Razorbacks athletics director Hunter Yurachek on sidelines at Liberty Bowl — (Nelson Chenault / USA TODAY Sports)

Do Razorbacks Just Stay Quiet on NIL, NCAA or Get Involved?

With Sub-Committee meeting, NCAA may have to make play that could change everything

Author:
Andy Hodges
Publish date:
Jul 4, 2023 5:26 PM EDT

In this story:

Arkansas Razorbacks

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The outcome won't be known for awhile, but this whole name, image and likeness (NIL) debate may be final straw to either smooth it out or blow everything up completely. Where Arkansas falls in all this is important for the future of what may happen.

We may be on the verge of seeing if the kangaroo court in Indianapolis is ready to lay down what some may be thinking could be the ace the NCAA may be thinking it has in this debate. According to a story at On3.com, you have to get to the bottom to find out what the ultimate little bluff they think they have to play in this whole thing. It could be a dangerous one and provide a clue to all this conference alignment.

In the story by Eric Prisbell, he quotes an un-named source who has "direct knowledge of the meeting," who delivers the punch line at the end. It's an interesting comment that could provide the clue to a lot of things that could happen.

“The NCAA is a voluntary organization,” the source said. “If [schools in] Texas want to go way outside the guidelines and say, ‘We don’t have to follow NCAA rules,’ the NCAA can say, ‘We don’t have to invite you to NCAA championships either.'”

As usual, it's probably going to come down to money, which means the television networks will get involved in a big-time way. The NCAA started losing control of college football in 1984 and it's accelerated to the point where it can't really enforce the rules it has now with any consistency. All the NCAA gets to do in football is put on the junior varsity championships that produces very little money. The College Football Playoff is a separate group that essentially runs the big-time football powers.

The biggest moneymaker for the NCAA is March Madness and you have to wonder how mad it would really be without the big name (you can read that as Power 5) schools drawing eyeballs to the TV in big numbers. Baseball is next and it's the same story there.

In college athletics, you usually follow the dollars and you get to the bottom line. If the NCAA wants to make that bluff, they may need a little more than a couple of tournaments to use. After all, it's a voluntary organization and teams can quit volunteering.

The NCAA is hoping Congress will help them out by passing a federal law that somehow over-rides states' authority to do what they want with their state institutions to stay within federal regulations. I don't know that holds up all the way to the Supreme Court and I'm not any sort of legal expert. History tells us otherwise.

Of course, the alternative would be expecting a whole lot of organization from the federal government with any sort of speed. Especially with a general election coming up in a little over 18 months. Somehow, you'd hope they have more important things to deal with, so the NCAA better have a backup plan.

"“Hope we have people working on that," North Carolina athletics director Bubba Cunningham. "We do need a Plan B and C."

In true fashion, they are piling committees up like firewood. Whether they can accomplish anything isn't known yet. The result could be setting that whole stack of wood on fire and ending up in ashes around their feet. It's an interesting sideshow.