Reggie Bush says college football players should unionize
Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush talks why college football players should unionize ahead of his induction ceremony to the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame.
BOCA RATON — Jerry Donner remembers a simpler time in college sports, when amateur athletes were part of a governing body aimed at leveling the playing field.
But now the former athletic director views the NCAA as a modern version of the Wild West.
With the exodus of older, more traditional coaches leaving the college ranks – Miami men’s basketball coach Jim Larrañaga abruptly resigned in December – all signs point to the influence of name, image and likeness licensing rights among today’s recruits.
“Athletes are gonna get paid. The question is, how are you going to monitor it and control it?” said Donner, an athletic director at New York’s Long Island University from 1972 to 1983 who now serves as president of the South Florida Basketball Association.
“Somebody has to put their foot down. It’s the Wild Wild West. That’s how I would describe it right now. You can do whatever you want.”
Since 2021, when the NCAA changed its rules to allow college athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness (NIL), blue-chip high school and junior college recruits have essentially become free agents willing to sign with the highest bidder.
Combined with the transfer portal, which allows athletes to change schools without any loss of eligibility, navigating a college program has turned into a professional business.
“The NCAA and presidents have pretty much destroyed our game,” former Cincinnati and West Virginia men’s basketball coach Bob Huggins said at a charity luncheon on Jan. 15 hosted by the South Florida Basketball Association at Broken Sound Club in Boca Raton.
“Absolute greed,” Huggins continued. “It has become more about NIL than basketball. We lost total control of everything.”
With a growing number of legendary coaches retiring or quitting – including former Syracuse men’s basketball coach Jim Boeheim, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski and Alabama football coach Nick Saban – it begs the question: Can veteran coaches thrive in this new era?
“A lot of them are coming to the realization that they need to stop criticizing the system and start embracing it,” said Darren Heitner, a Fort Lauderdale-based lawyer and University of Florida alum who spoke at the SFBA luncheon.
“Coaches need to do whatever’s necessary to pivot to the times. It’s a lot different from the system they were introduced to, particularly going up the ranks. Industries change. It’s adapt or die.”
Heitner, who specializes in sports, entertainment, intellectual property and business law, works with athletes to ensure that they receive fair compensation for their names, images and likenesses, something he says was long overdue considering the billion-dollar industry of college sports.
Heitner recently provided legal counsel to top-ranked high school quarterback and University of Michigan recruit Bryce Underwood as the Detroit native negotiated a multimillion-dollar deal to sign with the Wolverines. Underwood had been committed to LSU for almost a year.
“I place blame on those in charge; the NCAA, the presidents, the chancellors – to a lesser extent the athletic directors,” Heitner said. “I can’t blame the players. I actually feel bad for the ones who went through college for decades and never had the opportunity to benefit.
“The wrong place to put blame would be on the athletes. This is the byproduct of continuously trying to restrict athletes and impose unilateral rules on them. Unless (the NCAA and college presidents) decide to recognize them and bargain with them, it is what it is.”
Critics of the new landscape also point to the transfer portal as contributing to the problem. Athletes can play in junior college for two years and still have four years of eligibility remaining when they leave.
“I wouldn’t characterize it as a double whammy nor as part of a problem,” Heitner said. “Certainly, the transfer portal allows a level of movement from players. I understand the criticisms of those who say the existence of the portal, along with NIL, creates an ecosystem where it feels like unrestricted free agency on an annual basis.”
With college coaches spending so much time navigating the transfer portal and trying to secure funding for massive NIL deals, the days of home visits and constant communication for high school recruits appear to be fading.
Former Syracuse and NBA star Derrick Coleman, who was honored by the SFBA at the luncheon, once was a highly recruited prep standout coming out of Detroit.
“Not only are we gonna create this NIL, but we’re also gonna open the portal and let you transfer anywhere,” said Coleman, the No. 1 overall pick out of Syracuse in the 1990 NBA draft. “What happens to the high school kids? Now coaches aren’t gonna take chances on them when they can get someone from a junior college who can still play three or four years.
“When you see legendary guys like Coach Huggins, Coach Boeheim, Coach K, you see all these guys getting out of college sports. The game has changed so much and nobody’s really teaching basketball anymore. Those guys are teachers. There’s no camaraderie in college sports now.”
Bob Huggins understands how Larrañaga, others feel
When Larrañaga, 75, abruptly resigned in December, he cited in part his frustrations with the new college rules. After the 2022-23 season, despite leading the Hurricanes to their first Final Four appearance in program history, he saw a bulk of his roster leave via the transfer portal.
“What shocked me beyond belief was after we made it to the Final Four, just 18 months ago, the very first time I met with the players, eight of them decided they were going to put their name in the portal and leave,” Larrañaga said during his retirement news conference.
“I said, ‘Don’t you like it (here)?’ (They said) ‘No, I love it. I love Miami. It’s great.’ But the opportunity to make money someplace else created a situation that you have to begin to ask yourself as a coach, what is this all about? And the answer is, it’s become professional.”
Huggins gets it.
“The time comes when you want to do something else,” said Huggins, who has spoken to Larrañaga numerous times the past few months. “Our business is hard. There are things you want to do with your life that you don’t have time to do.
“I’m happy for Jim. Hopefully everything is great for him. He’s in Miami – how much better can it be?”
Asked whether Larrañaga was upset by losing so many players from Miami’s Final Four team, Huggins said it could have factored into his retirement decision.
“It’s a lot more than that. There’s so many things happening in our game today,” Huggins said, referring to NIL and the transfer portal. “As more people think they’re supposed to be involved, all they do is screw things up. You get tired of it.
“You get tired of listening to people who have no idea what we do. I think we all got in it for our love of basketball and our love for young people who love basketball. It’s a different world; we’re getting into a different era.”
Nick Saban goes on rant at national championship site
Saban, who retired a year ago after leading Alabama to seven national championships, went on the “Pat McAfee Show” in Atlanta on Monday, prior to that night’s championship football game, to once again voice his concern about NIL.
“All I’m saying? The people out there need to know this model is unsustainable,” Saban said. “It’s not good for players.
“Players need to get compensated, no doubt. But it has to be done in a way where, you know, in some kind of way, have competitive balance, you know, and that every school has the same thing. One school can’t spend $30 million for players while another school’s spending $3 million.”
Saban cited NIL and the transfer portal when he stepped down and expanded on that in an interview with ESPN last March.
“Our program here was always built on how much value can we create for your future and your personal development, academic success in graduating and developing an NFL career on the field,” he said. “So I’m saying to myself, ‘Maybe this doesn’t work anymore, that the goals and aspirations are just different and that it’s all about how much money can I make as a college player?’ I’m not saying that’s bad. I’m not saying it’s wrong, I’m just saying that’s never been what we were all about, and it’s not why we had success through the years.”
Some think it’s time for Congress to wade into NIL
Donner, a Boynton Beach resident, said it’s hard to find a solution to NIL and the transfer portal. But one thing is certain: College athletics are not going back to the “good old days.”
“I think Congress has to make some real decisions. There are no rules in the NIL right now,” Donner said. “I can give you $6 million and Michigan can come back and give you $7 million. It’s a buyer’s market.
“When I was an athletic director, the NCAA was so strong and their rulebook was such that we all tried to follow it. Sometimes I think athletes should sign contracts like a coach. I don’t have an answer, unfortunately, but right now it’s chaos.”
With so much of NIL falling in grey areas – each state essentially decides its own regulations – Heitner said there might not be a perfect solution.
“Personally, I don’t think it should be Congress that involves itself in the creation of rules,” he said. “I’m not a fan of imposing unilateral restrictions on players. I fought hard to open doors for them so they can exploit their names, images and likenesses, for whatever amount of money somebody is willing to pay.
“If you’re a fan of uniform rules, there needs to be negotiating directly with the players and bargaining with them. That would likely be the best mechanism in order to establish rules that won’t be continuously litigated in court and often struck down by federal judges.”
Only time will tell how NIL plays out in the long run. But it’s hard to imagine a scenario where the smaller, less-profitable colleges can compete for blue-chip recruits on the open market with Alabama, Michigan, Texas, Ohio State and others.
“I don’t know how you make things equal,” Huggins said. “I wasn’t for (NIL) because I could see other people trying to get their hands in the pot. It wasn’t just the players. Where there’s money, there’s a way.”