Fran is a lunatic… but… he's absolutely correct. Tampering is clear and obvious in regards to mid major studs. It's basically a bidding auction nowadays

IowaBear said:

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Fran is a lunatic… but… he's absolutely correct. Tampering is clear and obvious in regards to mid major studs. It's basically a bidding auction nowadays

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And the NCAA basically has two choices around it. They can accept the landscape for what it is and put up guardrails around it, regulating and in some cases curtailing current practices so they're both transparent and consistently applied with an eye toward the inevitable professionalization of the college game. Or they can wield the ban-hammer and attempt to claw back the perception of amateurism by attempting to punish, fine and otherwise hold the party line on the old way of thinking, like attempting to hold onto a handful of sand by squeezing your fist.

Unfortunately I think I know which direction they plan to take.

NCAA is getting their 10 percent so they won't lift a finger...

It's not really disgraceful IMHO if it helps they players get a good NIL (aka pay for play) deal.

College sports are professional now - at least at the major college level - so agents are of course going to fill the need to shop players and land a good deal.

IowaBear said:

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Fran is a lunatic… but… he's absolutely correct. Tampering is clear and obvious in regards to mid major studs. It's basically a bidding auction nowadays

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It's actually legal. Agents are independent of schools and represent players. The NIL groups that are recruited players for schools are independent of the athletic program. So these two groups can legally talk all day. The issues are this:

1. Can independent NIL groups contact players directly? There are NIL groups taking players to lunch, dinner and entertaining them and I don't mean for other schools but for the schools they represent. Many NIL donors want access to the program for their "donation" to NIL.
2. Can independent NIL groups conduct players directly from other schools? I believe so as long as they are not officially tied to any school. What I mean is this - if OSU guys get together and come up with a NIL program, they can contact players from other schools but mostly done through agents or families.
3. Agents regularly contact NIL groups to see about getting more money from their clients. There are no windows or timeframes for them. They can do it through the season.

It really isn't tampering. It is all legal but, for me, the real question is how do the NIL groups know what players to go after? How do they know what players the coaches are interested in?

Why is this being allowed is the great question. I suspect it has a lot to do with SEC and BIG going rogue on NCAA. Over time, smaller schools won't be able to keep up and they know it. They will use it as the reason to separate leagues. The money from TV will be the separator.

NCAA is made up of college Presidents. Why aren't they speaking up? What is their fear? Why don't they try to regain control? SEC and BIG Presidents too powerful of an influence on NCAA?

The NCAA needed yo fight to control everything but football. They were always going to lose that but basketball could and should have been managed better.