Digital Sports Desk

WE’RE SICK OF NAME, IMAGE, LIKENESS AND IT HASN’T EVEN STARTED

By TERRY LYONS

BOSTON – With all due respect to Hamilton – The Musical, let’s hope they don’t throw away their shot.

They fought for it.

They wrote about it.

They talked about it.

They protested over it.

They sued for the rights to it.

Yes, they were young, scrappy and hungry and on Thursday the NCAA finally caved and folded the deck on the issue of “Name, Image and Likeness” (NIL) as their hand was forced by the clock striking midnight leading into July 1st.

The NCAA directives, this week, came after the Supreme Court of the United States had ruled (9-0) Monday in favor of student athletes and as at least 10 States had adopted laws or were ready to enforce executive orders (of State Governors or Governments) to allow student-athletes the right to “make money” from their Name, Image or Likeness (NIL).

The decisions tossed the collegiate sports world into a land of uncertainty with no clear guidance from the law or the NCAA.

First, the NCAA noted that schools in States that have passed laws related to NIL would be “responsible for determining whether” athletes’ NIL activities “are consistent with state law,” their statement said.

The statement also called for athletes (and schools) in States without an NIL law, athletes would be able to engage in NIL activities without violating NCAA rules that so far have heavily limited those activities. The areas to be fair game now include having endorsement deals, leveraging social media for pay, and making money from coaching or signing autographs and autographed memorabilia.

Sports marketers didn’t “exactly” jump into the fray, but one deal – struck by Fresno State women’s basketball players Haley and Hanna Cavinder, hoop-it-up twins who’ve built up an impressive, hard-earned following and rocked their social media channels and TikTok, in particular – received quite a bit of attention with a timely Boost Mobile endorsement to open an NCAA NIL Pandora’s box.

By September, another 15 States are expected to have NIL legislation in place and the remaining States will then be pressured to act as soon as possible. Somewhat like sports gambling, their is no Federal guideline and the entire category for sports marketers has fast become “the Wild, Wild West” of yesteryear, with administrators making up their rules on a case-by-case basis and totally on the fly.

“With the variety of State laws adopted across the country, we will continue to work with Congress to develop a solution that will provide clarity on a national level,” said NCAA President Mark Emmert in a statement. “The current environment – both legal and legislative – prevents us from providing a more permanent solution and the level of detail student-athletes deserve.”

Somewhat like the ambiguity caused by the lack of Federal guideline on the issue of legalized sports gambling, the colleges, their administrators, the student athletes, marketers and marketing agents have been left to figure out the non-existent rules as they go along. Certainly, the unscrupulous underworld of collegiate sports will rear it ugly head to bend the rules or blasts through them – one-by-one. Leniency in one State can provide an advantage to the recruiting practices of schools in that particular State over their neighboring and sometimes rival State.

It’s almost unfathomable that the legal system and the NCAA have allowed the issue to remain unresolved, as the 2015 O’Bannon case started the boulder rolling downhill. To refresh your memory, in 2016 the Supreme Court of the United States failed to take up an appeal to a 2015 Ninth Circuit Court ruling in favor of former UCLA men’s basketball player, Ed O’Bannon, now a retired NBA professional. In the ruling, the three-judge Ninth Circuit panel – consisting of Judges Sidney Thomas, Jay Bybee and Gordon Quist – found that certain NCAA amateurism rules violate federal antirust law.

Surely, there was time to put Federal guidelines in place. Now, the Feds have too much on their plate and the June 28th SCOTUS ruling – while just and correct – dumped a whole load of problems – TikTok – onto the laps of college sports administrators who all knew they were coming.

HERE NOW, THE NOTES: USA Basketball is cranking up the engines and the men’s U-19 team, competing in the FIBA U-19 World Cup in Latvia started the summertime activities off in a big way. The USA team posted an 11-0 run to start their first game, and never looked back en route to their decisive, 83-54, victory over Turkey (0-1) Saturday in Riga. … After opening the game with that 11-0 run, the Americans closed the first 10 minutes with a 15-2 surge that covered the final 4:13 of the quarter. Jaden Ivey (Purdue/Mishawaka, Indiana) scored 10 of the USA’s last 15 points in the first period which led the USA securing a 20-point lead (29-9) going into the second quarter. … The USA U-19 squad will continue with preliminary round July 4, at 1:30 p.m. (EDT) versus Mali and will wrap-up the round robin play on Tuesday, July 6, at 1:30 p.m. EDT vs. Australia.

HOOP, HOOP, HOO-RAY: The USA men’s senior national team will soon dress as Olympians but before they do, they’ll practice against a newly named USA Select team that includes some of the NBA’s brightest young stars. The Select roster will include:

• Saddiq Bey (Detroit Pistons/Villanova)
• Miles Bridges (Charlotte Hornets/Michigan State)
• Anthony Edwards (Minnesota Timberwolves/Georgia)
• Darius Garland(Cleveland Cavaliers/Vanderbilt)
• Tyrese Haliburton (Sacramento Kings/Iowa State)
• Tyler Herro (Miami Heat/Kentucky)
• John Jenkins (Bilbao Basket, Italy/Vanderbilt)
• Keldon Johnson (San Antonio Spurs/Kentucky)
• Josh Magette (Darüşşafaka Tekfen, Turkey/Alabama-Huntsville)
• Dakota Mathias (Philadelphia 76ers/Purdue)
• Immanuel Quickly (New York Knicks/Kentucky)
• Naz Reid (Minnesota Timberwolves/LSU)
• Cam Reynolds (Houston Rockets/Tulane)
• Isaiah Stewart (Detroit Pistons/Washington)
• Obi Toppin (New York Knicks/Dayton)
• P.J. Washington (Charlotte Hornets/Kentucky)
• Patrick Williams (Chicago Bulls/Florida State)

Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra will serve as head coach of the 2021 USA Select Team, The assistant coaches will be Gonzaga University head coach Mark Few, who served as an assistant coach with the 2019 USA Select Team and head coach of the 2015 U.S. Pan American Games Team and Dallas Mavericks assistant coach Jamahl Mosley, who served as an assistant coach at the 2018 USA National Team minicamp.

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