NCAA releases statement eliminating the need for the Transfer Portal

[Tommy_Taylor_1972]

I bet Wisconsin and others hearing of this situation will be very careful in their next contracts. I understood that the student Athlete contract was good for only one year. Dumb to d a multi year contract anyway. Letters of intern were only good for one year and the contract replaced that. If it goes to trial, will be interesting on what the terms and conditions were. The NCAA won't care to be participant in a contract resolution problem and another school interfering with that. NCAA says do a on year contract and hit the portal if you are not happy. Wisconsin should have not prevented the player from doing that, except they were trying to encourage the student to stay longer. Dumb if they gave him money for the second year. Should have given him one year's pay and do it again the next year. Lawyers get paid regardless, as well as agents. GT has a unique situation of a scholarship basketball player, who hired a talent agency specializing in college basketball players, after he quit playing mid season mid game, and is in school paid by GT for the spring semester. That is the first I have heard of that. Maybe GT had to uphold their part of the 1-year contract to avoid litigation

 

[GoldZ]

NIL/TP.....what could go wrong? See this thread for tip of iceberg. We are in a time period where the individual can do no wrong, and it is always the big ole bad corporation, bank, wealthy individual, school, or police dept., who is in the wrong. Really beautiful yet imperfect things are dying, and I don't mean just cFB.

 

[CLHarperJackt]

Sue the player for breach of contract and sue the U of Miami for torturous interference of a contract.

 

[Root4GT]

Sue the player for breach of contract and sue the U of Miami for torturous interference of a contract.

And when you lose you pay and precedent is set! Don’t bring a lawsuit unless you are pretty darn sure you will win.

 

[Tommy_Taylor_1972]

NIL/TP.....what could go wrong? See this thread for tip of iceberg. We are in a time period where the individual can do no wrong, and it is always the big ole bad corporation, bank, wealthy individual, school, or police dept., who is in the wrong. Really beautiful yet imperfect things are dying, and I don't mean just cFB.

These are indeed odd times in the history of basketball, but there is a historical analogy that was similar in nature. Before the NBA formed in the late 1940's, big business corporations competed in the Amateur Athletic Union games and tournaments (AAU as we know it today bur at high school level). The companies hired the best basketball players, one of the most famous teams being the Phillips 66ers. The players came from college ranks and anywhere else that they could find. The players were hired and paid by the company, doing questionable day time work as assigned and playing ball and practicing at night. Georgia Tech's Pete Silas, who played center for Whack Hyder 1951-53 and graduated with a chemical engineering degree, was hired in 1953 by Phillips to play on the 66'ers team. He played a coulple years for them, but wanted more out of life. He moved on up in the company to become CEO and then Chairman of the Board.

The companies hired the players to work and play and win games to build the Phillips Petroleum "brand". Most of the players played college basketball, but basketball scholarships were not prevalent at the time. Tech did not give basketball scholarships until 1949. But the players were still considered amateur and many played in the Olympics before the NBA was allowed to play. Their story.
https://www.oklahoman.com/story/new...nd-a-name-for-phillips-petroleum/62740808007/

Bottom line, back then college players could remain athletic amateurs and be paid a full salary, and would not be considered a pro basketball player against today's NCAA rules. They could be hired from company to company, depending who paid the most money. Today, the college athletic associations (GTAA) could be analogous to an affiliate division of Phillips Petroleum Corporation, whose analog would be the Georgia Institute of Technology. The goal would be to build the corporate brand and attract more customers (students) to make more revenue. Today's NCAA, holding championships and league governance, is analogous to the AAU governing the Phillips 66ers. The forming of the NBA/ABA/ABL, with players jumping to them for pay, pretty much dried up the corporate segment and brainstorming AAU teams of the 1940-50's. The main difference back then was the players usually had a college degree and could move on to a more successful life.

 

[GTJackets]

I think going forward that contracts between schools and S-As will be one of the few ways to control the wild west environment they are in now. A legally drawn up contract between a school and a player has the force of law, something NCAA rules do not.
This situation has nothing to do with the ACC or B12 being viewed as inferior to the BIG Ten.

Agreed that this particular incident is not about the conference pecking order. It just happens to be the first public situation where a "student athlete" left a school immediately and enrolled in another circumventing the portal. And it just so happens that it involves a player leaving one of the big 2 for one of the perceived lesser 2. I guess we just have to accept that the B1G coaches are above all of this tampering stuff. Maybe it would have played out the same if he enrolled at Ole Miss instead of Miami. Guess we'll never know since all four A4 conferences are now putting impermissible contact on hold while we work through the new framework. /sarcasm

 

[RonJohn]

Because the contract was based on the "House" ruling that has not been accepted yet by the Parties involved yet. The money in the contract is coming directly from the schools which is contingent on approval of the "House" settlement. Currently schools cannot make direct payments to players.

Do you actually know what the text of the contract says? I don't believe you do. I know I do not. However, I have not been arguing that the contract is iron-clad enforceable. I have only been arguing against your assertion that it is 100% unenforceable.

The language could be set up in many different ways. If it is set up only for Wisconsin to pay him for non-exclusive use of his NIL in broadcasting games, then it would be extremely easy for him to sell his NIL to anyone else also. If it is set up similar to an employment contract, then it would be easy for him to play at Miami but subject him to penalties for breaching the contract and any monetary damages that Wisconsin suffers from him leaving. If it is set up as an assignment of his NIL rights to Wisconsin for two years, then he could leave and play for Miami, but Miami would not be able to use his name, nor allow his image to be broadcast in their games. I doubt the contract is set up as simple as any of these ideas. The actual language would determine if it is enforceable, but I seriously doubt that NCAA rules would have anything to do with whether a contract entered into between an adult and an athletic association is valid or not. It might not be enforceable if it violates federal or Wisconsin labor laws, or maybe even another state's laws if it was signed in another state. To know we would have to have the actual text of the contract and understand all of those laws. I simply don't believe that your boisterous declarations that the NCAA has to power to invalidate contracts between consenting third parties is a valid position.

I think it is interesting that the leverage in college football used to be completely in the hands of the NCAA, the conferences, and the schools. In recent years it has shifted to almost completely in the hands of the athletes. I think many people, and many athletes are forgetting that once you start entering into mutually agreed to contracts, the leverage ends. Both parties, athletic associations and athletes, are then subject to the agreed upon contracts. The athlete can't continue to complain about the -big-bad-system, because they themselves entered into an individual contract.

I have said before that I think the only way the entire system ends up being resolved is when the players collectively bargain with some entity. I don't know that the NCAA will end up being that entity. It might end up being a super-conference, or the P4 and G5 conferences on one or two contracts. It might end up being something that we haven't even considered up to this point. It is the wild West at the moment, and I would argue that it isn't really working very well for either side. Football programs are in a quandary trying to navigate things. Some athletes are making money by using the portal, but some athletes are being left out in the cold. Some kind of mutually agreed to structure would benefit both sides.

 

[stinger 1957]

In regular season play, we were 3-2 against the Big 12, 3-2 against the Big 10, 1-0 against the Pac 12. Only the SEC had a winning record against us during the regular season, going 8-3.

It appears you did a big omission, no bowl games, last I thought I saw we were like 1-11 or something in bowl games.

 

[RonJohn]

Agreed that this particular incident is not about the conference pecking order. It just happens to be the first public situation where a "student athlete" left a school immediately and enrolled in another circumventing the portal. And it just so happens that it involves a player leaving one of the big 2 for one of the perceived lesser 2. I guess we just have to accept that the B1G coaches are above all of this tampering stuff. Maybe it would have played out the same if he enrolled at Ole Miss instead of Miami. Guess we'll never know since all four A4 conferences are now putting impermissible contact on hold while we work through the new framework. /sarcasm

If I understand the NCAA statement, a student athlete leaving one school and enrolling in another would be immediately eligible IF he has no contact with the new school's athletic department prior to enrolling at that school. I don't think there are many (if any at all) that would actually do that. Academic enrollment timeframes are not large. Would an athlete actually enroll at a second school, then ask if there is a spot on the football team, then ask if there is a scholarship available for him, then try to negotiate an NIL deal? If that team said no, or didn't offer an acceptable deal, the athlete would have at most a couple of weeks to apply to, be accepted to, and enroll in another school before the enrollment window closed. He would then have to start the same questions/negotiations at the third school.

Nobody would be willing to do that. It is obvious that the athlete in this story did not do that. I don't take the statement from the NCAA at face value. I take it as a declaration that the NCAA is not going to be involved at all, no matter what actually happened. They don't want to enforce anything to do with tampering. They don't want to enforce anything having to do with direct contracts with athletes. The NCAA is not going to play any role in eligibility rules nor enforcement for D1 football going forward.

 

[CLHarperJackt]

And when you lose you pay and precedent is set! Don’t bring a lawsuit unless you are pretty darn sure you will win.

This case is not antitrust law. This is a case of contract law and it's pretty clear that the parties had an agreement and consideration, i.e. money, was given by Wisconsin and or its NIL partners. The player is attempting to breach the contract, and the U of Miami appears to be aiding in and encouraging the breach. The only issue is a question of whether the available remedies, i.e. specific performance by the player, injunction against the player and/or damages to be paid by the player are worth it to Wisconsin. That is why they should also sue U of Miami, for tortuous interference of a contact and for punitive damages, as U of Miami now without a doubt knows of the existence of the contract and strongly appear to be engaging intentional acts causing the disruption of the contract.

 

[yeti92]

It appears you did a big omission, no bowl games, last I thought I saw we were like 1-11 or something in bowl games.

I don't think it's really relevant to include a bunch of games where the players involved don't care and with rosters depleted by transfers/opt outs and coached by interim coaches. That's like counting NFL preseason games. You can include SMU and Clemson since they still had something to play for, then the ACC is even 3-3 with the Big 10 and still a losing record with the SEC. But even if you include them all, the ACC is 4-5 with the Big 10, 3-3 with the Big 12, 2-0 with the Pac2, and still a losing record against the SEC.

7 of 14 games (including bowls) with the SEC were competitive and could have gone either way, but the ACC only won 1 of those 7, plus 2 others. And other than ugag blowing out Clemson to start the season, all the other blowouts are pretty obvious - was anybody surprised a bad NC State got wrecked by Tennessee, Wake Forest got dominated by Ole Miss, Florida beat up FSU, and a depleted and coachless Duke got smacked by Ole Miss?

 

[stinger78]

I don't think it's really relevant to include a bunch of games where the players involved don't care and with rosters depleted by transfers/opt outs and coached by interim coaches. That's like counting NFL preseason games. You can include SMU and Clemson since they still had something to play for, then the ACC is even 3-3 with the Big 10 and still a losing record with the SEC. But even if you include them all, the ACC is 4-5 with the Big 10, 3-3 with the Big 12, 2-0 with the Pac2, and still a losing record against the SEC.

7 of 14 games (including bowls) with the SEC were competitive and could have gone either way, but the ACC only won 1 of those 7, plus 2 others. And other than ugag blowing out Clemson to start the season, all the other blowouts are pretty obvious - was anybody surprised a bad NC State got wrecked by Tennessee, Wake Forest got dominated by Ole Miss, Florida beat up FSU, and a depleted and coachless Duke got smacked by Ole Miss?

I thought Manny Diaz was Dook’s coach. Did you mean QB-less?

 

[yeti92]

I thought Manny Diaz was Dook’s coach. Did you mean QB-less?

Correct, my mistake.

 

[roadkill]

The actual language would determine if it is enforceable, but I seriously doubt that NCAA rules would have anything to do with whether a contract entered into between an adult and an athletic association is valid or not.

This. Root will argue this until the cows come home, but NCAA rules are not law, and breaking NCAA rules is not necessarily breaking the law.. Now, if the contract for some reason referenced an NCAA rule, and that rule was broken, then it could in theory render the contract invalid. But I haven't seen the contract and I doubt anyone on this board has either.

 

[Root4GT]

This. Root will argue this until the cows come home, but NCAA rules are not law, and breaking NCAA rules is not necessarily breaking the law.. Now, if the contract for some reason referenced an NCAA rule, and that rule was broken, then it could in theory render the contract invalid. But I haven't seen the contract and I doubt anyone on this board has either.

Let's see how this sorts out. Do you think Wisconsin will actually peruse a lawsuit? If so, do you think Wisconsin will win a lawsuit? I seriously doubt Wisconsin or the B1G will do anything more than publicly whine about the situation.

In a hilarious would Wisconsin would initiate a lawsuit and then the NCAA would put them on probation for violating NCAA rules, which they did!

Gotta love the absurdity of college sports circa 2025!

 

[forensicbuzz]

Let's see how this sorts out. Do you think Wisconsin will actually peruse a lawsuit? If so, do you think Wisconsin will win a lawsuit? I seriously doubt Wisconsin or the B1G will do anything more than publicly whine about the situation.

In a hilarious would Wisconsin would initiate a lawsuit and then the NCAA would put them on probation for violating NCAA rules, which they did!

Gotta love the absurdity of college sports circa 2025!

What rule did Wisconsin break? Negotiating a contract in preparation for anticipated rule changes? Until money changes hands, I'm not sure that's a rules violation. That being said, I'm not sure the contract is binding until rules change, but I'm not an employment law attorney.

 

[Root4GT]

What rule did Wisconsin break? Negotiating a contract in preparation for anticipated rule changes? Until money changes hands, I'm not sure that's a rules violation. That being said, I'm not sure the contract is binding until rules change, but I'm not an employment law attorney.

Pay for play is against the NCAA rules. Having a player sign a pay for play contract is 100% against NCAA rules. Not putting a players name in the Portal in the required 48 hours is 100% against NCAA rues! Besides that who knows.. If it gets to a lawsuit, which I highly doubt, then we will all find out!

Same questions to you? Do you think Wisconsin will actually peruse a lawsuit? If so, do you think Wisconsin will win a lawsuit?

 

[forensicbuzz]

Pay for play is against the NCAA rules. Having a player sign a pay for play contract is 100% against NCAA rules. Not putting a players name in the Portal in the required 48 hours is 100% against NCAA rues! Besides that who knows.. If it gets to a lawsuit, which I highly doubt, then we will all find out!

Same questions to you? Do you think Wisconsin will actually peruse a lawsuit? If so, do you think Wisconsin will win a lawsuit?

I think that Wisconsin put measures in place in anticipation that the House settlement would be accepted by the judge and that come June/July, revenue sharing will be required. I'm not sure if putting the contracts in place is against the NCAA rules, but it sure isn't against the law. Breach of contract certainly opens you up to a civil lawsuit.

Not having seen the contract, I'm not sure it's pay-for-play, as you assume. If it's revenue sharing specific to their NIL, then officially it's not pay-for-play, it's revenue sharing for the NIL of each athlete, which is not against the NCAA rules. I'm pretty sure the NCAA isn't going to try to enforce any of their rules anyway, so I don't think there would be any blow-back.

Don't conflate rules with laws. If this went to a jury trial in State Court in Wisconsin, 100% Wisconsin would win. I just had a jury trial in Wisconsin and I just had to shake my head. The jury system is absolutely horrible when it comes to common sense and justice.

I don't know if Wisconsin would pursue a lawsuit. If they felt they were injured and had a proper vehicle to be made whole, I would absolutely expect Wisconsin to pursue it.

 

[Root4GT]

I think that Wisconsin put measures in place in anticipation that the House settlement would be accepted by the judge and that come June/July, revenue sharing will be required. I'm not sure if putting the contracts in place is against the NCAA rules, but it sure isn't against the law. Breach of contract certainly opens you up to a civil lawsuit.

Not having seen the contract, I'm not sure it's pay-for-play, as you assume. If it's revenue sharing specific to their NIL, then officially it's not pay-for-play, it's revenue sharing for the NIL of each athlete, which is not against the NCAA rules. I'm pretty sure the NCAA isn't going to try to enforce any of their rules anyway, so I don't think there would be any blow-back.

Don't conflate rules with laws. If this went to a jury trial in State Court in Wisconsin, 100% Wisconsin would win. I just had a jury trial in Wisconsin and I just had to shake my head. The jury system is absolutely horrible when it comes to common sense and justice.

I don't know if Wisconsin would pursue a lawsuit. If they felt they were injured and had a proper vehicle to be made whole, I would absolutely expect Wisconsin to pursue it.

Ok we disagree. From what I have read the amount goes up or down based on player performance.

This is an interesting case for sure. And Wisconsin absolutely violated NCAA rules on the Portal. If the Portal becomes invalid then schools will be free to negate with players on other teams during the season openly. That is likely one thing the NCAA would fight.

They would be fighting a member of their organization who agreed to abide by the rules that school agreed to. I think the NCAA is done fighting players but not member of the NCAA!

 

[RonJohn]

This is an interesting case for sure. And Wisconsin absolutely violated NCAA rules on the Portal.

This is another thing that depends on the language in the contract. If he signed a contract that said he will not enter the portal, which would have the most importance, a signed contract that he is not entering the portal, or a verbal statement that he wants to enter? Without more information, you can't say with certainty that Wisconsin absolutely violated anything.