While the NCAA Board of Governors moved the name-image-likeness issue further along this week, supporting the idea of athletes profiting from them, there's still plenty of details to be determined.
There's also the thorny issue of potentially differing state legislation that could create a patchwork mine for the NCAA to work through in order to make things uniform. So far, California has passed an NIL law effective in 2023, while Florida and Michigan are among the 10 other states who have been pushing their own potential bills.
So the Pac-12 issued a statement Wednesday saying it and the rest of the "Autonomy Five" -- the power conferences who have been granted the ability to govern themselves -- saying it is hoping Congress will enact a "single national standard" with NIL issues.
The Pac-12's full statement:
"The Pac-12 and our member universities appreciate the progress of the working group. The report announced today represents a positive step towards supporting student-athletes while deferring the final rulemaking to the three divisions of the NCAA, and we look forward to participating in those discussions with the rest of Division I. At this time we, along with our members, will be reviewing the report in detail in order to understand all of its elements and formulate our views.
"The Pac-12 is working with our peers in the Autonomy Five to encourage Congress to enact a single, national, law that governs the NIL rights of student-athletes. With three states having enacted local laws, Congress’s consideration of a single national standard is appropriate and essential as student-athletes continue to compete for national championships in all sports.
"The Pac-12 and our universities are hopeful that Congress will find legislative consensus on a national NIL standard and that the NCAA can adopt the necessary rules changes to accommodate it. We stand ready to work cooperatively with Congress in the interest of our student-athletes."
We looked at several of the questions involving the issue after California passed its NIL law last September that effectively put pressure on the NCAA to move in that direction. The issue was a big one during Pac-12 media day last October.
Among them: Whether boosters who run businesses might be more inclined to pay athletes directly for endorsements instead of supporting a school, which could threaten a school's revenue, and whether the NCAA can somehow keep the potential for endorsements out of the recruiting equation.
Sporting News' Mike DeCourcy had a look at some of those questions and others as they look now. But as the Oregonian's John Canzano notes, the NCAA is still holding tight to its amateurism model by not allowing schools to pay players.
