NCAA delays vote on name, image and likeness rules | Yahoo Sports College Podcast
Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel and Pete Thamel, and Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde discuss the NCAA’s abject failure in delaying the vote to handle name, image and likeness rules for student athletes and pushing for the government to get involved.
Video Transcript
PAT FORDE: The NCAA, which has taken like seven decades of resolute amateurism and finally gets to the point in the spring of saying we're going to do something about it, we're going to have name, image, and likeness. And we're going to have transfer rule. And now they get around to it, they're, like, no, never mind. We're not going to-- no, we're not going to vote on those things. In addition to still not being able to solve any of the SDNY cases other than one, so the NCAA, right.
DAN WETZEL: I-- I-- All I will say about this thing because it's really complicated-- we can talk about it during this off-season as you get into the weeds of what they're doing-- but if you have a business, you do not want the government running your business.
[CHORTLES]
PAT FORDE: OK.
DAN WETZEL: I don't care what government--
PAT FORDE: Yeah.
[CHUCKLES]
DAN WETZEL: You don't want the government saying, hey, these are going to be your rules on how you pay your wait staff at your restaurant. This is who you can hire. This is who-- this is how you manage-- like, you want as little government regulation as possible.
So you come up with your own rules to try to satisfy the government so that they do not put in their regulations. The NCAA has done nothing, and they're inviting a bunch of senators to say, this is how you're going to run your-- the name, image, and likeness will get-- will be a disaster if they don't seize control. It's going to be like their playoff, which sucks, because they didn't want to do a playoff, so they designed a horrible playoff.
The name, image, and likeness is going to be a disaster because they're standing around going, well, you know what? We can't figure it out. I-- I hope this, ah, you know-- I hope this senator from Connecticut has got a good idea.
PETE THAMEL: Senator Blumenthal will take care of it. Don't worry.
DAN WETZEL: Yeah, nobody who runs a business--
PETE THAMEL: He knows exactly what's going on.
DAN WETZEL: Yeah. It's like no business owner sits there and goes, I can't figure it out. I hope-- I hope the politicians can help.
[CHUCKLES]
PETE THAMEL: Yeah.
DAN WETZEL: This is--
PETE THAMEL: Hey.
DAN WETZEL: Get your shit together, people. You're going to screw through the whole thing up.
PETE THAMEL: We-- we would all agree that Mark Emmert has been a really lousy NCAA president. And he has failed in many ways. But there has been no greater failure than the apathy he and the NCAA have shown towards putting together a name, image, and likeness plan.
PAT FORDE: Yeah.
PETE THAMEL: They basically all-- have-- have just been so slow and so apathetic and put together so many committees to set up a subcommittee to do anything. It's the classic NCAA thing. This is like the Saturday Night Live skit of NCAA incompetence right here. And they are now going to let local governments, the federal government, the Supreme Court all have more of a say than their actual own membership. It is incompetence of the highest order.
DAN WETZEL: It is. It's malfeasance.
PAT FORDE: I mean, it's just complete abdication of taking charge of this-- of a very important issue in their business.
DAN WETZEL: It is the most important business going forward.
PAT FORDE: It is, yes.
DAN WETZEL: It is beyond-- they are going to screw it-- they don't want to do it. So they are going to say, we couldn't figure it out. Then they're going to let the government come in and run their business. And then they're going to go, see, it sucks.
It was a bad idea. No, you-- it's-- it's-- it's unbelievable. I just cannot imagine. Anybody listening to this who owns a business, I don't care if it's the-- it's-- you know, it's the kid who mows the lawn of his neighbors. Like, it's-- you just go, yeah, that's-- it's just so bad. And so--
PETE THAMEL: Even if they did it and got it completely wrong, it would be done and they could control it to get it right. Like, they weren't going to nail the landing on the first time on this thing, right? It wasn't all going to be perfect, guardrails, all that stuff. But when you've given up control of it, you have no chance.
PAT FORDE: Yeah.
PETE THAMEL: This thing is going to be a-- yeah, it's going to be a-- a disaster-- it's going to-- I really feel like this will be looked at as a pivot point for the future of all college sports.
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