It's A Mess and It'll Get Worse

[TeamFirst!]

I think the point is that NIL potentially puts "pay for play" into a steroid era. The question is how do we respond to it. In my opinion big change will be taking place for those teams that handle that transition best. It would be likely that Oregon gets a boost from this in the next few years from the NIke program. I wouldn't be surprised if UCLA is already well along in such a program. Maybe Uconn is handling this well as they have set up a program to assist players and agents to work together. I don't know if it's a clearing house, or if it's mainly a means of keeping things legal. It could be a booster program for alI know but at least they are doing something. I'd like to know those details. Transparency should be a part of that program.

 

[Rfwireless]

While I will acknowledge that NIL has the potential to be manipulated by cynical boosters and coaches, the idea that this type of practice is somehow new makes me chuckle. Whether it’s payouts from boosters or shoe companies to recruits, shadowy middlemen shopping top recruits, or coaches arranging for “stand-ins” to take standardized tests for marginal students, this type of stuff has been around at least going back to the Dark Ages when I played college ball.

One example should suffice. When John Wooden, the legendary Wizard of Westwood, was winning his 10 national championships at UCLA in the 60’s & 70’s he was hailed as the epitome of what a college coach should be: honest, straightforward and dignified. But if you looked behind the curtain, there was Sam Gilbert, a former UCLA dropout, who made a fortune as a contractor during the construction boom in LA. Gilbert insured with his wallet that one HS star after another made their way to Westwood to play for Wooden.

I have no illusions about NIL. But at least there is the potential for top college athletes like Paige to establish professional representation and then secure compensation without hiding everything under the table.

Not sure Sam Gilbert was implicated with anything associated with John Wooden. As a matter of fact I seem to recall Sam’s involvement was way after Woiden left the scene. I would not throw Wooden under the bus and claim moral equivalency to todays recruiting fiascos because of anything Sam.

 

[oldude]

Not sure Sam Gilbert was implicated with anything associated with John Wooden. As a matter of fact I seem to recall Sam’s involvement was way after Woiden left the scene. I would not throw Wooden under the bus and claim moral equivalency to todays recruiting fiascos because of anything Sam.

Lucious Allen & Larry Farmer, both of whom played for Wooden, publicly acknowledged their connections to Gilbert. An LA Times investigation determined that Gilbert was involved with multiple players during the Wooden era which entailed the purchase of cars, clothes, airline tickets, along with paying scalper prices to players for their complementary tickets. It was also reported that Gilbert arranged abortions for players’ girlfriends.

While it is true that UCLA was not put on probation by the NCAA until after Wooden’s retirement, and Wooden always claimed to have no knowledge of any inappropriate actions by Gilbert or other boosters, the length and breadth of the recruiting violations at UCLA extended back well into Wooden’s tenure.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

UW's AD talks about the mess and predicts the NCAA will make an example out of a couple of schools. Of course she reveals the U of W has a team wide definition of NIL worthy - anyone who wants one gets one. Another way of saying play for us and you'll get paid.

Here's what UW AD Jen Cohen thinks about current state of NIL in college sports

UW athletic director Jen Cohen spoke about the current state of NIL in a presentation to the university's board of regents Wednesday. "People are still breaking the rules with inducement," she said. "They’re taking kids away from schools.”

www.seattletimes.com

 

[Rfwireless]

Lucious Allen & Larry Farmer, both of whom played for Wooden, publicly acknowledged their connections to Gilbert. An LA Times investigation determined that Gilbert was involved with multiple players during the Wooden era which entailed the purchase of cars, clothes, airline tickets, along with paying scalper prices to players for their complementary tickets. It was also reported that Gilbert arranged abortions for players’ girlfriends.

While it is true that UCLA was not put on probation by the NCAA until after Wooden’s retirement, and Wooden always claimed to have no knowledge of any inappropriate actions by Gilbert or other boosters, the length and breadth of the recruiting violations at UCLA extended back well into Wooden’s tenure.

Innocent until proven guilty. Los Angeles times is the court of law? Involved says little about infractions, kind of grasping for anything to bring down UCLA and John Wooden. I followed UCLA since David Greenwood, I do not even think Sam Gilbert was responsible for anything but ruining their image and this was in the 1990s. There progran got worst when he was supposedly helping, so whatever influence he made was not an advantage so I doubt he would have helped Wooden recruit out of Los Angeles area, where a lot of his stars players came from.

 

[oldude]

Innocent until proven guilty. Los Angeles times is the court of law? Involved says little about infractions, kind of grasping for anything to bring down UCLA and John Wooden. I followed UCLA since David Greenwood, I do not even think Sam Gilbert was responsible for anything but ruining their image and this was in the 1990s. There progran got worst when he was supposedly helping, so whatever influence he made was not an advantage so I doubt he would have helped Wooden recruit out of Los Angeles area, where a lot of his stars players came from.

Do you believe that Allen & Farmer were lying too?

 

[Rfwireless]

Do you believe that Allen & Farmer were lying too?

I am just saying Wooden is dead. Let him rest in peace. I just know Los Angeles time is a USC paper. They dislike UCLA. The bigger point is Sam Gilbert did not affect John Woden’s win or loss. Also, to say that somehow this gave John Wooden an advantage over other schools and there were no other Sam Gilbert’s at Kentucky or any other institution is to demean John Woden’s legacy. Not sure how old Sam was during the 60’s and 70’s, timeframe is also an issue. To be quite honest, you made me curious I will research this since it has been awhile.

 

[oldude]

I am just saying Wooden is dead. Let him rest in peace. I just know Los Angeles time is a USC paper. They dislike UCLA. The bigger point is Sam Gilbert did not affect John Woden’s win or loss. Also, to say that somehow this gave John Wooden an advantage over other schools and there were no other Sam Gilbert’s at Kentucky or any other institution is to demean John Woden’s legacy. Not sure how old Sam was during the 60’s and 70’s, timeframe is also an issue. To be quite honest, you made me curious I will research this since it has been awhile.

I thought you were a UCLA fan. Gilbert was born in 1913. He dropped out of UCLA in 1937. UCLA was put on probation in 1981 and ordered by the NCAA to disassociate the university from Gilbert.

 

[Rfwireless]

I thought you were a UCLA fan. Gilbert was born in 1913. He dropped out of UCLA in 1937. UCLA was put on probation in 1981 and ordered by the NCAA to disassociate the university from Gilbert.

I thought you were a UCLA fan. Gilbert was born in 1913. He dropped out of UCLA in 1937. UCLA was put on probation in 1981 and ordered by the NCAA to disassociate the university from Gilbert.

I am a fan. I watched most of their games and followed recruiting since high school and started following under Cunningham. I am going of memory you wiki that information. I am just saying it was local news, it was during Larry Brown era that Sam Gilbert first surfaced at least that is what I remembered. It seemed like trying to go back to Wooden was a stretch. I know because I did not followed program under Wooden and Gilbert surfaced later. Ucla lost against DePaul that year and Michigan State played Indiana state for championship, what a year, that is what hooked me on basketball.

 

[TCC Kid]

While I will acknowledge that NIL has the potential to be manipulated by cynical boosters and coaches, the idea that this type of practice is somehow new makes me chuckle. Whether it’s payouts from boosters or shoe companies to recruits, shadowy middlemen shopping top recruits, or coaches arranging for “stand-ins” to take standardized tests for marginal students, this type of stuff has been around at least going back to the Dark Ages when I played college ball.

One example should suffice. When John Wooden, the legendary Wizard of Westwood, was winning his 10 national championships at UCLA in the 60’s & 70’s he was hailed as the epitome of what a college coach should be: honest, straightforward and dignified. But if you looked behind the curtain, there was Sam Gilbert, a former UCLA dropout, who made a fortune as a contractor during the construction boom in LA. Gilbert insured with his wallet that one HS star after another made their way to Westwood to play for Wooden.

I have no illusions about NIL. But at least there is the potential for top college athletes like Paige to establish professional representation and then secure compensation without hiding everything under the table.

Something had to be done. Coaches of young men and women becoming millionairs while the kids did the work, emotions, and physical activity for a scholarship.
My opinion on NIL is still out. I'm not confused. Im conflicted in my desires for the young ladies to, at minimum, participate in the wealth being spread and the morality (if it can be called that) of students being paid for what for at least a century, was done for "the school".
Knowing humans as I do, and historically nearly all scandals in male sports has been around money. Not really nice people, get involved, because big money is involved.
I'm a "moralist" I believe everyone doing anything that is against the law, religion or just my momentarily point of view, are immoral. However, if I do it--that's moral!!

 

[jchusky]

Something had to be done. Coaches of young men and women becoming millionairs while the kids did the work, emotions, and physical activity for a scholarship.
My opinion on NIL is still out. I'm not confused. Im conflicted in my desires for the young ladies to, at minimum, participate in the wealth being spread and the morality (if it can be called that) of students being paid for what for at least a century, was done for "the school".
Knowing humans as I do, and historically nearly all scandals in male sports has been around money. Not really nice people, get involved, because big money is involved.
I'm a "moralist" I believe everyone doing anything that is against the law, religion or just my momentarily point of view, are immoral. However, if I do it--that's moral!!

lol that's where I laugh, wealth? Please tell me what the 5th-9th players on the team get compared to what Paige gets? Where is their wealth? This is what I mean, is not a fair game. The only ppl that are making money off Nil are ppl on social media. I'm not a smoke and mirrors guy, I already know what Nil was designed to do. Was an excuse to give people in college football a reason to cheat (something that was already happening) an easier leeway to do so. On the women's side please tell me with a serious face the Cavinder twins who went 18-19 at Fresno st in their sophomore year are getting Nil deals cause of basketball ability. Again we can pretend about equality, but I choose to believe in what is reality.

 

[Bone Dog]

As a college professor, I can say with confidence that the athletic department looks to faculty everywhere like a perverse and absurd imposition on any school’s educational mission. This doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy watching the kids play. But all talk of NIL somehow distorting or even ruining college sports just seems absurd to us. The NCAA has so distorted every American university as to make such a thought seem laughable.

The only point of view on NIL that makes sense to faculty is the moral one. And as several folks have said, the traditional arrangement with schools and coaches getting rich and kids getting so little is too obviously immoral. This is why I’d say that NIL is the right course regardless of its impact on recruitment or even competition. Let the states figure out what sort of higher education that want and then design NIL rules accordingly.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

The current musical chairs portal mess is going to get worse. I also wonder about locker room dissension. How come she gets all the NIL money and I get nothing?"

But that's freedom. Recall how unfair the transfer process was before the portal? Remember when UConn's transfer-in's had to wait a year, while Notre Dame's were ushered right onto the roster? And while NIL will upset things in some ways, far more kids will be getting paid for what is a full-time job. Remember when UConn men players complained that they didn't have enough to eat, because rules kept them from taking food from the cafeteria back to the dorm with them? Some fairness.

 

[ThatCG1801]

Sincere question bc I honestly don't know. Does UCONN have its own NIL Collective established? Like we have The Garnet Trust and Carolina Rise established. We basically pay our athletes out of our own NIL Collectives with $$ we gift as fans. Some claim collectives like these skirt the rules bc it's basically the same as boosters "buying" athletes.