Bipartisan blast: Sadly, nobody has a solution for NCAA’s NIL drama — especially not Congress

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — On the vast spectrum of opinions concerning name, imagine and likeness for college athletes — from full free market to somehow returning to 1980s “amateurism” — there should be one point that everyone agrees.

This trend of state legislatures passing laws that not only supersede NCAA rules but outright prohibit NCAA enforcement of its rules is ridiculous, unintelligible and probably unconstitutional.

This is a bipartisan problem. Texas, New York, Oklahoma, Tennessee and others have recently enacted laws that not only set forth that athletes can benefit from NIL deals to varying degrees.

They also specifically prohibit any association — be it the NCAA as a whole or a specific conference such as the SEC or Big Ten — from precluding those actions or punishing a school for violating NCAA or league rules that contrast with the law.

“We've seen in a number of state laws enacted that bar associations, the NCAA or conferences, including the Southeastern Conference, from enforcing … policies,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said Monday at the league’s football media days.

“In other words, the states haven't been active in enforcing laws, and now states are preventing the NCAA, our conferences, from adopting and enforcing reasonable name, image, and likeness standards,” he continued.

In other words, there are no rules.

Do what you want. The NCAA or SEC can’t say squat and can’t punish anyone.

“A race for the bottom,” Sankey called the trend.

Look, you can hate the NCAA all you want. You can hate the bureaucracy, oppose the voluminous rulebook and find its decisions through the years overbearing, inconsistent and unfair.

Personally, I’d favor college athletics taking a hands-off, market-driven approach to money flowing to players — the way it does for coaches and administrators. Sankey sees it otherwise. We agree, however, that having a state say the NCAA can’t enforce its own rules is a terrible idea.

The NCAA is an easy punching bag — and often its own worst enemy. The brand is beaten down. It’s why opportunistic politicians from both major parties are whacking away. They tend to mindlessly play to the crowd.

That said, the NCAA is a voluntary organization. No one is required to join it.

Its rules are drafted and enacted by the membership. Its enforcement process, staffing and ethos are reflective of the wishes of the membership. “The NCAA” may sound like an omnipotent dictator but it’s actually just a creation of the rank and file. The NCAA president is a figurehead. He has almost no actual power.

The idea that politicians would enact laws that prohibit a voluntary organization from enforcing its own agreed-upon rules via its own agreed-upon system is mind-numbing. If those rules are illegal in some way, well, that is why the Supreme Court issued multiple rulings.

How did anyone vote for this?

This is government overreach and political pandering to the extreme.

Should state laws be written up to overrule how the local garden club operates? Whether a golf club can require golfers to wear a collared shirt while playing? How about what a church should be allowed to preach?

Should the NFL be allowed to prohibit players, coaches and game officials from betting on its games?

For years Augusta National Golf Club declined to offer membership to women. Even if you believed it was Neanderthal-esque (the club ended the policy in 2012), it was understood that as a private entity it was able to associate with whomever it chose to associate with. Otherwise the government, conceivably, could tell you who must invite over for Thanksgiving.

In this case, the inability of the NCAA to enforce its own rules has left college athletics basically ruleless in certain jurisdictions.

This extends to league enforcement as well, which bothers Sankey and the SEC.

“People want to be a part of this conference,” Sankey said. “We gather together, our athletics directors discuss and debate, our presidents and chancellors make decisions and our rules. And I'm one who thinks we should be able to administer our own rules based on how those are decided.”

Seems simple. Consider that the SEC has enacted new policies on crowds storming the field or court after a game. One of the provisions calls for a sizable fine to not just be levied against the school that fails to control its fans, but the money actually goes to the school that lost the game. So feel free to celebrate a big victory over Alabama, but the Tide will get the money.

Could a state enact a law that prohibits such a thing — state funds going to another state’s school?

Sankey is calling for federal legislation to supersede the state laws. The problem is that by asking for new politicians to solve problems created by other politicians you are still relying on the same ruling class who are addicted to cheap political points.

Still, Sankey is certainly correct on this one. (His other “guardrail” proposals are a debate for another day. What state lawmakers should do is get back into session and rewrite their bills).

This isn’t about loving or loathing the NCAA. It’s about allowing people who voluntarily come together to form their own association to generally run it as they see fit.

The politicians — not surprisingly — are just making things worse.