It seems that the NCAA is always in the news for controversies involving money and its players. In my first post, Freedom of Speech or Corporate Speech, I talked about Donald De La Haye and his money issues involving YouTube and violating the NCAA regulations. This week, my attention was drawn to an issue surrounding one of my favorite clothing brands, Adidas, and yet again the NCAA and their player regulations.
In September 2017 the NCAA found themselves in the middle of yet another scandal involving their players accepting monetary amounts that put them in violation of player contracts with the NCAA. This situation got pretty heated when big name schools got thrown into the mix.
The rumors started when senior Adidas executive Jim Gatto was arrested by federal investigators questions began to swirl about just exactly who was concerned in these deals. It was later released that he was arrested for agreements concerning certain unnamed players and universities with bribes of over $100,000.
Jim Gatto – Senior Adidas Executive (Photo Courtesy of: NY Daily News)
The NCAA takes allegations very seriously and often two specific organization rules are brought up in debates. One, being the very strongly enforced “no compensation” rule for players. This rule I have talked about in both of my previous posts basically stating that the NCAA is an amateur organization with amateur players that are not allowed under any circumstances to accept any form of monetary compensation.
The other rule being what the New York Times called in their article titled, NCAA Coaches, Adidas Executive Face Charges; Pitino’s Program Implicated, the “one-and-done” rule which is an agreement between the NBA and its players implying an age restraint for NCAA players to join the NBA.
The NCAA is no stranger to this kind of allegation, however the “Adidas Scandal” as everyone is referring to it, happens to be one of its largest that they have had to deal with.
Sports Illustrated wrote a really good “what we know so far” article explaining the coaches involved, the legal cases (that we know of), and the schools that have been ousted in this mess. This article does a really good job of laying out all of the facts to show all of the alleged bribes.
With these types of deals and bribes being made all the time, some people say that the NCAA should just allow the players to sign deals for endorsements to end the long cases and steep legal fees, but I disagree.
An organization founded on amateurism and the pure love of the sport, I think that endorsement deals would start giving these players an ego the size of Mount Everest. Without endorsement deals and big time bucks, these boys and girls play their hardest to earn their spot in the professional leagues of their choosing. After all, they are still in school and while it might be contrary to popular opinion, sports are not all that should matter at this point in their life. I believe that they should be working hard to have a backup plan if sports, dare I say it, doesn’t work out for them.
What would you do if you were in the NCAA’s shoes? Would you change your rules to reduce your legal hassle? Or would you stay true to your organization’s founding ground.
What about Adidas? What if you were in their shoes? (No pun intended, haha.) Would you continue to make illegal agreements in order to potentially benefit your company in the long run?
Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
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