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01/14 16:29 CST 'Time to stick out your neck,' college CEO tells schools on
contract that regulates paying players
'Time to stick out your neck,' college CEO tells schools on contract that
regulates paying players
By EDDIE PELLS
AP National Writer
OXON HILL, Md. (AP) --- The head of the new regulatory body for college sports
said "if there was a time to stick out your neck, it's now," in urging schools
to sign an agreement sent out nearly two months ago pledging to abide by new
rules that govern how to pay players.
Bryan Seeley, the CEO of the 7-month-old College Sports Commission, used his
presentation at the NCAA convention Wednesday to thank leaders from four
schools who put out a statement backing the agreement, while urging others to
sign on.
"My sense is that the vast majority of schools want to sign this. but I suspect
if a school wants this, you're thinking, ?Why am I going to stick my neck
out?'" if other schools won't also sign, Seeley said. "If there was a time to
stick out your neck, it's now."
In late November, the CSC sent Division I schools its "University Participation
Agreement," an 11-page document that all 68 schools from the four largest
conferences need to sign for it to go into effect. It outlines the CSC's role
in monitoring how schools pay out the $20.5 million they're allowed to spend on
players' name, image and likeness and also looks at how the CSC regulates
third-party payments to players.
But the most contentious part of the agreement was language that forbid schools
from suing the agency.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton called the agreement a "power grab" in
directing that state's schools not to sign. Other state AGs followed suit.
On Tuesday, school presidents at Arizona, Washington, Virginia Tech and Georgia
released a statement urging their colleagues to sign on.
"Stability is not created by new rules alone, but by a willingness to live by
them," the statement said.
Seeley latched onto that with a plea of his own.
"I'm not of the belief that college sports is fundamentally broken and the sky
is falling. but there are definitely problems," he told a room full of college
sports administrators. "No one from the outside is coming to fix those
problems. We'll either collectively come together to fix those problems or they
won't be fixed."
Seeley said the CSC is talking to the conferences about tweaking some of the
language --- "fair feedback," he called it --- while cautioning that other
proposed changes "would water the document down such that it has no enforcement
... and would make it meaningless."
Debate over the consequences of all 68 schools not signing the agreement has
run the gamut, from those who believe the CSC could enforce its rules anyway to
others who think it would eventually shutter the entire system.
Seeley gave a nod to proposals, now stalled in Congress, that could add muscle
to many of the CSC's functions.
"But we don't know when that help is coming, and in the interim, we should be
working hard collectively to try to fix some (of the issues). One way to do
that is to sign this participatory agreement," he said.
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