UNC and Duke Athletic Directors Voice Concerns Over NIL

When the NCAA introduced moving forward with initiating compensating student-athletes for their name, image, and likeness, opinions varied from analysts, coaches, and now athletic directors.

This week, it seemed like North Carolina and Duke were able to get on one accord, disagreement in payment of student-athletes. This week, Duke athletic director Kevin White echoed Bubba Cunningham's sentiments in a statement released Tuesday afternoon,

Statement from Vice President & Director of Athletics Kevin White on NIL Legislation pic.twitter.com/MVC2j8dvUW
— Duke Athletics (@DukeATHLETICS) June 9, 2020

Cunningham's remarks,

"We do not want to live in a world of crowdfunded recruiting in which boosters have direct access to buy top talent or can easily disguise their attempts to do so."

The statement reflects athletic directors fearful of players benefit superseding the athletic programs, but there is one concern regarding players receiving payments - will this impact team commodore. One player receiving more attention could result in jealousy or possible tampering with agents. Players do deserve to get paid, but at what cost?

There is one thing the tenured AD does agree with, and that's the NBA G-League. The NBA opened up a different avenue for kids who don't want to go to college; they will be able to bypass the collegiate route and participate in the NBA development league. They will receive professional mentorship, play in minor games, and get paid best of all.

"We need more choices for people that don't want to participate in [the collegiate] model; I wish we had something for football right now. There are 5,000 professional athletes," Cunningham said. "There are 500,000 student-athletes. What we do is vastly different than a professional model. The professional model is about for-profit for owners and participants. The models are vastly different."

Regardless of how athletic directors feel, it seems that the NCAA will be moving forward with the notion as soon as next year. As much as it appears that athletes are in this alone, voices such as former Duke standout and current ESPN college basketball analyst, Jay Bilas, voiced his disapproval of White's statement and called it 'tone-deaf,'

"This is stunning in its tone-deafness. It says, "the money is ours, to pay ourselves fair market value, and should not be re-directed' to where the clear value lies. We shall call for strict equality here only, as we fail to provide equal resources to each sport or athlete. Further, "We are worried about recruiting and know the most important key to winning and financial gain is procuring athletes. We point to a hand-picked 'relative few' that parrot us but ask you to ignore the athletes that will benefit most. It's OUR MONEY, not theirs."

This is stunning in its tone deafness. It says, “the money is ours, to pay ourselves fair market value, and should not be re-directed’ to where clear value lies. We shall call for strict equality here only, as we fail to provide equal resources to each sport or athlete.” (1/2) pic.twitter.com/NPTEYJpiBh
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) June 9, 2020

Changes should be made no later than January of 2021.

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