By Kasey Nielsen and Joel Nielsen, of Bricker Graydon
Every day of the NCAA convention brings a certain flare to it, and this year was no different. What follows are our takeaways for each day:
Day One
- New Division I NIL Rules to “Protect” Student-Athletes
Division I approved rules that are intended to protect student-athletes and provide greater transparency. The NCAA announced its commitment to (1) establishing a voluntary registration process for NIL service providers (agents, financial advisors, etc.), (2) working with schools to provide template NIL contracts and recommended contract language, and (3) providing comprehensive NIL education. Our take is that there is certainly room for this type of assistance from the NCAA, though many schools are well down the road already with an NIL compliance structure and model contract language will need to be vetted through applicable state laws.
Student-athletes are now also going to be required to disclose to their school any NIL deals that exceed $600. It’s not entirely clear how this is designed to protect student-athletes, particularly those attending public institutions. Nevertheless, schools are also required to notify the NCAA, which will be creating a “deidentified database” of those deals. Privacy concerns abound and no word on what enforcement would look like here if there was a failure to disclose.
These rules are effective August 1, 2024.
Division I also proposed rules around institutional involvement and recruiting activities, including defining an NIL entity (collective) and expressly prohibiting contact between NIL entities and prospects (recruits). Schools would also have more freedom communicating with NIL entities regarding current student-athletes. These rules could be adopted as early as April 2024.
- New Division I Enforcement Rules to Hold Schools, Coaches, Staff Members Accountable
In addition to the NIL rules, Division I approved new rules that will likely impact the infractions process. Under the new rules, coaches, and staff members, rather than the student-athletes, will see an increase in penalties and (theoretically) accountability for violations of the NCAA bylaws. For example, naming individuals responsible for certain wrongdoing, a public-facing database of serious NCAA infractions, and longer suspensions for coaches.
These rules are effective immediately.
Arguably the most eyepopping is the proposal to increase institutional fines from the existing $5,000 to $25,000 or even $50,000, plus an increased percentage of an involved program’s budget (up to 10%, on top of the base fine for the most severe cases) in Level I or Level II infractions cases. This rule could be adopted and effective as early as June 2024.
- All Divisions – Updated Mental Health Best Practices
The NCAA updated its Mental Health Best Practices document, which all Division I, II, and III members are required to follow. Division I members also have to attest in November 2025 that they are following this document. The document will be available in the next few weeks and has information on the intersection between mental health and a variety of topics like sports betting, social media, and NIL.
Day Two
- NCAA goes (back) to Washington
Perhaps in a nod to its recent track record, the NCAA doubled-down on its position that federal legislation is the best avenue for a more uniform system. Specifically, the Association is seeking to advance four priorities (and tell us if you’ve heard these before):
- NIL protections for student-athletes;
- that student-athletes should not be considered employees;
- a way for the NCAA to operate without the persistent threat of litigation (the antitrust exemption); and
- preempting state law to allow for uniformity across Association membership.
NCAA President Charlie Baker said that the Association would “need some sort of protection and special status from Congress.” That’s just what they’re after.
- Restructuring College Athletics through the Conferences
Everyone has an idea of what the future of college athletics should look like. From a shift to the professional model to preserving the “unique educational nature” of the existing model – or at least the version immediately before the existing model – there are no shortage of ideas. Now we have a new one to add to the mix. The Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics presented a model, called the Connecting Athletics Revenues with Educational Model (C.A.R.E. Model). C.A.R.E. is predicated on the idea that conferences need to adopt certain requirements prior to schools receiving their “piece of the pie.” Based on what we heard and read, it sure sounds like these requirements are fairly aligned with the NCAA’s existing foundational/constitutional values.
C.A.R.E. is aimed at incentivizing four categories: (1) Transparency, (2) Independent Oversight, (3) Incentives for Core Values of Education, Gender Equity, and Opportunity, and (4) Financial Responsibility for Education, Health, Safety, and Well-Being. Within each category are requirements and benchmarks for institutions to follow. For instance, the third requirement incentivizes schools to achieve academic success, provide equitable opportunities for both female and male sports, and offer a broad base of sport opportunities. The final category is an attempt to limit schools on spending large sums of money on coaching contracts, and instead require athletic departments to spend that money on student-athletes. Panelists even discussed a luxury task.
The C.A.R.E. model champions a conference-based approach because, according to the Knight Commission, it is more likely to withstand antitrust legal challenges. We’re not entirely sure that argument would be on all fours with antitrust law, but it does shift the discussion a bit.
As of today, all DI schools would meet the target numbers required under this new model except 44 of the autonomous institutions, which are some of the highest resourced institutions of the 350+ Division I members. This is largely attributed to the last category, as those schools spend a majority of their revenue on salaries, buyouts, and other non-student-athlete areas.
The Knight Commission is encouraging conferences and institutions to adopt the model immediately and are offering up to $100,000 in grant money motivation. Up to 21 college coaching organizations are already in support of the Knight Commissions new model. Many of the non-revenue producing sports see this as a deterrent to dropping programs in the future world of college athletics.
This will be one proposal to watch to see if it gains any significant momentum in future days/months. To learn more about the details of the C.A.R.E Model, see here.
- NIL Violations
While not tied to the Convention, we saw the NCAA penalize Florida State for NIL-related violations. An assistant football coach facilitated an impermissible recruiting contact between a transfer student-athlete and the CEO of a NIL collective– violating the recruiting bylaws – and that CEO impermissibly offered a NIL deal to the transfer student-athlete to encourage the player to attend Florida State – violating the NCAA’s NIL interim rules. Florida State agreed to a list of penalties.
This is the second time the NCAA has penalized an institution for NIL-related violations, which should put schools on notice that this could be a trend.
