NCAA is looking to move NIL into athletic departments

Coach Andy Mac · January 24

At its heart, Project DI is about deregulation. It cedes control of impactful decisions, such as athlete compensation, scholarship limits and roster spots, to the high-revenue producing schools.

The proposal comes in two parts.

(1) It permits DI schools to strike NIL deals directly with their athletes and offers athletes uncapped “educationally related enhancements.” That part of the proposal is on a sort-of fast track. The DI Council is expected to build a framework around the concept with recommendations due to the Board of Directors in April with potential adoption in August.

(2) It creates a new subdivision of FBS, meant for the highest revenue-producing athletic departments, where these schools control rule and policy-making. There is an entry fee: Schools in the new subdivision would be required to distribute at least $30,000 per athlete for half of a school’s athletes while abiding by Title IX. Depending on the size of a school’s athletic department, that figure ranges from $5 million to $15 million annually.

Gripes over the proposal range widely, according to conversations that several administrators held with Yahoo Sports over the last month, at the national championship site in Houston and NCAA convention in Phoenix.

In a way, the NCAA’s own proposal strips away more of its own authority, which, ironically, opens up the organization to questions of its own existence from those in the major conferences: Can’t we enforce our own rules and operate our own championships?

read more: https://sports.yahoo.com/with-college-sports-at-a-critical-juncture-is-project-di-the-answer-everything-is-on-the-table-161809460.html

Edited January 24 by Coach Andy Mac

Coach Andy Mac · January 24

• The proposal may slow but will not completely end booster-led NIL collectives, which MAC commissioner Jon Steinbrecher says is the wish of “most” athletic directors. “They’d like to see collectives go away,” he said from Phoenix. But at many schools, collectives will remain as a third-party entity that (1) does not have to abide by Title IX and (2) can offer athletes extra compensation onto their school pay, most believe. “In my view, (collectives) will likely still exist regardless of how institutions are compensating student-athletes or not,” said Florida deputy AD Lynda Tealer, an expert on NIL matters who’s helped lead the NCAA NIL working group now for years.