Newsletter #86 | New NCAA NIL rules coming, Boston College's Zay Flowers, NCAA Compliance reaching out to SAs, Bijan Robinson x Lamborghini + ICYMI Ticker
Welcome to the NIL Newsletter by Optimum Sports Consulting - providing valuable, actionable NIL resources for student athletes, administrators, agents and other sport professionals.
Recapping NIL This Week:
NCAA to soon pass NIL rules targeting boosters offering inducements
An expedited NCAA enforcement process addressing name, image and likeness rights abuses is expected to pass as early as Monday, sources tell CBS Sports. "We know we're going to get lawsuits," Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith told CBS Sports on Friday.
Smith is a member of an NIL working group formed about two months ago to deal with growing questions of illicit activity. Despite the threat of legal liability, Smith said the NCAA and subcommittee are determined to put up meaningful guardrails around NIL, which in some cases has edged close to pay-for-play. The working group's recommendations submitted this week primarily deal with boosters.
“What's happening in that space is what we were all fearful of,” Smith said. “What's going on - on campuses [with existing scholarship athletes] - currently is fine. It's the inducement pieces. We gotta kill that. If we don't kill that now, forget it.” The most likely penalty for boosters, who are not compelled to cooperate in NCAA investigations, is the threat of disassociation from a school. A disassociation means a subject cannot interact with the university in any way.
If boosters are found to have collaborated with a program to use NIL benefits as an incentive to lure prospects to the school, the penalties could be severe, Smith said. Options include cutting scholarships, instituting recruiting restrictions and hitting programs and perhaps coaches with lack of institutional control penalties. Those are punishments associated with Level I violations. “The booster [penalty] is disassociation, primarily,” Smith said, “but the schools, if they're culpable, that's when you can go deep.”
Smith said the NCAA is fully invested in the crackdown. The working group's recommendations have passed through the NCAA Transformation Committee and will be taken up next week by NCAA Board of Directors. Smith has spoken with both NCAA president Mark Emmert and enforcement chief John Duncan.
Boston College star Zay Flowers turned down big-money offers to transfer
Flowers told ESPN this week that in the three or four days prior to the May 1 portal deadline, he received multiple six-figure offers via intermediaries from name, image and likeness companies to enter the portal and transfer. He said he was told NIL companies would give him $600,000 to transfer to one school and there was another deal that would give him $300,000 to go to a different school.
Flowers had not entered the NCAA transfer portal, nor given any public indication he intended to. He received a football scholarship to Boston College in 2019 and earned All-ACC honors as a wide receiver with a breakout 2020 season. He enters 2022 as one of the sport's best receivers and a strong NFL draft prospect.
Flowers declined to name the schools and said none of them contacted him directly, rather the "schools reached to people close to me." He told Boston College coach Jeff Hafley about the offers and ultimately decided to stay at BC. Flowers said no coaches reached out to him directly in the days leading up to the May 1 deadline, but players on the teams interested did through social media and texts. He compared the timing of his situation to that of Pitt star receiver Jordan Addison, who did enter the NCAA transfer portal.
“It felt like I was back being recruited,” he said. “They put a lot of pressure on you, too. But there's no money on the line during the time when you are recruited (in high school). Now there's money on the line. That makes it harder.”
NCAA compliance source says SAs will be contacted about collectives soon
Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde: “Text from someone in the NCAA compliance space, on enforcing the collective/recruiting/tampering landscape: ‘The SAs that were getting these alleged offers from these collectives will probably be getting phone calls from enforcement to have a sit down. … Their eligibility wouldn’t be impacted but they’ll be asked to spill the beans and would be mandated to cooperate.’”
Attorney Darren Heitner: “Don’t be surprised if the NCAA, after almost 11 months of non-action, begins to enforce its #NIL policy as soon as next week. The focus will be improper inducements and it won’t matter whether it’s a booster or a group of them (collective). A legal challenge won’t be easy. A restrictive biz practice (i.e. prohibiting inducements) could be seen by a court of law as being more pro-competitive than anticompetitive. It will be argued that the restriction on improper inducements stimulates competition, which is in the consumer’s best interest. I believe collectives not engaged in inducement activity will escape NCAA scrutiny. If an athlete is enrolled and there is any form of quid pro quo, then the NCAA won’t have the basis to punish a school. Inducements to enroll will be THE focus as the NCAA begins to act.”
Texas RB Bijan Robinson signs NIL deal with Lamborghini Austin
Texas running back Bijan Robinson signed his sixth NIL deal, announcing his partnership with Lamborghini Austin on Instagram on Thursday. The details of the partnership have not been released. This is the first known Texas NIL deal signed with the Austin dealership.
Robinson previously signed deals with Raising Cane’s, C4 Energy, Centre, DAZN and Cameo. “When Dreams turn into Reality,” Robinson said in his Instagram caption. “God, I’m Grateful.”
In his second season at Texas last year, Robinson rushed for 1,127 yards and 11 touchdowns. Additionally, he had 26 catches for 295 yards and four more touchdowns. He was the leading Longhorns rusher, ahead of Roschon Johnson by over 500 yards.
ICYMI Ticker
Tampering by Power 5 coaches is making its way to FCS programs. South Dakota State TE Tucker Kraft shares with @RiseNDraft he was offered multiple 6-figure NIL deals to leave. More HERE.
Statement from TN Senator Marsha Blackburn to ESPN following Friday’s meeting with conference commissioners about NIL legislation.
The NCAA is unlikely to meet its constitution deadline as NIL continues to loom. “There may be some work finished by Aug. 1, but it won't be a completed process,” a committee member told CBS Sports. “I don't think anybody has any delusions that it's going to be buttoned up with a bow on it.”
UConn’s Werth Institute plans to help promote, find sponsorship deals for student athletes. Full story HERE.
"What I’ve learned in the past year is, there are a lot of sharks in the water, and they’re attacking," Penn State AD Pat Kraft said. "We have to protect our athletes, because there’s a lot of things happening that candidly I don’t really agree with. I think the NIL legislation was great. I really do. I’m a believer in it. I think that athletes absolutely should have the opportunity to monetize their name, image and likeness.” MORE.
FBS Coaches weighed in on NIL for On3. From a Big 12 assistant: “I was at a school today with a coach I’ve known for years and trust. He said he sat in on a meeting with a recruit and a high school coach. He said the kid was offered $100K and a car. And an apartment for his parents to stay at when they visit. There is so much misinformation out there it’s hard to know what is real and what isn’t. If all the crazy stories I hear out true, there is no way college football can sustain this.”
From Texas A&M AD Ross Bjork's May Aggie Town Hall: “We have to embrace all of it. Look, we can never tell a donor where to spend their money. It's their money. It's their feelings about the institution. We provide options. You can donate, you can buy tickets, you can do a sponsorship. And I made the statement that we have to embrace all of it in today's world. If I try to fight somebody over, no, you have to give here. No, I really want to give to the collective. No, you can't do that. That's not a good, healthy dialog. We have to allow the donors to choose where they want to invest. And right now there is that new option where you can do an NIL, and that's OK. And so far, we have not seen people that have said, I'm choosing one or the other. … So our job is to facilitate. What is your interest? Where do you want to give? If you want to give to NIL, we can't really do that. That's outside. You can do that over here. But here's your options to give and donate. And so that's the way we've approached it. And Travis Dabney and the (12th Man Foundation) staff, they've done a great job of just saying, where do you guys want to give your money? It's up to you. It's your money.”
The Mike Slive Foundation for Prostate Cancer Research announced a first of its kind partnership with INFLCR. Through this partnership, the Foundation will provide resources, educate collegiate student-athletes about prostate cancer and provide them an opportunity to use their NIL to help save lives through education about prostate cancer directly through the INFLCR app. Full announcement HERE.