I had a conversation today with a former starting QB for an ACC school who is involved in the college sports business.
He told me something that was new to me and almost shocking. Players from "smaller programs" are approached by representatives of larger programs after games - usually not when the larger program is playing them - and made offers that require them to take or leave it within 24-48 hours. Often times it is not the player himself making the decision to take the offer. Keep in mind, these players don't even have to have entered the transfer portal to be made and accept these "pressure" offers. The transfer portal is just a formality in this context.
So I said "this sounds a lot like human trafficking to me." An athlete enrolled at School A, basically taking an offer to play for School B during the season. This is insane. What is the mechanism to enforce these kinds of transactions in a completely unregulated market? He didn't really answer and went on to another thought.
I've talked about how the NCAA is trying to get Congress to provide legal cover not to pay athletes, but also to outlaw NIL as well. Could it be possible that this kind of behavior has been reported to legislators as a predicate for the NCAA to get a roll back on the gains athletes have made, as it tries to get a law passed that will do this in the lame duck session of Congress this year?
Maybe NIL isn't going to be touched, but how in the hell is this increasingly aggressive and predatory behavior not going to lead to disaster?
He told me something that was new to me and almost shocking. Players from "smaller programs" are approached by representatives of larger programs after games - usually not when the larger program is playing them - and made offers that require them to take or leave it within 24-48 hours. Often times it is not the player himself making the decision to take the offer. Keep in mind, these players don't even have to have entered the transfer portal to be made and accept these "pressure" offers. The transfer portal is just a formality in this context.
So I said "this sounds a lot like human trafficking to me." An athlete enrolled at School A, basically taking an offer to play for School B during the season. This is insane. What is the mechanism to enforce these kinds of transactions in a completely unregulated market? He didn't really answer and went on to another thought.
I've talked about how the NCAA is trying to get Congress to provide legal cover not to pay athletes, but also to outlaw NIL as well. Could it be possible that this kind of behavior has been reported to legislators as a predicate for the NCAA to get a roll back on the gains athletes have made, as it tries to get a law passed that will do this in the lame duck session of Congress this year?
Maybe NIL isn't going to be touched, but how in the hell is this increasingly aggressive and predatory behavior not going to lead to disaster?
