Three-Part Editorial Analysis: Part Two of the NCAA Messages Sent Out With Its Latest “Guidance”
NCAA identifies private NIL “collectives” as part of the problem while programs can’t wait to run toward them for recruiting help.
By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer
May 17, 2022
(Cover photo courtesy USA Today)
Three messages were sent out through the NCAA office last week. 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. 2 (A subtle one): All NIL collective organizations might be committing minor recruiting violations but they’re more interested in if the spirit of the law is being violated.
Let there be no mistake. This “guidance” was sent out because the NCAA is concerned about NIL “collective” groups. At Illinois, that private NIL group is called Illini Guardians. That’s correct. The NCAA Division I Board of Directors are telling the public that Chicago-based attorney Adam Fleischer - the founder of the Illini Guardians - and the other people who have formed similar groups across the country in order to keep their athletics programs competitive in a billion-dollar entertainment industry are part of the problem across the country.
“The guidance defines as a booster any third-party entity that promotes an athletics program, assists with recruiting or assists with providing benefits to recruits, enrolled student-athletes or their family members,” the statement written by the NCAA reads. “The definition could include ‘collectives’ set up to funnel name, image and likeness deals to prospective student-athletes or enrolled student-athletes who might be considering transferring. NCAA recruiting rules preclude boosters from recruiting and/or providing benefits to prospective student-athletes.”
This “guidance” is essentially asking the University of Illinois to distance themselves from Illini Guardians, which they won’t do and would be foolish to do. Why are they “guiding” them to do this? Because, as we addressed in part one of this series, the NCAA officials would prefer these groups had never been born.
In pretty clear English, the NCAA Board of Directors is attempting to tell the public that instead of its own outdated rules attempting to protect the guise of amateurism over several decades, it’s these NIL “collectives” that are making fans uncomfortable with the new world of college athletics.
“The new guidance establishes a common set of expectations for the Division I institutions moving forward, and the board expects all Division I institutions to follow our recruiting rules and operate within these reasonable expectations," board chair Jere Morehead, president, University of Georgia, said in this NCAA release.
In a statement sent to IlliniGuys.com, Fleischer simply disagrees with any assessment that his organization wasn’t operating within the current NCAA rulebook.
