the BigAmateurism monologues

The NCAA’s cynical quest for the Iron Throne of college sports regulation began in early 2019. This episode discusses how the NCAA transitioned from outright hostility to name, image, and likeness “compensation” to a stealth campaign in Alston, Congress, and public relations to eliminate the athletes’ rights movement in one fell swoop. Beginning with its decision to appeal the Alston trial court’s decision to the 9th Circuit in March 2019, the NCAA laid the foundation for its imperial march towards the Iron Throne of college sports regulation. The material data points for this quest ran along three tracks: (1) legal; (2) congressional (particularly the Senate); and (3) public relations built around claims of a genuine commitment to change NCAA rules to permit NIL “compensation.” On the legal front, these data points are the NCAA’s legal briefs in Alston and its statements at oral argument in the 9th Circuit on March 9th, 2020. The data points in its congressional campaign are four hearings in the Senate in 2020 and five bills—four in the Senate and one in the house. The data points in its public relations campaign are three work products of the NCAA Board of Governors Federal and State Legislation Working Group and manipulation of the press to suggest that voluntary rules changes on NIL were a done deal.