NIL collectives want enforcement, not more guidelines from NCAA

The NCAA’s Division I Board of Directors will reportedly release additional NIL guidance next week that’s focused on the role institutions play with NIL collectives.

The Athletic’s Nicole Auerbach reported the updated guidance will address what is permissible and impermissible when it comes to an athletic department’s involvement in NIL activity.

Per Auerbach, new rules will not be passed but the guidance will clarify the role a school can play. This will include examples of what activities and NIL deals are prohibited. For example, assisting in NIL education would be allowed. Yet, a university giving cash to a collective to funnel money to athletes is prohibited. The likely aim of the new guidance, attorney Mit Winter told On3, is situations “where a school is helping financially support a collective that is doing its own deals with athletes.”

Collective operators across the country told On3 the NIL landscape is well past the stage where additional guidance will help. Their biggest concern is the lack of actual enforcement of the NCAA’s interim NIL policy and the follow-up guidance released in May.

NIL guidelines are ‘meaningless’ without enforcement

Leaders of collectives continue to worry about boosters who are using the guise of NIL to lure top high-school recruits through pay-for-play deals and target players in the Transfer Portal.

“Guidelines on top of guidelines are meaningless unless they can be enforced,” the operator of a collective that supports athletes at a Big 12 school told On3.

Student-Athlete NIL CEO Jason Belzer runs numerous collectives across the country, including Crimson and Cream at Oklahoma, Success With Honor at Penn State and Knights of The Raritan at Rutgers. He told On3 it is time for rules to be enforced.

“It’s not about guidance anymore,” Belzer said. “It’s about enforcement. You have a subset of folks that are doing it the right way. And you have a subset of folks that are doing it however they want. Until the NCAA comes along and says, ‘This is illegal,’ and does something about it, it doesn’t matter.”

Is enforcement help on the way?

Scott Brickman, executive vice president and COO of Iowa’s The Swarm Collective, is on board with clear rules and additional guidance only if they “can and will be enforced.”

“Enforcement will be key, or lack thereof, as has been the case,” he said. “I think the NCAA has an opportunity when the new president is named to make enforcement and accountability a top priority. We can only hope, right? If we can’t enforce the guidelines, then the new guidance will be mostly irrelevant.”

In early October, the NCAA’s national office posted a job position of “Associate Director of Enforcement – Name, Image and Likeness.” As part of the role on the staff, the associate director would be tasked with effectively monitoring and enforcing compliance rules. Additionally, there have been a number of reports about the NCAA wanting to make examples of out NIL violators. But to this point, there’s been little movement from an enforcement standpoint.

State laws could impact NIL enforcement

Even when the NCAA does try to move forward from an enforcement standpoint, leaders of collectives point out that state laws might have more of an impact than the NCAA rules.

“Clarity across the association is never a bad idea,” the leader of a collective that supports athletes at an ACC school told On3. “But there are state laws still in play that likely will be more stringent than the FAQ sheet from the NCAA. So, like everything else we adapt and evolve.”

Yet, Belzer and other collective leaders openly wonder if the NCAA truly is interested in slapping the hands of pay-for-play violators.

“What’s interesting to me is that the NCAA hasn’t worked more closely with individual states,” Belzer said. “Because if you know that a violation has occurred, there are certain scenarios in which those violations can be deemed illegal.

“Why isn’t the NCAA, if they fear a lawsuit, going to the Attorney General of a state and saying, ‘We know violations being done by a person or persons that are literally breaking your state law.’ What’s the point of your existence if you’re not going to do anything?”

Some good could come from new guidance

Even with the serious concerns about enforcement curbing pay-for-play’s role in recruiting and the Transfer Portal, some collective operators do welcome some clarity on how they can work with the schools they represent.

“Our administration has been walking on eggshells when it comes to involvement,” the collective operator at a Big 12 school told On3. “For example, I’ve arranged a number of team-wide or department-wide NIL deals and administration is hesitant to even allow me to come in and present to the athletes. It’s gotten to the point where athletes are missing out on deals because I can’t effectively communicate it to them.

“They are their own biggest roadblock. If this new guidance allows for something as simple as this or doesn’t explicitly restrict it, it could prove to be beneficial to us and our athletes.”

Another collective operator concurred.

“I think some guidance could be beneficial for people trying to build a sustainable and successful business out of NIL,” the operator told On3.