https://www.espn.com/college-sports/stor...hletes-nil

Thoughts?

Seems like a win for Liberty. Don't have to rely on fans/boosters/businesses to fund collectives.

Our AD is the only one in the state who has commented thus far on the law. He just stated that Liberty will continue to follow NCAA guidelines. Then again, those seemed to be changing rather rapidly these days.

So your AD is going to break the law to follow NCAA policy? I doubt it.

That said I just wrote about this on our board. Which is this… I still have yet to hear how we’re going to get to point of paying players and operating as business if teams retain their association to the university as tax exempt non profit. Either you have a separate business where the players are paid as employees or you have federally funded non-profit academic institutions. I don’t think you can have this both ways. Otherwise public universities will lose their status.

I think this is no problem for private schools. But if you’re a publicly funded institution with tax dollars all I see in the future are a bunch of rut ro’s. As Scooby would say.

(04-18-2024 03:40 PM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote:  So your AD is going to break the law to follow NCAA policy? I doubt it.

That said I just wrote about this on our board. Which is this… I still have yet to hear how we’re going to get to point of paying players and operating as business if teams retain their association to the university as tax exempt non profit. Either you have a separate business where the players are paid as employees or you have federally funded non-profit academic institutions. I don’t think you can have this both ways. Otherwise public universities will lose their status.

I think this is no problem for private schools. But if you’re a publicly funded institution with tax dollars all I see in the future are a bunch of rut ro’s. As Scooby would say.

Choosing not to pay a student athlete in Virginia is somehow now breaking the law? How so? The law permits payments but specifically indicates student athletes are not employees. They can, however, be paid for marketing campaigns etc.

To be fair I would actually have to read the law on whether it requires the athlete to be paid for services vs just allowing as the article postulates. But assuming the former it actually sets up the schools for potential liability from the athletes if they decide not to pay (to follow NCAA rules) or if they don’t pay them for ALL such endeavors. It’s all a slippery slope.

ThreeifbyLightning, I wonder the same thing. Regardless of whether it is private or public, I question whether an institution can keep its 501©3 status. Being tax-exempt is a luxury all universities have. There is nothing "non-profit" about the behavior of athletic offices. I've been advocating for making athletic offices pay taxes.

(04-18-2024 08:46 PM)galojah Wrote:  ThreeifbyLightning, I wonder the same thing. Regardless of whether it is private or public, I question whether an institution can keep its 501©3 status. Being tax-exempt is a luxury all universities have. There is nothing "non-profit" about the behavior of athletic offices. I've been advocating for making athletic offices pay taxes.

Tax-exempt is one thing. Potentially losing the ability for your students to access federal financial aid would be a death sentence for almost any university.

That is quite the leap of interpretation. I personally believe the bigger issue would be that the athletes would then become employees of the school opening up a laundry list of challenges including the possibility of collective bargaining.

I sincerely doubt any of the D1 schools in the Commonwealth will pursue direct payment until permitted by the NCAA. Of course laws like this might force the hand of the suits in Indy.

The law was written with considerable input from UVA and to some extent VA Tech to allow universities to pay student athletes for their NIL participation in marketing campaigns. It was specifically written to not make student athletes employees.

It does create a huge problem, IMHO, when athletic departments start paying the starting MBB point guard say $20k to put their picture on a billboard to sell season tickets but only offer the starting point guard on the WBB team a couple coupons to the university’s bookstore for the same marketing campaign.

Supply and demand obviously dictate how much money to spend on each sport but the ladies are not going to be happy.