In regard to “Name-Image-Likeness,” the ability for players to be able to negotiate contracts to promote themselves, the NCAA has somewhat taken a hands off approach. We now have coaches calling out coaches, coaches calling out players, players calling out coaches - and this is just the beginning. This could be a free for all. I invited WWL’s “SportsTalk” cohost and NFL and College Football Analyst Mike Detillier on the show Monday to discuss what could happen next.
Mike, I don't know if I mischaracterized anything, but Nick Saban's calling out Jimbo Fisher, Jimbo Fisher's calling out Nick Saban… we’ve got players now calling out Saban as well and Saban calling out Jackson State. This is getting crazy!
Yeah, this was easily predictable. Ed O’Bannon sued the NCAA years ago because they basically used his name, image and likeness on a video game, so it's been a drop of the ball by the NCAA and to do anything, to try to help out. They've spent hundreds of millions of dollars to fight this in court, and they lost all the way around, now all this comes into focus. What Nick said - once you get past him calling out Jimbo and Jackson State - what he said, a lot of people have agreed with, and now the genie is out of the bottle. Now, how do you kinda reign this in? The unbelievable part is that Mark Emertt is now asking Congress to get involved. Come on! They can't figure out their own stuff, and now he's asking them to try to fix some of the stuff in the NCAA? I thought that's why they were paying him tens of millions of dollars a year, to be basically the commissioner of the NCAA, but he's been inept in that job. And so it's opened up Pandora’s box.
What Nick Saban did would be similar to what Joe Valachi did in the 1960s, basically ratting out the mafia. Okay. You were part of it, and now you’re ratting out other coaches, players, everything else - you’re part of that process too, you were doing the exact same thing! I've been around him a few times. We had done some junkets here when he was at LSU, and he got testy. His valves go off, and something set him off that day. I think if you ask most coaches in the SEC, what's their biggest fear from a team, they would say, look out west. College Station, Texas. They have the money, the players, the set up to do it. And I think that that bothers him. That's gotten under his skin.
What does it mean relative to recruiting? What does it mean relative to agents? I mean, aren’t all these rules basically gonna be out the window, because what's actually happening is that they're contacting these kids, not through the university, but through boosters and they're forming these collectives.
I talked to Coach O about this. He had told me, the crazy thing about all these young kids, they know what they're getting before they sign their national letter of intent. They know exactly what they're gonna get off of a name, image, likeness deal. He said what it's gonna do is it's gonna force you to play freshman a lot quicker from a coaching standpoint then maybe you would like, because if you don't play him as a freshman, he’s gonna say “When I signed this deal and I signed to your school, you promised me I could play as a freshman and play a lot. How come I didn't? I'm gonna go somewhere else where they gonna pay me and I'm gonna get to play.” So it's really edgy on both sides here.
The NCAA is helpless with this. When you get to the point where you are asking Congress to help you, I don't know how they're gonna be able to reign this in. It's really the wild, wild west in front of your very eyes. I don't know where it's gonna end, because there are no rules in place now. There’s nothing to really stop it.
