03/10/26 03:20:00
Printable Page
03/10 15:18 CDT NIL enforcement czar: Influx of third-party deals is not what
many school leaders expected
NIL enforcement czar: Influx of third-party deals is not what many school
leaders expected
By EDDIE PELLS
AP National Writer
The onset of $30 million football rosters funded mostly by companies providing
third-party payments to players on behalf of their schools is within the rules
but "has not sort of matched" the system some of its founders intended, the
head of the College Sports Commission said Tuesday.
Bryan Seeley delivered an update on the CSC's progress over the last two
months. While he was bullish about the new agency's ability to analyze deals
quickly, he said the influx of third-party deals --- contracts that help
schools blow past the $20.5 million salary cap they're allowed to pay players
directly --- has led to increased review times.
The CSC's new numbers, updated through February, included a 65% increase over
the preceding two months in the volume of the third-party deals, which are
sometimes known as associated deals, among schools in the Power Four
conferences.
Seeley said those figures led him to believe that most schools are trying to
follow the rules by submitting their deals for review to the CSC, which is
tasked with making sure they are not simple pay-for-play contracts but have a
"valid business purpose" and are priced fairly.
He also said he had been told that "there was a belief that perhaps up to 90%
of deals flowing through the system would do so automatically that would not
need any kind of human review.
"It must have been based on an assumption that this would be a somewhat organic
market with a lot of not associated deals," he said. "And that is turning out
to be not the case."
Those associated deals have brought the CSC under scrutiny for lag time in
approving contracts. More importantly, they speak to wider concerns that the
cost of populating competitive college rosters has spiraled out of control less
than a year into the system that was activated by the House settlement --- the
endgame in a lawsuit that allows schools to share revenue directly with
players, then augment that through third-party deals.
The discussion has reached as far as the White House, where last week President
Donald Trump held a "summit" with sports leaders to discuss ways of reining in
costs.
Trump has promised an executive order this week that will address issues in an
industry where, he said, "the amount of money being spent and lost by otherwise
very successful schools is astounding, just in a short period of time. And it's
only going to get worse."
Seeley, still focused on standing up an agency that will play a massive role in
policing college sports, said he did not want to delve into whether the current
system is sustainable.
"I read the same things you read. I see the same public comments in the media
and I talk to schools," Seeley said. "And I do get the sense that some schools
had the belief that the settlement as implemented had not sort of matched what
they expected. I think that's a fair thing to say."
Important ?participation agreement' remains unsigned
Seeley also acknowledged the problems his 8-month-old agency could face if a
"participation agreement" that vests enforcement power in the CSC isn't signed
by all 68 of the Power Four schools.
Shortly after the CSC distributed the document, a handful of states and schools
said they wouldn't sign; some were concerned about language that forbid suing
the commission.
In an impassioned plea at NCAA meetings in January, Seeley urged schools to
sign the deal. Nearly two months later, he said he is still waiting. Parties
have spent month making tweaks, some of which "weaken the document" to the
point where it might not be worth the CSC signing it, Seeley said.
"If we don't have a participant agreement, we're going to still try to do what
we need to do," he said. "But I think those tools are really important."
___
Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up
here and here (AP mobile app). AP college basketball:
https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and
https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball
|
