Mike Farrell Sports

College Football Recruiting, Opinion, and Analysis

Tennessee Scores an Impactful but Temporary Win over the NCAA With Profound Implications

Friday’s win by Tennessee and Virginia against the NCAA is the latest body blow to its future.

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Inside NCAA Headquarters located in Indianapolis on Friday
Inside NCAA Headquarters located in Indianapolis on Friday

By Rock Westfall 

Friday’s win by Tennessee and Virginia against the NCAA is the latest body blow to its future. Will the court ruling accelerate college football’s reformation of or separation from the NCAA?

Tennessee & Virginia Score Temporary Knockdown of NCAA 

On Friday, Tennessee US District Judge Clifton Corker issued a preliminary injunction that prohibits the NCAA from punishing athletes or boosters from negotiating on NIL deals during the recruiting or transfer portal process.

In his ruling, Corker wrote that the NCAA prohibition of such negotiations “likely violates federal antitrust laws and harms student-athletes.”

You would be hard-pressed to find anyone other than an NCAA clodhopper who fails to understand such reasoning.

Cynics will say that it is a home court win for Tennessee in this era of overt political shopping of cases to friendly judges in venues with a similar worldview for more probable rulings.

But the fact remains Friday’s decision is a victory for uncommon common sense. Based on the 2021 Supreme Court ruling against the NCAA, Corker’s decision rates a strong chance of being upheld.

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Friday’s judgment is not a final knockout victory for Tennessee, Virginia, and unassailable logic. But a successful NCAA appeal is hard to fathom. At the same time, the humiliating implosion of the NCAA continues.

The Inducement Charade – Living a Lie 

The NCAA pretending that there can’t be negotiating for the best NIL deal and “inducements” is laughable because it is neither reality-based nor enforceable. The NCAA, as mentioned in this space on February 17, was being absurdly selective against Tennessee on a case involving 5-star recruit Nico Iamaleava.

To a realist, an NIL offer is an obvious inducement. When the University of Utah gave all of its players the use of brand-new pickup trucks, wasn’t that an inducement? When Sam Hartman left Wake Forest after four successful seasons for Notre Dame and a massive NIL deal, was that not an inducement? When Nick Saban ranted about Texas A&M buying top talent in 2022, was that not an example of inducement? 

The NIL inducement examples are endless and could fill several large books. Thus, NIL is the epitome of inducements. Just ask a former head coach such as Chip Kelly what happens when you have an empty bag, i.e., no inducements.

The fact that the NCAA went after Tennessee is an astounding act of blind hubristic arrogance and ignorance that is unfathomable. Everyone could see the stupidity of the NCAA dropping the gloves on Tennessee except the NCAA.

The NCAA never had a prayer in this case because it has no case.

Equally troublesome is that the governing body has ineffective leadership in its new president, Charlie Baker.

Sorry, Charlie 

Previously, Charlie Baker pulled off the impossible feat of being a popular two-term Republican governor in a state without Republicans, Massachusetts. He did so by adapting to the lay of the land in the Bay State. Baker realized that he would have to govern as a Democrat to win as a Republican. So, he adapted.

But in his first few weeks as NCAA president, Baker does not seem as adept at figuring out where reality lies in college football. There are some alarming tells of Baker’s unfamiliarity at the start of his term.

Baker was recently asked by ESPN if having prospects sign binding contracts with schools to ensure NIL offers are met between student-athletes, boosters, and institutions. Baker said he did not know if contracts were the answer. However, it is Baker’s job to know, especially in today’s troubled times.  He was assumingly hired to create solutions instead of saying, “I don’t know.”     

Then Baker went into full Father Knows Best mode by stating that the NCAA wants student-athletes to choose schools based on educational opportunities. Sorry, Charlie, but the 1950s want their priorities back.

As Nick Saban warned this week in his double-barrel blast at the state of college football, education has devolved into a secondary concern, if it’s a concern at all.

Additionally, Baker made the tone-deaf statement that he is against any further rules or federal laws that would limit players from transferring. This tenet is at a time when college football head coaches are surrendering their positions to become assistants elsewhere because of the game’s chaotic lawlessness with transfers and NIL. 

Even worse, Baker turned the tables, stating from the shallow end of the pool that coaches transfer all the time, so why not players?  A pajama boy player’s rights advocate “journalist” could have given the same answer for a minimum wage salary.  

So far, Charlie Baker has not shown himself to be a man of the times. He was supposedly hired to fix the NCAA crisis. Instead, he is perpetuating it.  

A Step Closer to NCAA Reformation or Separation?

Friday’s ruling could be the final piece of evidence that the NCAA is incorrigible. Major college football must break away and form its own governing body, or the NCAA must go through a radical revolution of reformation that it is unlikely to be capable of.

This space detailed the difficulty of either path but one of the two paths must be taken. The sport and the governing body are currently living an unsustainable lie.

If the NCAA and college football don’t soon reform, then somebody is likely to reform them from the outside. And that could cause an entirely new crisis of epic proportions.

Judge Coker’s ruling was a final warning to all to “adapt or die.”

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