I really donât see how any of the limits on outside deals hold up. The whole idea of NIL is that athletes have the right to profit from their name. Once they have that right, is it up to the NCAA to determine whether deals that they arenât apart of are fair? Itâs too subjective, and to me seems to be out of their jurisdiction to begin with. Youâre not telling a regular student whether his summer job salary is fair value.
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Canât decide whether Heitner is a smart idiot, or a dumb genius.
Like âpeople could just not follow the rulesâ â I mean brilliant stuff. Did he need to go to law school to figure that out?
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As I think some others have said, thereâs a whole industry around determining fair market values for things. My group is contracted with a not for profit hospital and they basically canât pay above or below fair market value for anything.
If the backup center for whoever is getting paid more than Lebron for an appearance fee, then it gets obvious. So I donât think the issue is going to be there. I think the issue is going to be with enforcement and with different places just not even caring about complying.
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The conferences set up a whole different organization to do enforcement, taking it out of the NCAAâs hands. I donât know whether that makes things better or not, but it creates a different entity to sue instead of the NCAA and notably the CSC or whatever they called it has no money.
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The only way it makes sense to me for anyone to have oversight over outside deals is if the player signs an agreement allowing it. So I assume thatâs going to be a condition on accepting revenue sharing payments. But it still leaves the question of what if a player doesnât agree to those terms.
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Thatâs not exactly it, though heâs being slightly obtuse about it.
The magic isnât donât follow the rules. The magic is lying. If a person needs to do X in order for their pay follow the rules, and no one checks on what is actually done, then just say the person is going to do X, and then actually do whatever you want.
Sure, eventually some disgruntled assistant will hang onto their notes and write a scathing op-ed blowing the lid off things causing everyone to gasp and clutch their pearls. But it probably wonât happen to you, and it may not happen for a while so even if the follow-up investigation leads to you, you might even be retired by then.
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https://x.com/wintersportslaw/status/1931348240177168461?s=46
Similar sentiment from another lawyer in the space
Tomato - tuh-ma-toe
Iâm just annoyed at this whole field of NIL Twitter lawyers who have started to pose as big brain pundits. And in this case, their big brain idea is that people may not follow the new regulatory regime. Which, to be clear, has never been wrong, no matter what the regime is.
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This is going to be too mean, but I wonder if the lawyers with prominent voices in the NIL space were kinda small time and then were lucky/prescient in existing in the space when it got suddenly big. And so you get a certainâŚlack of depth to the legal thought*.
*Speaking as a non-lawyer, who really has no business evaluating lawyersâ capabilities, but will anyway because itâs a forum.
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What they share in common is a certain entrepreneurial spirit. Which is great. But itâd be nice to have a different perspective.
Reminds me tbh of Will Wade. His initial comparative advantage was a willingness to bend the rules further than other coaches. In certain contexts, that characteristic will suit a person well. In others, it wonât.
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I would say that most lawyers in the NIL space who are also the loudest about it on social media are on the younger side and were not leaders in whatever field they were in before NiL. Most probably donât have a background with a degree from a top law school or clerking for a federal judge or working for a top firm. Thatâs not to say that they canât be or arenât the experts in NIL law or that theyâre not top notch lawyers. Itâs just to say that I doubt any of these NIL lawyers on Twitter have very much experience in complex antitrust cases, class action cases or complex multiparty litigation, much less a combination of all 3.
I will say that they all have probably done more research into this area and know more than almost every other lawyer out there, certainly more than me (I know nothing, so low bar to clear).
Itâs also a completely new and emerging area of law with constantly changing rules and new cases filed almost weekly with conflicting decisions all over the place.
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Yeah this is the more fair version of what I was trying to say. The scope got way bigger and at the same time the recency of it all means thereâs less established analysis to draw on.
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I donât trust any of the loud-on-twitter NIL lawyers-- Mike Caspino will occasionally talk to reporters and he seems like a more reasonable guy. Heâd be the one Iâd trust on this stuff, but I imagine he wouldnât want to risk any good standing with any of these entities to be truly honest about it.
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Donât really have much thought in this one way or the other beyond theyâve waited until now to enter the chat?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2025/06/09/ncaa-antitrust-protection/
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There have been various bills bandied about even in the last Congress. Last I heard some of the stuff in these wouldnât work in the Senate. But those articles seemed to have sources from what amounted to Booster collective lobbyists.
Also sounds like no real dem support to this version, so could be a tough pass.
I also wouldnât bet on the NCAA getting everything they want like this because of how they typically operate as an entity (poorly).
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Man, sorry to keep beating this drum, but Parrishâs views here basically boil down to âcreating rules is just going to lead to cheatingâ
Freakin brain surgeons commenting on this stuffâŚ
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I am with him. Bring back fing cheating!
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In defense of GP, I donât think itâs just his view. Heâs also repeating what heâs hearing from coaches (Iâm not saying theyâre brain surgeons either).
Interesting discussion about how the NIL caps could hurt non-rev sports.
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