Trey Wallace
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The ongoing soap opera of the Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) landscape is not disappearing anytime soon, whether coaches like it or not. Yes, there will be some type of legislation eventually passed, but Bob Stoops called the rules established by the NCAA a failure.
There’s no need to re-hash all that has transpired over the past twelve months when it comes to NIL. But what most college coaches agree on is how the lack of rule structure has made this the wild west of college athletics. How does the NCAA expect to all of a sudden stop the influence of boosters? They aren’t just going to magically disappear after all the involvement we’ve seen in the last several months.
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But this all goes back to the NCAA, which wasn’t prepared or didn’t care enough to look at what NIL would do once folks figured out that it could be used for other purposes besides a deal with a local bar. What we are seeing now is a massive change in how we approach paying players, who deserve to be paid by the way. But the coaches are now looking around the country and are fed up with having to engage in a public bidding war for a player. When it was all done under the table, at least they didn’t have to discuss it.
Former Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops appeared on ‘The Rush’, a talk show hosted by Tyler McComas and Teddy Lehman and broadcast around the state of Oklahoma. During his appearance, Stoops made a point to say how bad the NCAA has done in enforcing laws for one problem, while they make hasty decisions regarding other cases that come across their desk.
“The bottom line, be careful what you wish for. It’s totally different than what we’ve been used to. My opinion, we need a new leadership group. The NCAA and the way it’s been has really failed overall. Who goes by rules anymore and how they enforce it just seems so ambiguous. Look at Oklahoma State and their basketball program and what happened to them, brutal and just so wrong and so late. And then other teams, nothing happens to them.
“I’m not pointing fingers at anyone, it happens in football too,” Stoops added. “I’ve been very disillusioned for a long, long time on the NCAA. Just through my football years and how they enforce things or don’t.”
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Stoops then mentioned an idea that may gain traction now that the NCAA has failed so miserably.
“Maybe we need to have a new league of Power Five teams that have their own league, with their own whatever it be — commissioner, or governing board. You may have to put a salary cap on everybody and every team. Who knows? I don’t know. Again, I’m not living it like these other people are. But from afar, it looks like right now, nobody has control of anything. I don’t know if that’s ever good.”
It’s not surprising to hear former coaches and even current ones behind the scenes talk about breaking off into their own league, leaving the NCAA behind. The lack of control by the NCAA has been brought to the forefront on many occasions over the past few years, and it doesn’t look like things will get any better anytime soon. Even when the NCAA decides to hire a new president, that person will probably need several years to fix the issues in some sports.
So hearing Stoops talk about some conferences leaving the NCAA and finding their own way of regulating football isn’t far-fetched. This latest example of NIL is just another topic that the NCAA decided to drag their feet on, so they have nobody to blame but themselves.
But Bob Stoops has no idea how college football is being governed at the moment.
“Even the NFL has some rules, restrictions, guidelines, salary caps. Right?” Stoops added. “All of that. And I don’t know right now if college football has any of that.”
Safe to assume Bob Stoops is not a fan of how the NCAA has been run during this onslaught of new ideas in college football. But it’s also hard to find someone who doesn’t agree with him.
The average foam-fingered CFB fan who is fixated on HATING OUR RIVALS is not an active participant in this NIL Train Wreck. The “collectives” are small gangs of very deep-pocketed Fat Cats determined to buy “bragging rights” over his country club pals … regardless of the costs.
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So just relax and enjoy the Train Wreck … while HATING your Hated Rivals.
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The whole thing has become a train wreck. I suppose the schools that want to have professional players can break off and form their own minor league. Other schools can go back to the standard scholarship model, and play actual college football. I’d be all for it, and I’d be watching those who play the college version, not the semi-pro version.
My question is what’s the difference in the NFL and college football if they decide to open up college football the way Stoops is describing? Salary caps? Seriously? That is where we’ve taken college football in a matter of a couple years? Careful when there’s not much difference between the NFL and NCAA anymore, because then there’s ZERO argument keeping the NFL from signing the best kids right out of high school. Over the next several years we’ll start seeing a lot of unforeseen impacts and consequences of NIL no one really stopped to think through.
We got to this Train Wreck by the not-so-gradual marginalizing of the “value” of bartering athletic skills in exchange for a “marketable college education”. When “… receiving a college education” became a punchline … “student athlete” LOLOLOLOL … then, yes, the “not-a-real-student” athlete was indeed getting nothing for his toils but showcasing his skills to the NFL which affects less than 10% of players.
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Once “we need to compensate them somehow” was agreed … then the current Train Wreck engineered by Deep Pocketed Fat Cats was the obvious result.