Three-Part Editorial Analysis: Part Three of the NCAA Messages Sent Out With Its Latest “Guidance”
The guidance sent out by the NCAA Division I Board of Directors plainly states somebody is getting hit and hit hard with violations.
By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer
May 21, 2022
Three messages were sent out through the NCAA office on Monday evening. Two were subtle and the final one was not.
Let’s take a moment to break down each of them through the past, present and future of what the NCAA’s Division I Board of Directors stated in what they’re called “guidance”.
NCAA Message No. 3 (A blunt one): Somebody is getting investigated and hit hard by the NCAA enforcement staff.
In part one and part two of this series, we’ve already established how this “guidance” has identified why the NCAA Division I Board of Directors thinks we’re here (name, image and likeness) and what is the problem (NIL collectives), the final message was simple. What are they going to do about it? The answer is the same thing the NCAA always does. Identify the worst case scenario and punish them in the hope that the rest of the institutions see the immediate and future damage caused and fall in line.
“For violations that occurred prior to May 9, 2022, the board directed the enforcement staff to review the facts of individual cases but to pursue only those actions that clearly are contrary to the published interim policy, including the most severe violations of recruiting rules or payment for athletics performance,” the NCAA statement reads.
“This is the time we have to put our stake in the ground. Enough! This is not acceptable,” Colorado athletic director Rick George, who is a former University of Illinois football player and alum, said emphatically to Sports Illustrated. “What we’re doing is not good for intercollegiate athletics, and it has got to stop.”
One of the highlighted examples of possible future exploration and investigation by the NCAA enforcement staff would almost certainly be John Ruiz, a lawyer in Miami whose current NIL payroll includes more than 100 Hurricanes athletes across a variety of sports. Ruiz has publicly on social media professeed that he expects to spend $10 million this year to have players endorse his two companies, LifeWallet, a healthcare application, and his boat racing operation called Cigarette Racing Team. Ruiz created a recent firestorm over social media when he used his own Twitter account to announce that Miami received a commitment from Kansas State transfer guard Nijel Pack after Ruiz had signed the hoops star to a two-year contract for $400,000 a year.
