Bloom doesn’t trust organization’s intent

The NCAA said all the right things Tuesday. But count Jeremy Bloom among those who think the actions from here on out will speak louder than any words.

“If I had a microphone on a national stage, I would encourage the states to kind of ignore this and focus on state legislation for student-athletes,” Bloom, the former CU Buffs wideout and Olympic skier, told The Denver Post on Tuesday, after the NCAA announced that its board of governors voted to allow student-athletes to receive payments for the use of their name, image and likeness, or NIL for short.

“The NCAA can’t be trusted,” Bloom continued. “And I think they’re trying to stymie the conversation.”

Bloom, a Buffs letterman as a return man and wideout in 2002 and 2003, has cause for skepticism. The Loveland native in 2004 was ruled ineligible to continue playing football for CU because of sponsorship money he received to cover costs related to his participation in the Winter Olympics. NCAA rules allowed players to be paid professionally in one sport while competing as an amateur in another but forbade accepting endorsements.

Almost a generation later, thanks to a series of legal challenges and pending state legislation — including a proposal that’s on the table in Colorado — the NCAA is starting to change its tune on student-athlete compensation. During a meeting in Atlanta, the board of governors voted unanimously to allow student-athletes to receive “benefits from the use of their name, image and likeness in a manner consistent with the collegiate model.”

But it’s the “consistent with the collegiate model” part that has NCAA critics — including Bloom — curious about where the administrators in Indianapolis go next.

“On the other hand, oh, my gosh,” Bloom said. “Even reading that, to hear the NCAA say that ‘We’re going to allow student-athletes to capitalize on their NIL’ … it’s almost like I can’t believe my eyes, in a way.”

The board’s vote was based on a recommendation from a NIL working group that included CU athletic director Rick George. It was also a response to mounting political pressure on the current collegiate model, both nationally and regionally.

California was the first state to openly challenge the NCAA’s compensatory guidelines for student-athletes by passing the Fair Pay to Play Act late last month, a law slated to go into effect in 2023.

A bill similar to California’s is expected to be up for discussion in the Colorado legislature in January, allowing in-state collegians an opportunity to profit off their respective NILs and giving them the right to sue the NCAA if the organization threatens their eligibility as a result of money received. The legislation is a bipartisan effort from Republican state Sen. Owen Hill and Democratic state Sen. Jeff Bridges, with consultation from Bloom and others.

“(The NCAA vote is) proof that every now and then, politics yields good results,” Hill said Tuesday.

At least nine other states are expected to bring similar bills up for discussion in the coming year.

“The devil’s in the details,” Bloom said. “’We need to be able to police it.’ What does that mean? I get why they’re doing it. It’s smart of them to do it, (to say), ‘States, don’t do anything, we’ve got it, we’re doing it.’ And then for them to kind of put all these crazy guardrails in place that don’t really accomplish what student-athletes deserve, I don’t know.”