Protect College Sports Act

IrishInOntario said:

It doesn't disadvantage Notre Dame. It simply blunts the financial might advantage ND's been exercising over the last 2 recruiting cycles. The Irish have been significantly outspending programs such as Georgia, Alabama and Clemson and the results have been obvious in the quality of their recruting classes.

Bevacqua was transparent on the Irish illustrated podcast about why he supports the bill... Because he doesn't want a race to the bottom. While ND has deeper (and more sustainably deep) pockets than most, roster costs are at the limit of what schools can afford under a profitability model. So even if ND has done well in an "uncapped" world, he'd rather the sport have guardrails and the athletic departments finances be protected.

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Okay maybe he’s not as serious about winning as I thought. Fuck the other schools. Sink or swim.

arrowryan said:

Okay maybe he’s not as serious about winning as I thought. Fuck the other schools. Sink or swim.

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Yep. The SEC was so concerned about ND when they were paying players under the table.

KPENN said:

Yep. The SEC was so concerned about ND when they were paying players under the table.

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We’ll see. Doesn’t make much sense to invest $100M into a new facility if you’re not going to stay competitive. I think they’ll be fine.

Supposedly in the bill it states that the school president has to sign off on any NIL deal that it is legit and not connected to the school. Also what's different than in years past is that the booster/car dealership/etc will now also be criminally liable if caught in any wrong doing.

I think it’s good for the game, collectively. Yoh were going down a two-conference league (Big Ten / SEC) which, just as a college football fan. I really wasn’t in favor of. I’m not overly concerned about caps on pay. The elite, blue bloods will always be fine, and I really support the 1 transfer rule.

Pay Limits: Sets a strict maximum cap on the cash schools can directly pay players each year.

No Under-the-Table Deals: Stops schools from using sneaky third-party sponsors or boosters to pay players extra money.

Injury Coverage: Forces schools to pay for an athlete's medical bills during college and for 5 years after.

Safe Scholarships: Guarantees players cannot lose their scholarships if they get hurt or play poorly.

Saved Sports: Protects smaller sports, women's sports, and Olympic sports from being cut by the school.

One Free Transfer: Allows players to switch schools once without having to sit out a year.

No Tampering: Bars coaches from talking to or recruiting players from other teams during the season.

Capped Agent Fees: Limits what sports agents can charge players to a maximum of 5% on deals.

No Forced Majors: Prevents coaches from dictating what subjects or majors an athlete chooses to study.

Lawsuit Shield: Gives college sports leagues a legal shield so they can enforce these rules without getting sued.

Enforcement of cheaters will be key. Lack of that is why the SEcheaters were able to get away with it for so long.

arrowryan said:

Okay maybe he’s not as serious about winning as I thought. Fuck the other schools. Sink or swim.

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He's serious about winning, but he's afraid that if the finances of the sport degrade to the point of unsustainability, the conferences will push for drastic changes to the sport that will not benefit ND for the better.

ND's AD has the unevenviable task of constantly fighting for what's in ND's best interest, while simultaneously placating the SEC and Big 10 power brokers, whose support ND needs to maintain their independence and some of their, objectively unique carveouts. All of their respective financial successes are woven together.

stlnd01 said:

Well that's where enforcement comes in. The Kawhi Leonard debacle aside, no one tries to circumvent salary caps in the NBA or NFL.

And the money now is so much larger. A made-up job or giving mom a car won't be enough to entice the good players. they way it used to. The sums involved will make it harder to break the rules (again, assuming some reasonable effort at enforcement).

I don't know. The sport need some rules before it spins completely out of control, and I'm fairly confident Notre Dame will find a way to thrive within the boundary of those rules as it pretty much always has.

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The LA Dodgers say hold my beer. How long before the schools start having deferred compensation in these contracts? Ohtani is being paid what $2M a year now and will get paid $65M starting in 2035 or so?

SarasotaJoe said:

I think it’s good for the game, collectively. Yoh were going down a two-conference league (Big Ten / SEC) which, just as a college football fan. I really wasn’t in favor of. I’m not overly concerned about caps on pay. The elite, blue bloods will always be fine, and I really support the 1 transfer rule.

Pay Limits: Sets a strict maximum cap on the cash schools can directly pay players each year.

No Under-the-Table Deals: Stops schools from using sneaky third-party sponsors or boosters to pay players extra money.

Injury Coverage: Forces schools to pay for an athlete's medical bills during college and for 5 years after.

Safe Scholarships: Guarantees players cannot lose their scholarships if they get hurt or play poorly.

Saved Sports: Protects smaller sports, women's sports, and Olympic sports from being cut by the school.

One Free Transfer: Allows players to switch schools once without having to sit out a year.

No Tampering: Bars coaches from talking to or recruiting players from other teams during the season.

Capped Agent Fees: Limits what sports agents can charge players to a maximum of 5% on deals.

No Forced Majors: Prevents coaches from dictating what subjects or majors an athlete chooses to study.

Lawsuit Shield: Gives college sports leagues a legal shield so they can enforce these rules without getting sued.

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A lot of good rule changes, but the most important elements will still involve rampant cheating using new, innovative ways. You can not legislate away the humanistic desire for people to seek advantage over others.

In particular...

1. There is no way in actuality to stop colleges from conspiring with large corporations to provide "off the book" NIL deals to players that wouldn't normally get those deals. Corporations have the freedom to pay anyone they want in NIL. Good luck proving in court that a player was receiving more money than their name, image and likeness "should" or "deserves" receive. It's soooo incredibly hard to prove conspiracy in a court of law, in an environment like this.

2. No tampering is the most comical thing I've ever heard. Professional sports have "no tampering" policies as well ahead of free agency. Ever wonder why in the first hours of free agency 90% of the top free agents are off the board and signed with teams?... Because all of the negotiations were done behind the scenes with the player, through their agent, in the explicit "dead" period. Yet, you never see a single person in pro sports punished for clearly "tampering" outside of the signing window. It will be the exact same thing in college sports.

For the record, my answer is not "do nothing" and let the sport spiral further out of control. I'd rather see a commissioner (with a supporting office) that has teeth, backed by a multi-billion dollar war chest, ready to sue schools out of existence for purposely evading the rules. I'd also like to see draconian legal penalties, including serious jail time, for coaches and administrators found guilty of conspiring to evade the "salary cap" to improve their rosters. I'd also like to see draconian punishments (legally backed) by the NCAA when programs do blatantly cheat. Remove 20-30 scholarships for 5+ years. Make said school pay fines worth tens of millions of dollars that get absorbed back into the legal war chest of the commissioner. Playoff and post season bans, coupled with a transfer window for any players on the cheating team's roster that want to leave and not be subject to the penalty... Basically, programs should operate under the fear of destruction if they want to cheat. Forget the slaps on the wrists... I'm a bit of a tyrant though, so I don't expect everyone to be that extreme.

Me2SouthBend said:

The LA Dodgers say hold my beer. How long before the schools start having deferred compensation in these contracts? Ohtani is being paid what $2M a year now and will get paid $65M starting in 2035 or so?

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Honestly, given how many guys the NFL tosses on the scrap heap by age 25, a deferred NIL deal that pays out long after college may not be so bad.

Changes were going to come no matter what. I’d much rather have the changes come in a situation like this where ND had a seat at the table, as opposed to just having to go along with whatever the P2 came up with

Me2SouthBend said:

The LA Dodgers say hold my beer. How long before the schools start having deferred compensation in these contracts? Ohtani is being paid what $2M a year now and will get paid $65M starting in 2035 or so?

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I don't think NFL or NHL teams (where there is a hard cap) do that. The cap in this bill sounds like a hard cap.

jerseyborn1971 said:

I'd bet that house that most of these NIL deals are not equitable.

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No one disagrees. I was just addressing the fact that some local businesses do utilize it But it’s likely not the big spenders. the really big names are getting pro athlete type deals with UA, adidas & New Balance for example

pumpdog20 said:

Supposedly in the bill it states that the school president has to sign off on any NIL deal that it is legit and not connected to the school. Also what's different than in years past is that the booster/car dealership/etc will now also be criminally liable if caught in any wrong doing.

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Schools caught cheating face federal court instead of the NCAA's limp wrist?
Make the players, coaches, corporations, boosters, etc held equally accountable for cheating and I would support the new rule.

Freeman and Notre Dame on an equal field vs the scum of the SEC.

NotKoon said:

Changes were going to come no matter what. I’d much rather have the changes come in a situation like this where ND had a seat at the table, as opposed to just having to go along with whatever the P2 came up with

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The law/statute can always be amended in the future, right? It's a start in the right direction. Something had to be addressed.

And we all have to remember, it's "Protect College Sports Act," not "Protect B1G and SEC Act." There's a whole lot of fans at your Univ. Arizona, USF, Northern Illinois, Idaho, Colorado State, NDSU, SMU, Houston, Boise State, Bowling Green, Wyoming, Virginia Tech, Washington State, Oregon State, Tulane, Akron, and such. I'm sympathetic to them. I always hated the idea of separating to a 30ish team division/league of B1G and SEC schools.

Let's start the new rules in 2035 after we've outspent the south for a decade.

Let's start the new rules in 2035 after we've outspent the south for a decade.

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As someone who has resided in Florida for over a decade (thank God) and with a bunch of OSU alums in the Charleston/Savannah and Dallas area, there's more money infiltrating down here than you'd think. Not to get political, but big business is relocating here, Texas, and Tennessee for somewhat obvious reasons.

It's almost impossible to design a system that is "perfect" for ND even with the ability to consistently spend in the top 5. In general, stopping transfer madness is incredibly important, and the devil will be in the details on this "cap" and how southern schools will inevitably try to cheat how they always have.

Me2SouthBend said:

The LA Dodgers say hold my beer. How long before the schools start having deferred compensation in these contracts? Ohtani is being paid what $2M a year now and will get paid $65M starting in 2035 or so?

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But everyone can do that. As long as everyone can do it there is no inherent competitive advantage towards one school or conference.

There’s always gonna be a work around. I haven’t seen much said about NIL for high schoolers. This will tame the transfer market while probably leading to more aggressive front loaded bags for high schoolers.

Dale said:

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greyhammer90 said:

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Is Notre Dame the good steering wheel that doesn't fly off when the Big 10 is driving?

notredomer23 said:

Is Notre Dame the good steering wheel that doesn't fly off when the Big 10 is driving?

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ND to Miami looking out from their ACC prison:

It amazes me how galaxy brained stuff like this always is,… the conference thing especially