FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. — Football coaches and athletic directors from ACC schools had been meeting for about two and a half hours here on Monday when the NCAA, at last, released long-awaited guidance concerning name, image and likeness. The news spread quickly behind closed doors during the ACC’s annual spring meetings at the Ritz-Carlton on Amelia Island.
Coaches and ADs pulled the NCAA’s news release up on their screens. The NCAA’s “guidance is intended to provide clarity,” the statement said, “in a rapidly evolving NIL environment.” The guidance had been “developed by a task force of national leaders” with money-making opportunities for athletes “at the forefront” of all discussions.
It took the NCAA almost three full paragraphs and 159 words to start getting to the point: “NCAA recruiting rules preclude boosters from recruiting and/or providing benefits to prospective” athletes, the release said, and now the NCAA had provided guidance to schools that supposedly made it clearer what was and wasn’t allowed concerning NIL.
