'What NIL stands for: Now it’s legal': Ruling frees booster-backed groups to negotiate with recruits
The NCAA claimed that if a court barred it from enforcing rules against name, image and likeness compensation being offered to recruits it would make an unmanageable situation even worse
Forced into yet another courtroom to defend its amateur model of athletics, the NCAA insisted that shelving its rules against name, image and likeness compensation being offered to recruits would make a difficult situation across the country even more chaotic.
The NCAA lost that argument last week when a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit brought by the attorneys general of Tennessee and Virginia. The antitrust suit challenges NCAA rules against recruiting inducements, saying they inhibit athletes' ability to cash in on their fame.
Those who work for and with the booster-funded collectives that handle NIL deals with college athletes say lifting the rules will bring more clarity and simply make permissible what was once against the rules.
“I mean, people were already inducing recruits before this ruling,” said Jim Cavale, founder of Athletes.org, an burgeoning association for college athletes. “That was already happening. The only difference now is when they’re doing it, if somebody says, ‘Hey, is this within the rules?’ They can say, ‘Yes, it is.’”
