Details, details

And soon, lawsuits, lawsuits

THERE’S a lot of talk about the coming “new normal.” And how. And although there are more pressing priorities than athletics just now, there is a new normal coming to college sports, too. (Don’t most Americans need a distraction just now? So let’s distract.)

After years, after generations, of resistance, the NCAA has decided to allow student-athletes to use their names and images in third-party endorsements, for money.

They will be able to hire agents and sign endorsement deals. They will be able to appear on TV or print ads, or your friendly neighborhood billboard.

The papers say this will all start with the 2021-22 school year.

When this first came up, months ago, some questions were immediately raised by multiple sources: Would only star athletes get endorsements? What about cheerleaders? Could players unionize? Could kids get bonuses for winning championships? Why weren’t players at community colleges included? Why couldn’t athletes sign endorsement deals that conflict with their university’s contracts? That is, why can’t a football player hold a Coke during a commercial even though his home stadium has a deal with Pepsi? After all, a biology student could sign a book deal with Simon & Schuster even if his school has a deal with HarperCollins.

Other questions: Perhaps the main reason for not having endorsement options all these years was to keep rich boosters from recruiting the best players to their schools. What is to keep that from happening now, legally? Are all the five-star players now going to go where the money is? Mapped out in front of them in a contract, instead of under the table?

None of those questions has been answered yet. Officials with the NCAA keep saying the details will follow. Uhhuh.

After reading more about the legal niceties in Sports Illustrated last week, even more questions pop to mind:

SI says, “The changes will likely be restrained in numerous ways.” How?

Again, details to follow. No colleges will be able to pay players for playing in a sport. Why? Because that would get too close to making the player an employee, and, like a governor of Arkansas once said, that would open a whole box of Pandoras.

Will all three divisions in the NCAA have the same rules?

Will the NCAA regulate agents? Can athletes endorse a gambling operation such as a casino in states where casino gambling and, ahem, sports betting is legal?

According to the NCAA’s working group’s report says—get this—“that schools, conferences and boosters be barred from any involvement in facilitating endorsement opportunities for college athletes or in securing payments. Likewise, [names, images and likeness] opportunities cannot be dangled to recruits as inducements.”

You have got to be kidding. Does anybody believe it’ll work that way?

Don’t worry, the NCAA assures without assuring. It is working on the details.

Okay, but it’s important to get those details right. The guy in the red socks with a pitchfork lives there.