Players use big stage to make case

A social media effort to raise awareness about inequities in college sports by some prominent players in the NCAA Tournament came with calls for rules changes and requests for meetings with the NCAA president and lawmakers.

The players who got #NotNCAAProperty trending on social made no threats of protests at tournament games, which started Thursday night.

Following a year of activism in sports that included NBA players shutting down the playoffs after a police shooting, it’s fitting that college athletes would use March Madness to get a message across.

Using the #NotNCAAProperty hashtag on Twitter, players pushed for the NCAA to change rules banning college athletes from earning money for things like endorsements, sponsorship deals and personal appearances, all encompassing revenue tied to their name, image or likeness (NIL).

Three prominent Big Ten players — Jordan Bohannon, above, of Iowa, Isaiah Livers of Michigan and Geo Baker of Rutgers — led the way, and players from at least 15 tournament teams jumped on board with tweets of support.

The National College Players Association, a college athlete advocacy group, released a statement late Wednesday that detailed the players’ goals. They included meetings with NCAA President Mark Emmert and the opportunity to meet with state and local lawmakers who are working on passing laws that could set parameters for the association’s NIL rules.

The NCAA has been working toward changing its rules governing NIL compensation to pull back most restrictions. But those efforts have bogged down under scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Justice and with an antitrust case involving the NCAA heading to the Supreme Court later this month.