Boosters in the NIL era

Coaches are earning that money now
It’s the buyouts that need to be eliminated
No other profession gets that kind of job protection

NIL may go beyond boosters, no?

If a rising superstar has high future value NIL to a company or brand, influence sales or market awareness of a product, why not market the player beyond boosters?

From the other perspective, if my company is launching the next cool sportswear or equipment, I am school agnostic. Give me the influencer.

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So if Louisiana state law prohibits a booster from facilitating an NIL deal, is it an NCAA infraction or just an infraction of state law?

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State law.

Boosters in Texas are throwing together multi-million dollar NIL deals for recruits and the NCAA couldn't care less. And even if they did, they can't do anything about it.

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Boosters in Louisiana can't create or facilitate NIL deals for players or recruits.

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That’s not exactly what the law says.

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A postsecondary education institution shall not use an athletic booster to, nor shall an athletic booster, directly or indirectly, create or facilitate compensation opportunities for the use of an intercollegiate athlete’s name, image, or likeness as a recruiting inducement or as a means of paying for athletics participation.

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It doesn’t say boosters can’t create or facilitate NIL deals. It just says they can’t use NIL deals as pay-to-play. Similarly..

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This stipulation doesn't exist in Texas. Boosters can directly create whatever kind of deals they want for recruits.

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Here’s what Texas state law says:

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(g) A student athlete participating in an intercollegiate athletic program at an institution to which this section applies:
. . .
(2) may not enter into a contract for the use of the student athlete's name, image, or likeness if:
. . .
(B) the compensation for the use of the student athlete's name, image, or likeness is provided:
(i) in exchange for athletic performance or attendance at the institution;

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So a student-athlete can’t accept NIL deals as a pay-for-play.

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(j) No individual, corporate entity, or other organization may:
(1) enter into any arrangement with a prospective student athlete relating to the prospective student athlete's name, image, or likeness prior to their enrollment in an institution of higher education; or
(2) use inducements of future name, image, and likeness compensation arrangement to recruit a prospective student athlete to any institution of higher education.

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And nobody can arrange NIL deals prior to enrollment (which is important, as the term “arrangement” is distinct from the term “contract” used elsewhere in the Texas law) and nobody can use NIL as a recruitment tool.

It says everything the part of LA law that you quoted says, and more. It just isn’t specific to boosters. If anything the Texas law is more restrictive than the LA law.

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See A&M's 2022 class as an example.

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If the rumors about A&M’s signing class are true, they (or the recruits and the people facilitating the deals) are 100% violating Texas state law. At a minimum, they would be arranging NIL deals prior to enrollment.

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The state of Alabama is also in the process of repealing their law and setting up a framework more similar to that of Texas

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The current Alabama law goes way further than Texas and Louisiana. In particular:

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Section 2.
. . .
(c) Compensation for a student athlete's name, image, or likeness may not be conditioned on athletic performance or attendance at a particular postsecondary educational institution.
(d) Compensation for the use of a student athlete's name, image, or likeness may be provided only by a third party not owned or operating under the authority of the student athlete’s postsecondary educational institution.
(e) A postsecondary educational institution, an entity with the purpose of supporting or benefitting the institution or its intercollegiate sports, or any officer, director, or employee of the institution or entity may not compensate or cause compensation to be directed to a student athlete or the family of a student athlete for use of their name, image, or likeness.
. . .
Section 12. (a) An individual other than a student athlete who violates subsections (c), (d), or (e) of Section 2 or who grants compensation to a student athlete in a manner that causes the student athlete to violate Section 8 shall be guilty of a Class C felony.

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They made it a felony to use NIL as pay-for-play.

TL;DR - The Louisiana NIL law isn’t any more restrictive than the Texas law and it’s certainly not more restrictive than the Alabama law.

ETA: Bill text for anyone interested..
Texas
Louisiana
Alabama

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How is A&M (boosters) signing recruits to multi-year deals that are void if the recruit transfers without violating this law?

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Your guess is as good as mine.

It’s probably either:
A) The reports are vastly over exaggerated.
B) A&M boosters are betting that the state isn’t going down the political rabbit hole of enforcement given the quagmire that is UT/A&M politics. Remember, there are NIL shenanigans at Texas as well.
C) Some combination of A and B.

That said, it’s not just state enforcement they have to worry about - it’s also the NCAA, who is (supposedly) holding schools to whatever the laws are in their states. But they could also be banking on the NCAA just slapping people on the wrist since there is so much ambiguity.

The “no arrangements prior to enrollment” thing is the one that gets me. It seems like it would be pretty easy for the boosters to get burned on that front.

Look and see who gets the $$$$$ before it gets too the players .

I don’t think buyouts will be eliminated, but I think eventually boosters will be paying players through NIL in some form or another. This will cut into the pool of money that is dipped into when it’s time to renew a coaches contract or buy them out. In the past, college coaches were the by far the highest paid people in their organization. In the NFL, it’s obviously a lot different. The days of seeing coaches sponsored by business like Raising Cains may be coming to an end. That just gets in the way of another NIL deal for an athlete.

Anyone else concerned about a scandal coming from an NIL deal leading to someone tanking a game? Maybe not with football, but other sports are a lot easier to fix. A&M booster gives a million bucks, they’ve already lost 3 games, what’s stopping that booster from fixing a game and betting/getting his money back?

I guess the issue is how far ranging was the Supreme Court decision allowing student athletes to profit from their NIL?

Do any of these laws survive that decision?