LEXINGTON, Ky. — First old joke: What is the definition of a consultant?
A consultant is someone who asks to borrow your watch, then tells you the time.
Second old joke: What’s the best way to make sure nothing gets done?
Appoint a commission.
News item: President Trump is reportedly considering putting together a commission to study what is the best way to fix college sports.
“He said, â€Let’s put a group of people together and give me your best shot,' ” Alabama senator and former Auburn head football coach Tommy Tuberville told CBS Sports after Tuberville met with Trump aboard Air Force One. “And, then after that, see what we can do.”
Trump made those comments after meeting with former Alabama head football coach Nick Saban before the president delivered the commencement speech at the university.
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Only here’s the thing: Saban now says he’s not in favor of the idea.
“I know there’s been a lot of stuff out there about some commission or whatever,” the ex-coach said at his Nick’s Kids golf tournament earlier this week. “I don’t think we need a commission or whatever … We know what the issues are, we just have to have people who are willing to move those and solve those and create some solutions for those issues.”
Jay Bilas, an adamant NCAA critic, doesn’t see a need for a commission.
“We’ve had the Knight Commission, we had the Rice Commission,” the ESPN college basketball analyst said. “Anything with â€commission’ on it is probably not going to accomplish anything.”
I agree and, personally, I’m all-in on the chaos. Transfer portal. I’m all for allowing college athletes the same rights as college coaches. NIL. I’m all for college athletes making money off their name, image and likeness. Revenue sharing. I’m all for athletes getting their bite — at market value — of the money-making apple.
I’m against the greedy power conferences trying to exert their power over those less fortunate. Example: News this week that the four power conferences have drafted a contract that, reports Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports, “would bind schools to new enforcement rules & require them to waive the right to sue over decisions.”
Wrote sports lawyer Michael McCann: “These are provisions that pro leagues use with their teams and those teams’ coaches and athletes. Except here the athletes are not (yet) recognized as employees, which creates all sorts of antitrust issues since there’s no bargaining. By avoiding employment but trying to create an employment-like system, college sports is inviting litigation.”
Wait, we’re not done. Tuesday brought news that Tennessee guard Zakai Zeigler is suing the NCAA seeking a fifth-year of eligibility. Zeigler argues that he is “arbitrarily barred” from competing in the final year of his five-year eligibility window while pursuing a graduate degree. Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia won a court ruling in favor of an additional year of eligibility on the argument that the NCAA limited his ability to profit from NIL opportunities. Ziegler is making a similar argument.
That news came after the Tennessee legislature passed a bill saying that athletes at state schools would be able to take home money from NIL collectives no matter the provisions of the NCAA House Settlement, which still hasn’t been completed.
We’ve said it before and we’ll repeat it now. If this indeed a mess, it’s an NCAA-created mess. It clung far too long to an amateur system that no longer made sense to athletes, not when everyone else was awash in television revenue. Instead, of making a progressive plan for the future, the NCAA chose to stand and fight for the past.
When does this all stop? It doesn’t. When will it make sense? It won’t. Not until the NCAA or the power conferences surrender to the inevitability of making college athletes employees through collective bargaining.
That’s the only way you’re going to see transparency in NIL deals. That’s the only way you’re going to bring some sort of order to the transfer portal. That’s the only way you’re going to make the system fair for athletes, coaches, administrators and schools.
Without that, not even a president’s commission will stop the chaos.
And that’s no joke.
