Landon Buford
Last month, the NCAA landscape changed forever when the Board of Directors of Division I approved a temporary policy that will allow student-athletes to take advantage of their name, image, and likeness.
“This is an important day for college athletes since they all are now able to take advantage of name, image and likeness opportunities,” NCAA president Mark Emmert said. “With the variety of state laws adopted across the country, we will continue to work with Congress to develop a solution that will provide clarity on a national level. The current environment — both legal and legislative — prevents us from providing a more permanent solution and the level of detail student-athletes deserve.”
The policy, which also was adopted by Divisions II and III, essentially suspends almost all previous NCAA rules regarding NIL for all incoming and current student-athletes in all sports with some exceptions: still in effect are rules that “preserve the commitment to avoid pay-for-play and improper inducements tied to choosing to attend a particular school.”
According to Zach Braziller of the New York Post, State schools without legislation are free to create their own NILE laws, based on a set of NCAA directives, which reflect laws already enacted.
The guidelines are:
- Deals cannot serve as recruiting inducements.
- Athletes cannot receive benefits without services given.
- Agents or representation are allowed for NIL benefits.
- Schools cannot be involved in creating opportunities for their athletes.
- Players cannot promote alcohol, legal drugs like cannabis, tobacco products, adult entertainment or gambling.
I recently spoke to NBA legend Jamal Crawford and asked him if he was attending the University of Michigan under the new NIL rules, and who he would partner with during the three years he was in school.
“Honestly, I had such a following coming out of Seattle High School. So, I probably would reach out to the companies here locally. Like Microsoft, Amazon, Starbucks at the time because those things were starting to boom. So, I probably would have reached out to the local and a few in Ann Arbor because we had a pretty good recruiting class when I got to college. They were leaning on us to be great, but I pretty, and I am not saying this to brag the most popular player because I wore a headband,” said Crawford.
“That caught on and in our student section I had the ‘Crawford Crazies’. I’m probably the only player in college basketball that had his own student section in the games along with our teams. So, I’m sure that would have translated really well financially, but I don’t really know exactly what it would have been.”
Crawford spent three seasons at Michigan before electing to enter the NBA draft in 2000. He was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers with the 8th pick but was later traded on draft night to the Chicago Bulls for Chris Mihm, according to cavsnation.com.
He would later play 19 seasons in the NBA and still has not officially retired, but according to Crawford, he is not waiting by the phone hoping for a call either. However, if it does come, he would consider a return if right for him and his family.
During his 19 years in the league, he won three-Sixth man of the Year Awards tied with Lou Williams for most all-time. He also averaged 14.6 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 3.4 rebounds per game in 1327. He is currently eighth all-time three-pointers made in NBA History.
