NCAA President Charlie Baker would like a decision sooner rather than later about expanding March Madness and noted during the Big 12’s meetings in Orlando that “our goal here is to try to sort of either get to yes or no sometime in the next few months. There’s a lot of logistical work that would be associated with doing this if we were to go down this road.” If a decision to expand is reached, Baker believes it would take effect next year. “That would be the goal, which is why the window to negotiate it will probably end sometime in early summer.” Baker says of the benefits of expansion: “It’s a way to get some of the teams into the tournament who would be at large teams. Given the fact that we believe in the AQ process and the opportunities that it creates for everybody to have a stake in the tournaments on the men’s and women’s side, we leave some teams out that probably belong there, and it’s a way to get them in.” (link)
NCAA President Charlie Baker also appeared unconcerned by speculation about the SEC potentially leaving the association, remarking during the Big 12’s spring meetings that “I tend to believe what I hear from people when I speak to them directly. … Their voice matters a great deal in part because they take college sports seriously and play at a very high level, just like the Big 12 does and just like many others do. … But I think there’s a path forward here where we can figure out a way to keep everybody in a place where they’re comfortable that they’re both being heard and having the opportunity to play and compete.” Baker also said he hasn’t heard much about the presidential commission on college sports, adding: “We’ve done a bunch of things that were important to Washington with respect to some of their issues with us. And I think we’ve seen enough, especially in the sort of burgeoning state law space, to be able to make a pretty compelling case about state preemption and some of the other issues we’re dealing with. From my point of view, as many voices at the table works for me. I think these issues are important, and they certainly matter a lot to schools and to kids and to college sports.” (link)
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey joined The Paul Finebaum Show and noted there was a report earlier in the week that “I had the authority to depart the NCAA. In Monday's press conference my observation was: in our room there are those who asked if the NCAA still works for us? Why are we still in the NCAA? So we talked about a decision-making working group; Chancellor [Glenn] Boyce from Ole Miss and myself were on that. What is our position? We felt, and I think we still feel, that an autonomy division within the NCAA is the best direction. So that's a decision we've made before. How do we position it as this conversation takes place?” Sankey says there won’t be a decision on football scheduling during this week’s meetings and explains: “Part of my concern right now is all the time we’ve wasted in the CFP not making decisions has created a time crunch for us. And we may not have the needed CFP clarity…in sufficient time to make a decision about eight or nine games, which tends towards people thinking about eight. I tend to think we should play nine and we’ll be fine.” Sankey on his working relationship with Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti: “I accept that both conferences are going to have different views on things. I think Tony understands that as well. I think we've communicated openly and honestly and there've been points of agreement, points of disagreement, ideas generated that haven’t been thought of in one place that are thought someplace else and you’re pulled along.” Sankey also notes the Power 4 commissioners have met twice in May alone to discuss the current issues. “So it’s not really exclusionary. It was a recognition that we’re not making any progress through these other means so let’s see if we can come together. I just told our presidents we need to figure out how to reinvigorate the conversation because we've had so much change at the presidential level.” More. (link)
Several SEC ADs stopped by The Paul Finebaum Show set in Destin as they emerged from the league’s spring meetings, including Arkansas AD Hunter Yurachek, who noted the House settlement would create two student-athlete compensation “lanes” – revenue-sharing and “legitimate NIL. And if we can stay within those two lanes in college athletics, I think we have figured this out. But if someone decides to venture and create a third lane, that’s where the problems will occur.” Yurachek also tells Finebaum he was told by Commissioner Greg Sankey that he was told enforcement of the new model will include “someone that has ties professional league that is well-versed in working in arbitration, well-versed in enforcement, well-versed in salary cap management, and I think that's what we need from an enforcement entity because this is a new day and age in college athletics and not one the NCAA is equipped to handle.” (link)
Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark tells ESPN’s Heather Dinich that the league not only approves of a 5+11 College Football Playoff model, it presented it when the Power 4 commissioners met recently in Charlotte. “It has always been our first choice. It’s fair and rewards on field performance. I’m not surprised SEC coaches like it.” (link)
Georgia President Jere Morehead tells ESPN/SEC Network’s Paul Finebaum he expects there to be more litigation after the House settlement. “I think ultimately if we don’t get a congressional solution, we may never solve this issue. But I’m hopeful that the House settlement will put some parameters around future litigation and give us a better place to litigate whatever issues some plaintiff’s attorney comes up with next. And there are plenty of plaintiffs’ attorneys that will come up with new theories. I’m confident of that.” Regarding the potential for a congressional solution, Morehead says: “I think what we’ve got to do is find a way to get enough Democrats on board with the Republican majority to come up with a bill that we can all live with. … That was always our hope that if we had the House settlement it would be the final step in getting Congress to act.” Morehead also comments on how the industry came to this point and tells Finebaum the “NCAA needed to wake up to the reality of NIL a long time ago. I was on the first NIL Working Group. We came up with a number of great recommendations. The NCAA didn’t adopt any of them. I think we sort of allowed the courts and the plaintiffs’ lawyers to take control and that was a mistake.” (link)
The NCAA’s partnership extension with Genius Sports, which was announced earlier this year, comes with a caveat, according to NCAA President Charlie Baker: “For them to continue to access our data moving forward, there can’t be any sportsbook betting on negative props. So all the stuff that literally translates into a lot of the worst behavior that’s directed at young people and student-athletes generally under this agreement is going to be off the table.” Baker also notes the NCAA’s work continues in fighting college prop bets: “At this point, slightly more than half the states that have legalized sports betting do not permit prop betting on college sports, but that still leaves enormous numbers of student-athletes subject to the kind of abuse that comes with this stuff. And I think it will remain, for all intents and purposes, a significant challenge going forward.” Baker’s comments came at last week’s Knight Commission meetings. (link)
Georgia Football HC Kirby Smart says some schools are promising high school recruits and transferring players third-party NIL deals as part of their compensation package even though none of the deals can be cleared by Deloitte’s NIL Go. “Teams that are unusually good at recruiting right now are doing it. Kids are getting money, but if you decommit, you owe that money back. These are high school kids getting money from an entity not affiliated with the university but is a collective of the university.” Asked to identify the schools, Smart said only that they weren’t in the SEC. NIL Go is expected to begin processing contracts three days after the House settlement is approved, and Smart expects a “mass run” on submissions from schools attempting to test the entity and determine just “how much can I get outside the cap.” He adds: “Every team is going to put pressure on Deloitte to say, ‘I need to know! I’m promising this money outside of the cap.’” While Texas A&M AD Trev Alberts believes in the clearinghouse, he acknowledges schools will begin jockeying in an attempt to exceed the cap with third-party contracts. “Everybody is trying to figure out fair market value NIL. At the end of the day, we’re all looking for a competitive advantage. What is real is you have rev-share amount and scholarship amount, but what is undefined is how much fair market value deals can you get through NIL Go.” Alberts also says of the affiliation agreement being circulated among Power 4 schools: “We are all defendant schools and conferences and you inherently agree to this. I sat in the room with all of our football coaches, ‘Do you want to be governed?’ The answer is yes.” (link)
Former Arizona State men’s swimmer and named plaintiff in the House case, Grant House, tells HoopsHQ’s Seth Davis that lawyers informed him he had a week to prepare his family and ASU staff for what was coming before they filed. When the news came out early, House explains: “It kind of all came crashing down. I thought I had a lot more time to tell people and inform people, because that’s what the lawyers had said. At that point, I didn’t understand the magnitude of what it was.” Davis points out that House has made “exactly one appearance as a spectator in Judge Wilken’s courtroom and has barely met his own lead attorneys. House subsequently notes: “A lot of people think I’m the mastermind behind it, but my actual involvement in the inner workings of the case has been pretty minimal and quite infinitesimal. To be here and know that I’ve had really no voice in this settlement has been unfortunate, upsetting and disappointing.” House understands that he could take his name off the case and be rid of all the negative attention and hassle, but he tells Davis he reached that point. “That’s the easy choice to make. I felt like, if I back down from this opportunity and I quit on this, then who’s going to stand up for athletes and who’s going to have the courage to go forward? Because it’s not about me. … I don’t know what’s going to come at the end of this. Even five years into this, I still don’t know how each day is going to unfold. But I believe I’m on the right side of history.” (link)
According to Sportico’s Daniel Libit, FARs’ “traditionally modest foothold is all but gone” as the industry changes, and outgoing Tennessee FAR Don Bruce notes: “Nowhere are academics in the conversation right now. And it’s really disappointing. It’s really frustrating because we [FARs] do show up for work to support student-athletes, to protect our institutions, and to preserve what we believe is worth preserving—and that is the collegiate model.” Last week, Bruce joined other FARs and the Faculty Athletics Representatives Association (FARA) in drafting a public letter to the DI Board of Directors and its newly formed decision-making working group sharply criticizing the group for sidelining faculty representatives under the guise of operational efficiency. From the letter: “The NCAA continues to sell the paramount importance of academic standards and student-athlete success…through advertisements, public statements, and congressional testimony. Yet these words ring hollow with the nearly complete omission of FARs from the proposed decision-making structure.” Libit adds: “Notably, the working group included no faculty athletics representatives, which, according to FARA’s letter, was attributed to an ‘oversight’ by staff—but apparently one that could not be remedied after the fact. … On Wednesday afternoon, Pamela Bruzina, the faculty athletics representative at Missouri who serves as FARA’s president, told Sportico that both she and Bruce had just received an invitation to join the working group’s next meeting in mid-June.” Lots more. (link)
Texas A&M will fully fund every roster position, increasing its total scholarship allotment by more than 150, according to Aggies AD Trev Alberts. Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger notes the Aggies join Tennessee, Clemson and “some others in completely scholarshipping each sport.” Meanwhile, WRAL’s Brian Murphy notes North Carolina “had 850 athletes this year, which will shrink to 735 under the House roster limits. But UNC had only 320 full scholarships so it'd have to increase that by more than 400. ‘I don't think we'll get there. We certainly won't get there quickly,’ AD Bubba Cunningham said.” (link)
