NCAA (@NCAA) October 29, 2019

Huge day, absolutely huge news for all 18-22 year olds who are talented enough to play college athletics.  There are a ton of news articles, videos, reports but here is the link to the one on NBC: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/29/ncaa-allows-athletes-to-be-compensated-for-names-images.html

So today the NCAA Board of Governors started the process to allow athletes to be paid, and I truly don’t think people realize how big this is.  It seems like since the whole O’Bannon vs. NCAA case that started in 2009 and was decided in 2014, people have been talking and trashing the NCAA for not paying their athletes.  It felt like in 2009 people started to realize how much money these schools and the NCAA make off of their athletic programs more specifically football and basketball.

We could start seeing these athletes being paid as early as January 2021, which seems way too early for this to happen.  The NCAA has asked all three divisions to come up and modernize their student-athlete handbook to allow the athletes to be paid.

But here’s where it get a little tricky.  Will these athletes have a share of ticket sales and revenue?  Or will this new NCAA rule allow these athletes to go out and get their own endorsement deals with like Nike or Gatorade or with a local business?  or both.  What will happen with athletic scholarships, and can those be used as a source of payment (which is kind of already is).

What’s great with this whole situation, and now that the NCAA has admitted defeat and jumped the gun before they were forced to pay, is that if you asked anyone on the streets if college athletes should be paid you would get mixed answers.  I for one am someone who is on that mixed reaction when I heard this news.  I was more mixed on the fact that I think this is just the tip of the iceberg, and this could very be the beginning of the end for college sports as we know it.

College’s make a lot of money, and so doesn’t the NCAA.  These two are businesses, not a handout to athletes who want to make money.  College athletics are just more advanced high school sports.  Might be a stretch, but its true.  Some high schools in Texas have a bigger showing than most Division 2 and 3 schools.  They have bigger facilities, and the fan base is more passionate.  But these high school athletes don’t get paid.  They are either on scholarship or the school is public.

Tim Tebow said a similar thing on First Take earlier in the month by saying “college athletes should not be paid.”  This caught backlash, but his reasoning was correct.  At what point does amateur sports stop becoming a thing now and everything meshes into professional.  The best part about college football and basketball is that these kids play their asses off because they have so much pride for their school and want to represent their school.  This is the glory of amateur sports.  It’s something professional sports lack.

Professional sports, however, don’t give a shit about pride and only chase the paycheck which is why most professional leagues are dominated by 4-7 teams out of 30.  It’s simple, professional athletes don’t care about pride but instead the paycheck of being a professional athlete.  Granted they make millions, but they deserve to make those millions because they are apart of the 2% of college athletes who worked their asses off to become a professional in their craft.

This new rule, will make other sports leagues around the world obsolete.  Look at the Australian Basketball League that LaMelo Ball plays in.  This league could now fold because the NCAA is allowing college athletes to be paid.  This is the number one reason (other than eligibility rules) why some kids go overseas to play, so they can make some money.  But these leagues have to sign the players and then they become professionals.

Major news organizations that should know better are acting like the NCAA took a major step today.

It did not. It did what the NCAA always does, which is obfuscate and delay.

Here’s @aNateScott https://t.co/Pn0V2gbVtH

— Chris Korman (@ChrisKorman) October 29, 2019

Just imagine the money that is going to legally coming into players from like Alabama or Kentucky/Duke.  Tua could be making more than a PROFESSIONAL football player just because he is good against other college athletes.

This is all just my opinion and who knows how the NCAA will structure this thing.  Maybe they will cap the income earned at a certain amount, or maybe they will split up all the revenue from all the athletic events and divide that into their athletes.  I really don’t know, but all I know is that amateurism is dead and maybe even college sports.  This is a bitter-sweet day depending on what side you are on, but I’m telling you this could ruin a lot of things unless they get this absolutely right.  This is a pass/fail type of situation and I hope they make the right decision.

John McCormack (Uncle_Mac4)