NIL Shenanigans

Mr Janny

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All of this is so messed up.
Meh. It's essentially someone taking a job with the promise of certain level of compensation, and accusing the employer of not delivering what they said they would. It's unfortunate, but it's a dispute that happens, and legal action like this takes place pretty regularly.

As with the great majority of these NIL scenarios, if you take "college sports" out of the equation, they become pretty humdrum situations that are dealt with all of the time in the rest of the world.
 

Clonehomer

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This is one thing that’ll be nice with the NIL coming in house. Coaches will know their budget and be able to promise based on that rather than what a booster may or may not actually provide.
 
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WooBadger18

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On Wisconsin
There’s also the Wisconsin one. One of the cornerbacks (Lucas) is saying he wants to enter the portal and has submitted his paperwork and Wisconsin isn’t putting him in the portal. https://badgerextra.com/sports/foot...cle_14ed726c-c48c-11ef-909c-170cd5b516c3.html

The rumor is that the “deal” was NIL related and basically Lucas took a lot of money from Wisconsin (so they couldn’t retain other players/get new ones), got it paid upfront, and then turned around and said he wanted to go to Miami.
 
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BCClone

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Not exactly sure.
Do student athletes still receive scholarships to attend school? Do they even attend school? Also, are there still minimum GPAs to play? It has been a long time since I've heard of an athlete being academically ineligible.
I can tell you that my daughter had classes with a couple football players and one WBB player (off the top of my head) and the answer to if they attend class or work on projects together, is rarely.
 
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ClonesFTW

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Waukee
I know donors to big programs will always exist, but I'm curious to see which programs drop off in NIL donations when their teams continue to underperform.
That compared with potentially losing the allure of feeling like they've directly contributed to the team's success.
 
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jdubs

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There’s also the Wisconsin one. One of the cornerbacks (Lucas) is saying he wants to enter the portal and has submitted his paperwork and Wisconsin isn’t putting him in the portal. https://badgerextra.com/sports/foot...cle_14ed726c-c48c-11ef-909c-170cd5b516c3.html

The rumor is that the “deal” was NIL related and basically Lucas took a lot of money from Wisconsin (so they couldn’t retain other players/get new ones), got it paid upfront, and then turned around and said he wanted to go to Miami.
I'm the sure the actual truth is quite this straightforward... but if it's even close to remotely true Wisconsin both looks terrible and is totally in the wrong. It's a pretty clear cut requirement they need to enter a player's name into the portal within two business days. It's one of the few things the NCAA still has power on and I would expect them to hammer Wisconsin for the PR points.
 

WooBadger18

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On Wisconsin
I'm the sure the actual truth is quite this straightforward... but if it's even close to remotely true Wisconsin both looks terrible and is totally in the wrong. It's a pretty clear cut requirement they need to enter a player's name into the portal within two business days. It's one of the few things the NCAA still has power on and I would expect them to hammer Wisconsin for the PR points.
Assuming that this is actually what happened, someone in the reddit thread on this made the pretty good point that Wisconsin may be kind of in the middle of a rock and a hard place. If they don’t let him go they are in violation of an NCAA rule, if they do, they are potentially opening themselves up to legal liability for tortious interference (because they would be helping Lucas break a contract).

I’ll also say that if it’s true, I won’t be feeling sorry for Lucas.

I think there’s probably more to it than just the NIL issue though since that would be a really bold move.
 

jdubs

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Assuming that this is actually what happened, someone in the reddit thread on this made the pretty good point that Wisconsin may be kind of in the middle of a rock and a hard place. If they don’t let him go they are in violation of an NCAA rule, if they do, they are potentially opening themselves up to legal liability for tortious interference (because they would be helping Lucas break a contract).
Definitely not a lawyer but that would seem to be the definition of an unenforceable contract. And let's be real, does anyone with a shred of common sense believe a collective supporting Wisconsin athletics would actually sue Wisconsin for tortious interference?

This isn't a rock and hard place, this is Wisconsin fans grasping at straws to come up with an explanation where Wisconsin isn't both in the wrong and wildly dumb. Again there could be (probably?) facts we don't have but based on what we have now it's borderline inexplicable.
 
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ClubCy

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Do student athletes still receive scholarships to attend school? Do they even attend school? Also, are there still minimum GPAs to play? It has been a long time since I've heard of an athlete being academically ineligible.
Deion had a video go out before the Alamo Bowl that he didn’t want to smell smoke in the hotel. To answer your question I think the only thing that can make you ineligible anymore is if you get caught gambling.
 

WooBadger18

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On Wisconsin
Definitely not a lawyer but that would seem to be the definition of an unenforceable contract. And let's be real, does anyone with a shred of common sense believe a collective supporting Wisconsin athletics would actually sue Wisconsin for tortious interference?

This isn't a rock and hard place, this is Wisconsin fans grasping at straws to come with an explanation where Wisconsin isn't both in the wrong and wildly dumb. Again there could be (probably?) facts we don't have but based on what we have now it's borderline inexplicable.
I don’t think it’s a huge stretch. The collective could argue for specific performance. Do I think they’d win? No, but I wouldn’t want to do anything until it got sorted.

And I think there’s probably got to be something more here, but if not I still probably wouldn’t say Wisconsin was in the wrong. If the rumors are true, he screwed Wisconsin over and he’s being screwed over in return.
 

AuH2O

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This is one thing that’ll be nice with the NIL coming in house. Coaches will know their budget and be able to promise based on that rather than what a booster may or may not actually provide.
I still say this blows up in a massive Title IX class action lawsuit by the schools taking NIL in-house. Once there's enough proof and a big enough amount of money that's been instructed by schools to divert donations to the school instead to collectives, it could spell legal trouble.

If employees of a government organization, which ADs and coaches are, suggest to donors to give money to a 3rd party rather than the institution they work for, that seems like a slam dunk case that the schools are purposely trying to skirt a federal law.

We've been hearing about "diversion" or "rebalancing" from donors, which means ADs and coaches are telling donors to put money into the collective instead of the athletic department. Just a matter of time before we get a big class action lawsuit that schools are actively harming female athletes by reducing donations to athletic departments (subject to Title IX) in favor of NIL (not subject to Title IX).
 
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