Well it would be limited to athletes that have images that actually money I assume. On the other hand it would be strange that somehow every Saban athlete got a face pic endorsement for Win Dixie.

What are you talking about?

The first part of the article that I scanned said an athlete can make money on their likeness. My own assumption is it is aimed toward the video game stuff with Grand Ma Ma on the cover long ago. My sarcasm thought it funny that all the Saban players and water boys getting deals would occur.

I think it's more than just endorsements. It would allow them to sell autographed pictures and do Happy Birthday videos like Bernstein does.

Don’t get me wrong BRick, I’m for the athletes getting paid, but this rule just allows boosters to buy players.

Lovie Smith mentions to Dr. Ken that a certain recruit would help the U of I, and next thing you know Dr. Ken is paying the kid 50k for a birthday video.

Again, I am fine with the players getting their cut, but this proposal is just a seive for boosters to pay players.

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/15/sport/ncaa-working-group-to-examine-name-image-and-likeness-spt-intl/index.html

This is long overdue and an easy solution with minimal cost to the schools.

I will never understand the objections to a common sense solution to a long known problem whose rules enforcement only benefited the NCAA.

Paying players a fee or rate is entirely different than opening the pockets of the good ole SEC etc booster wallets.

Paying players a fee or rate is entirely different than opening the pockets of the good ole SEC etc booster wallets.

Sure. That's part of it. It isn't a big deal.

Let the boosters pay them, then tax them. Id go a step further and not even require them to go to class. Treat it like the minor league organizations they are. I know players who went to below average 1-AA schools that were placed in classes like bowling just to keep them eligible for two seasons. Once they had to take a real class they dropped out.

All but official that student-athletes can now profit from their likeness.

On that end, I would mandate all scholarships extend for six years beyond the date on which players played their last games. Let them take it easy while they are essentially employees of the school. They can then become students when they have both matured and realized that the professional sports dream is over.

I don't want to get us off topic here, but I think the end of college sports as we have known them is within sight. If the NCAA had been smart they would have addressed the issues when Kain Colter and the boys were trying to unionize. They could have come to some terms that wouldn't have cost a lot and the NCAA and its member universities would have looked benevolent. But they dug in their heels trying to maintain a paradigm that will not stand in the long term.

It's possible, but college sports probably should go away if it requires that players can't even sign autographs for money.

It's going to change things for sure but it will mostly be the same teams that always got the top talent getting them. It makes it nearly impossible to choose a non-P5 team though if you have a choice.

Pandora's box has been opened though. The autographs and images are just the start. It's too much to invoke slavery here as some people have, but the fact is that there's an institutional structure that is holding down the true market value of the players. The very best guys being able to get a few bucks for an autograph may hold the inevitable at bay for a little while, but in the long run there are only two paths- 1) to compensate the players fairly or 2) to make the players true student-athletes with no scholarships or any money of any kind, like high school sports.

I think one viable variation of option 1 would be to set an amount that a university could allocate to pay a limited number of players- say 20- in any way they choose. Maybe the number is $10,000,000 and the quarterback gets $2 million of it. On a different team maybe the quarterback gets $1.5 million. Whatever. The university/coaching staff/athletic department could decide which players to allocate the money to. That would also create parity as maybe a top tier recruit chooses to take guaranteed money at a "mid-major" rather than playing for free at Alabama. Of course, you'd really have to crack down on cheating more than they do now.

All but official that student-athletes can now profit from their likeness.

Last week the NCAA suspended the likely top picks in next year's NBA and NFL drafts. The idiots are overtly trying to kill big time college sports themselves. And over relatively minor amounts to boot.

While I completely agree the current model is unacceptable....I cannot imagine any way the NCAA can manage this without creating a mess.