Alabama AD Anticipates Crossroads about Whether NIL Rule-Breakers Should be Allowed in Conferences

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne has his eye on a few NIL arbitration cases happening around the country, specifically in the SEC at Georgia and Tennessee ahead of what he anticipates being an interesting couple of months in college athletics.

Georgia is seeking $390,000 in liquidated damages from former Bulldog defensive lineman Damon Wilson after transferring to Missouri in what is essentially a buyout fee for leaving his contract early. With schools in the NCAA agreeing to the house settlement, Byrne says there are rules that have to be followed.

"I appreciate why they're trying to get clarity on those cases, on the ones they’ve brought forward," Byrne said. "Because I think what Georgia and Tennessee have brought forward on these cases is what we kind of intended for NIL Go to be. I’m not as familiar with the arbitration on the Nebraska cases, but what’s going to happen is if they’re arbitrated, and the ruling is in favor to where those deals being declined stand, that they can’t go forward, I think we're going to have a question of if schools go ahead and pay anyways, even though the house settlement has said that you can have rules. Then, I think that’s going to get put back on conferences about whether that’s going to be allowed. We all agreed to the house settlement. We’re going to see, I think, a potential crossroads, on whether schools should be allowed to participate in conferences if they are choosing not to follow the rules.”

Byrne was asked if he thinks schools should be booted from the SEC if they don't follow the rules agreed to in the house settlement regarding fair market value and range of compensation.

"There should be consequences for those actions," he said.

Alabama itself is not investigating any other schools, but Byrne is interested to see if there is any enforcement on a broader scale for those not following the rules.

"So we will it will be an interesting few months to navigate that, and the schools who are just choosing to not report, or if they end up choosing to not follow the guidelines of the house settlement that is going to be very interesting to watch and see where we go with that," Byrne said. "Because if those aren’t followed, then the the unregulated, challenging market that everybody has been dealing with will continue, and the agents will do their very best to push it even further."

Sign up to our free newsletter and follow us on Twitter/X, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Threads and Blue Sky for the latest news.