The state of California is close to passing some legislation that would allow their athletes in that state to be paid. The NCAA has opposed this legislation. How will everything impact NCAA Basketball overall?
The debate rolls on… but which debate is that? It’s the debate on whether to pay college athletes for playing a sport in college. Particularly when it comes to the revenue sports NCAA Basketball and football. Every fan you meet has an opinion on this matter, and many of them have even come up with a feasible way for this to succeed. The NCAA has voiced their displeasure of the “pay for play” incentive as it takes away from their overall model of amateurism.
The state government in California is challenging the NCAA with some new legislation that is likely to pass. California has deemed it acceptable to pay players that attend Colleges in their state. The new bill allows for student athletes to be compensated in the same way a normal student would be. In California they can hire agents to earn from their name and likeness. The schools cannot use sponsorship or the agents as a recruiting tool. The bill would not go into effect until 2023
As expected, the NCAA responded to this bill with opposition and doing what they can to stop it. NCAA president Mark Emmert went as far as to threaten the state of California and their universities. The NCAA intends to ban schools in California for competing in bowl games and postseason tournaments that result in National Championships. If the NCAA chooses to follow through with this the ban would have an effect on NCAA Basketball, that goes beyond the postseason tournament.
Picture it, the NCAA Tournament selection committee is never given the names of the California schools as they are not allowed to participate. That means most of the schools from the Pac-12, Big West, WAC, Big Sky, and Mountain West would be banned from competition in the NCAA tournament. For those of you who do not pay attention to conference affiliation that would be UCLA, USC, Stanford, Cal, St. Mary’s, and San Diego State just to name a few. It would be hard to imagine a tournament without those teams.
The pool of teams eligible for the NCAA tournament would shrink considerably. Two things would result in that. One the teams qualifying for the tournament are not one of the 68 best teams in the country and the tournament would suffer because of that. Of course, many argue that teams from the lower mid majors are not one of the best 68 teams in the country either. Those teams would still qualify so the at large pool would shrink and the competition in the tournament may suffer especially in the last 10 teams in the tournament.
Another result of the shrunken pool could be what many are seeing in the college football playoff and the NCAA baseball tournament. The same 8-10 teams making the final weekend every year. One of the grabs for the casual sports fan are the Loyola, George Mason and VCU underdog stories. Those underdogs making a run to the final four are still going to happen, but it may be harder given the shrunken pool.
One aspect of this that many didn’t think of, could be the negative impact of recruiting in California. What athlete would not want to be paid for the time and dedication they give their sport? The answer is all of them want to be paid and realize they won’t. Most of those very same players love to compete and choose the school they are going to go to, because they have a chance to win a National Championship.
There are exceptions to every rule and some players coming out high school need to be paid to support their family and want to go straight to the NBA. Those players are going to choose the California schools where they can be guaranteed they will be paid while playing their sport of choice. For some, that is worth the sacrifice of not being able to play for a National Championship.
The NCAA is a 15-billion-dollar organization and they are out to protect student athletes. The fact they oppose this legislation so vehemently shows they are in the business of making money and nothing else. Regardless of where you stand on the pay for play issue excluding the California schools from National Championship competition is a big deal and would not only affect basketball but all schools, athletes and fans alike. If California can succeed and successfully implement this new legislation, look for many other states to operate independent of the NCAA and implement similar.