Chansky's Notebook: Bend, Don't Break

If the rule was that easy to change, why did it take so long?

In 2009, former UCLA basketball star Ed O’Bannon filed an antitrust suit against the NCAA for college athletes to sell their own name, image and likeness. The case went seven years before the NCAA prevailed in the Supreme Court. Now, with one case in California going the other way, college athletes can get paid for their NILs.

Why, because all of a sudden it is in the best interest of the athletes? And because the NCAA was facing possible collapse?

While embracing change that is suddenly best for college athletes, the NCAA said new rules “must be consistent with the values of college sports and higher education and not turn student-athletes into employees of institutions.” That, of course, is the key. Retain the amateur status of athletes or face federal charges for not also paying them salaries and workman’s compensation benefits.

So the new NCAA policy is apparently bend-but-don’t-break. California’s law will allow college athletes in that state to profit from their NILs. With several other states including North Carolina pursuing the same types of legislation, the NCAA was finally backed into a corner. Its only option was to threaten the eligibility of college teams and athletes using the new laws, and you can see the legal mess that would grow into.

New royalty rules will be decided before implemented for the 2020-21 school year. They will likely allow the most marketable athletes to have agents to field offers from apparel and gaming companies. It will apply to male and female athletes, as not to threaten Title IX laws. The Nikes of the world will invest only in big stars, so most athletes will try to make deals with local companies.

The NCAA claims to have been studying this matter since May, which was about the time it learned the California case had real legs. So now it can say, “We were moving in that direction all along.”

Not so with the O’Bannon suit, when the NCAA spent millions to defend its position and won – for the time being.

That would have been a good point to move forward instead of agitating an entire generation of athletes who missed making well-deserved dollars while their schools were getting all the jack.

As an example, how much would have UNC all-timer Tyler Hansbrough made from royalties on the #50 jersey in his heyday?