Last week, there was a law signed in the State of Tennessee that caught a number of folks by surprise, most importantly the ones making decisions on enforcement of the House settlement.
The reason this caught the eye of college leaders across the country is that it gives universities within the state the ability to navigate around a number of new rules that will come if the House settlement is approved. Simply put, this gives a school like Tennessee, MTSU or even Vanderbilt a way out of being tied down by rules set forth regarding revenue sharing, along with any type of punishment for third-party collective deals that might be deemed illegal.
Right now, Power-4 conference commissioners, along with others, are putting the final touches on an agreement that will be enforced by a new rules’ committee, known as the ‘College Sports Commission’, according to multiple sources. Yes, I know it sounds cheesy, but this new group will become the front door for enforcement of any deals associated with the House settlement.
That means the NCAA will no longer serve a purpose when it comes to any types of punishment involving revenue-sharing, NIL deals or anything else that doesn’t have to do with academics and eligibility. You can call this the New World Order of college athletics. Yes, I did just steal a line from the infamous Hulk Hogan promo from Bash At The Beach.
But, this is where we are at right now in college athletics, with conference commissioners and school leaders putting together a document that would need to be signed and agreed to by all schools participating in life after the House settlement. This ‘agreement’ would seemingly prevent schools from going after the commission in a courtroom, but allow for any disagreements to be handled through arbitration, according to Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports.
In simpler terms- if you don’t agree to sign this document and abide by the rules, while also agreeing to not sue the College Sports Commission for what you perceive is wrongdoing, you will be kicked to the curb. Right now, lawyers from most schools planning to participate in the aftermath of the House settlement are going over a document that would bind them to the new set of rules that programs will be governed by.
Is The State Of Tennessee Providing Cover For In-State Schools?
These rules would also mean that the Tennessee state law that was signed last week by Governor Bill Lee would not protect universities within the state from what they perceive as a violation of their own laws. Yes, it’s somewhat tricky, but the document would circumvent any type of power that schools like Tennessee would have because they want to follow state laws, which provide a path around the new House settlement rules.
This is now setting the stage for an interesting battle, considering other states want to pass the same type of laws that Tennessee did late last week, in what was essentially a ‘dead of the night’ move.
“We’ve seen this document plenty of times, and there are still things that need to be changed. But, the Governor of Tennessee did not just sign this without the knowledge that its football school also had to agree to this,” one power-4 athletic director told OutKick.
“We are trying to get everyone at least in the same ballpark when it comes to abiding by a set of rules, and if you have a few schools trying to use their state government to get around them, others are going to want to do the same. I have a hard time believing this would stick if we’re forced to sign an agreement that lessens our power.”
Tennessee Flag Is Hung Outside the Courthouse in East Tennessee before the NCAA hearing
The situation gets pretty complicated from a legal standpoint. How are you going to tell a school that they cannot follow the laws of their own state? Well, it’s a question that is actually addressed in the law that was passed, according to one section passed last week.
“Not directly or indirectly condition, threaten, lessen, refuse, remove, terminate, cancel, circumvent, penalize, disrupt, or otherwise interfere with, in any way or degree, an institution’s full enjoyment of its current and future membership status, or any related rights in the same, including, but not limited to, voting rights, participation in athletic events, broadcasts, revenue, or athlete eligibility based, in whole or part, on such association’s failure to adhere to, uphold, or otherwise satisfy the requirements of the subdivision or any applicable law.”
Now, tell me that the State of Tennessee did not know what they were doing when this law was passed. Obviously, lawmakers were made aware of the ‘agreement’ that was being passed around to school officials across the country, and decided to provide some type of legal footing that would cause problems for this new ‘College Sports Commission’ if they decided to go after a state school.
All of this hinges on whether the House settlement is approved by Judge Claudia Wilken, who is still mulling over a decision.
But, there will be a new enforcement entity in place moving forward that will take the reins from the NCAA in most matters related to rules related to college athletics. As for whether there will be lawsuits that follow from an antitrust standpoint, I think you can see where that situation is headed.
