The dominoes are still falling from Monday night’s arbitration ruling in favor of the CSC and against Nebraska. While those dominoes continue to tumble and the college sports world waits and watches to see what NU does next, Andy Staples thinks even the CSC is hoping that the 18 Husker players resubmit their NIL deals in a way that allows the commission to approve them and move on.
Matt Rhule saw Nebraska football land in an NIL battle the CSC does not want escalating
The On3 analyst has a point. His thinking is what most people believe will happen next if the players don’t get their amended NIL deals approved. There’s a Nebraska state law that makes it illegal for the NCAA to interfere in Name, Image, and Likeness agreements. That same state law prohibits an organization from punishing players for getting these deals. With the Monday ruling, Attorney General Mike Hilgers is likely planning a lawsuit.
It’s the lawsuit that could have the CSC shaking in its boots. According to Stewart Mandel, the full arbitration report says Nebraska players stand to lose about $8 million if they can’t get their resubmittals approved. That’s certainly enough money to think the Huskers and their supporters will do whatever they can to get that money paid out.
“That’s probably why Seely was playing nice Monday,” Staples wrote. “‘These student athletes didn’t do anything wrong,’ Seely said after meeting with ACC coaches and athletic directors at the league’s spring meetings. ‘Nebraska didn’t do anything wrong. They put in deals that they, at least, I think, in good faith, believe complied with the rules. We decided they didn’t, and the arbitrator made a decision that we were correct in our in our determination.’”
Staples is right in that the CSC could have spiked the football and instead played very, very nice. It’s clear College Sports Commission CEO Bryan Seely doesn’t want this fight to include a war of words. It wants everyone to play nice and play within the rules. A lawsuit could tear apart the NCAA’s only mechanism for regulating NIL money.
The CSC and Nebraska football waiting to see if revised NIL deals can avoid a legal war
At the moment, Nebraska officials are planning to resubmit the deals with the hope their players will get paid. Should those deals get approved, the CSC keeps operating, at least for a little while. If the Husker players’ deals are ultimately denied or if they miss out on any of the $8 million they believe they’re owed, then Hilgers goes on the attack.
That attack almost certainly ends with the College Sports Commission blowing up. If that goes, it’s not hard to imagine everything in the House vs. NCAA settlement follows suit. In other words, more chaos descends upon an entity that is sick and tired of dealing with chaos.
There are other challenges and arbitrations coming down the pike from other schools as well. Nebraska was only the first. Seeley and Co. would like to be able to point to the Huskers players working things out and the resubmitting being plenty easy. That doesn’t mean that the commission will back off entirely. It’s not fighting this fight just to step down. But it knows that the Cornhuskers finding a way to work this out is in everyone's best interest.
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