Gene Smith speaks on the NIL movement

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Sports fans are going to be hearing more and more about NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) issues as the days go on in the wake of the state of California paving the way with the state Governor signing a bill into law that would allow amateur athletes to be compensates for any part of their NIL.

Other states are starting to follow suit with laws that have similar intents but go about doing things differently as the NCAA continues to try and address the issue that basically comes down to additional compensation for athletes that have been making their universities and the NCAA as a whole unfathomable amounts of money.

Ohio State Director of Athletics Gene Smith met with the football media on Tuesday morning in advance of the weekly football press conference to add some thoughts, even if they were limited, on the pressing matter. Smith is part of a working group that includes individuals on the conference and university level as well as a few student athletes themselves.

Smith started off his comments by saying that he was not in a position to say too much in terms of specifics of where the working group is at currently but that their findings would be presented later this month.

“I can’t talk about the work that the working group is doing, I can share with you that we will submit our report to the board of governors October 29th in Indianapolis,” Smith said. “The working group is a diverse group that represents all divisions. Divisions 1, 2 and 3.”

The NCAA has long been slow to act on issues of the day but to its credit has finally made moves on topics including Cost of Attendance, athlete health care, parental stipends to see their sons and daughters participate in postseason play and post-graduate services allowing athletes to come back and finish their degree coursework.

"The NCAA as an organization has taken a long time to try and modernize itself," Smith added. “Over the last five to eight years, improvements have been made in that space to become more modern.”

It is safe to say that everyone thinks something needs to be done but there is a lot of disagreement of what needs to be done. Smith believes, as do many, that things can’t be done on an institutional or state level and there has to be a measure of uniformity.

“We can’t have a situation where we have schools and/or states with different rules for an organization that is going to compete together,” Smith said. “It can’t happen, it is not reality. If that happens then what we need is federal help to try and make sure that we create rules and regulations for all of our membership that are consistent. If that does not happen then we are looking at a whole new model. That is reality.”

This goes a long way beyond the fight for compensation for athlete likeness being used in a video game unchecked. That however may have really brought things to a head as the push for something to be done picked up more steam.

Now you have states jumping on board with their own proposals and bills to force the hand of the NCAA or even circumvent the governing body.

“My concern with the California bill, which is all the way wide open in monetizing you name, image and likeness, it moves slightly towards pay for play,” Smith said. “It is very difficult for us who are practitioners in the space to figure out how do you regulate that. How do you insure that the unscrupulous bad actor does not enter that space and ultimately create an unlevel playing field?”

The California law would not full go into effect until 2023 but other states including Florida have things that are on a much faster tract.

Smith cautioned everyone that just because the working group was going to present something in the end of October, that was just from the working group and that member institutions would need time to go through the proposals and come to their own conclusions and then decisions would need to be made on bigger levels than that. In short, the NCAA would not be ready by the start of competition in 2020, in not as many words.

Things will change but it will be a matter of what, when and how soon. It will be something to keep an eye on.