OT: NCAA changes burden of proof for investigations related to NIL
The NCAA apparently changed a by-law on January 1st that effectively shifts the burden of proof of NIL-related violations from the NCAA proving a violation occurred to the school having to provide evidence absolving them of the purported violation.
From the article:
The NCAA and enforcement staff will no longer be hamstrung by uncooperative witnesses when it comes to potential name, image and likeness (NIL) violations, thanks to a new bylaw that went into effect Jan. 1.
Investigators can now use circumstantial evidence (like a tip or news story) instead of on-record sourcing to presume a school violated NCAA rules. Schools can disprove the allegation or else be potentially charged. The move strengthens the enforcement staff’s ability to charge schools and allows more leeway for investigators.
Now if you're reading this and wondering "huh, that seems rife for abuse by, say, disgruntled former employees with dubious credibility and a penchant for sounding like a raging asshole online" and "weird, this blog post on Spartan Avenue block-quoting a message board post from KingSparty42069 claiming Player X was given a bag of cash from a guy wearing a shirt that says 'Official Michigan University employee' is the premise of an NCAA enforcement charge", you are foreseeing possible ways this goes sideways.
I mean, even later on in the article you can almost see them recognize how this might not work out for them
However, over the past several months, many inquiries have not evolved into investigations, and many investigations have not resulted in allegations of violations. Inquiries and investigations are often stalled because of a lack of cooperation. Witnesses decline to go on record with investigators or don’t produce evidence of a violation.
Or, Duncan said, they lie—including the very same witnesses who tipped off investigators.
The NCAA is a feckless institution run by people who were at one point, I assume, not complete morons but usually they've been good about not walking into the buzzsaw of lawsuits. This feels like a really nice way to rack up billable hours being sued by universities as a co-defendant. I get that it must be dispiriting as an investigator to lack subpeona power and yet be expected to find schools guilty of violations. But trying to make the process even more prone to abuse doesn't feel like a step in the right direction.
January 30th, 2023 at 3:45 PM ^
Great, but not for buying a recruit a burger.
January 30th, 2023 at 4:27 PM ^
Wasn't the burger meal comped but Coach left some cash for the wait staff? Wish I could remember where I read that...
January 30th, 2023 at 4:51 PM ^
It was just the tip. And Harbaugh might not even know what that means.
January 30th, 2023 at 3:51 PM ^
Guilty until proven innocent?
January 30th, 2023 at 4:01 PM ^
Pretty much. Difficult to prove that you didn't do something that never happened. NCAA could face some pretty costly lawsuits that could be be settled out of court, with all of their unsubstantiated charges being dropped, or have to pay damages for libel and slander. This could be the end of the NCAA, with it being sued out of existence.
January 30th, 2023 at 4:09 PM ^
Just when you think the NCAA couldn't be any worse, they now require you to prove a negative or be found guilty based on a "tip."
January 30th, 2023 at 4:17 PM ^
I have an insider tip that all of our main rivals' entire football programs are predicated on the daily murdering and canabalism of babies!
Time to shut down all our rivals' programs or prove me wrong!
January 31st, 2023 at 8:12 AM ^
"Those aren't NIL violations. No harm no foul." -NCAA
January 30th, 2023 at 4:21 PM ^
Craig James never proved he didn't kill those 5 hookers. We still know he did.
January 30th, 2023 at 5:38 PM ^
That was my first thought. Lawsuits. Lots of them.
You can't prove a negative, but leave it to the NCAA to require it. Insane.
January 30th, 2023 at 4:39 PM ^
Yeah, and if anything at least with the judicial process there's some base level of evidence that needs to be met before charges could be brought. This really relies on an investigator's BS meter working.
January 30th, 2023 at 6:13 PM ^
Get ready USC, Notre Dame, OSU, Penn state, Michigan, Ucla etc.
January 31st, 2023 at 10:03 AM ^
NCAA: Someone told us they heard you directly offering a recruit NIL money in a secret conversation.
Coach: Uh, no I didn't.
Recruit: Uh, no he didn't.
NCAA: Unless you can prove that the conversation in question didn't happen, we're hitting you with violations.
Coach: ... *smdh*
January 30th, 2023 at 4:00 PM ^
🍿 this is going to be good, really good.
The old "prove me wrong" prosecutorial ploy.
January 30th, 2023 at 4:05 PM ^
in American you can always find a party.....
in Russia party always finds you.....
January 30th, 2023 at 4:09 PM ^
Do you have proof I bought those burgers you claim those recruits ate?
NO! YOU PROVE YOU DIDN'T BUY THEM BURGERS! HA!
Okay, here's the receipt for the waffles.
YOU'RE CLEARED!
January 31st, 2023 at 10:04 AM ^
Here's a receipt for the burgers! *shows them an empty hand*
WHAT RECEIPT???
Exactly....
January 30th, 2023 at 4:10 PM ^
I'd like to beat the fuck out of the NCAA
January 30th, 2023 at 5:30 PM ^
Impossible. They have no fucks left to give. Consequently, there are no fucks left to beat out of them. Better just to stomp on its soulless, inanimate carcass.
January 31st, 2023 at 8:23 AM ^
"Better just to stomp on its soulless, inanimate carcass."
Wouldn't this just stir up more flies?
January 30th, 2023 at 4:19 PM ^
This feels like some schlep at the NCAA trying to validate their existence by coming up with this. At some point the P5 schools are just going to all quit responding to anything from them and ask them to just run the big basketball tournament and stay out of the way.
January 31st, 2023 at 8:24 AM ^
Except Michigan. Michigan will keep taking them seriously and demand that its coaches prove their innocence or comp to guilt.
January 31st, 2023 at 8:44 AM ^
You mean "Cop to guilt"?
January 30th, 2023 at 4:22 PM ^
is there somewhere in real life, as opposed to inside the presumably fancy NCAA offices, where the NCAA makes sense?
January 30th, 2023 at 4:44 PM ^
A lot of government agencies have a similar model. They're just subject to the whims of the current regime that oversees them, but the model is the same.
January 30th, 2023 at 4:23 PM ^
Just disprove any wrong doing by having them listen to the FBI recordings.
January 30th, 2023 at 4:26 PM ^
I am not sure we can draw much from a single bylaw change from the NCAA. However, I worked for many years in an FDA regulated environment (medical devices) and to a certain "guilty until proven innocent" is a decent way to describe the regulatory situation. And to be perfectly honest with you, I thought it worked pretty well and often wondered why the NCAA didn't take a certain approach. Rarely will the NCAA find direct evidence of cheating, but if member institutions were required to have systems in place to prevent cheating and then punished substantially if they didn't (i.e. shutdown) then they would have a fighting chance. Now, of course it would require member institutions to agree to these parameters and so it will never come to pass, but there is no reason it couldn't work.
January 30th, 2023 at 4:28 PM ^
Hey NCAA I got your circumcisional evidence right here. GTFO
January 30th, 2023 at 4:40 PM ^
Circumcisional? That's evidence no one wants.
January 30th, 2023 at 4:35 PM ^
This is genius, I'm going to report Ryan Day every single day. My neighbors, cousin is married to Day's housekeepers daughter in law and she heard that Day bought everyone who signed a LOI this year brand new scooters with matching helmets and bags of hundred dollar bills strapped to them. Yeah, that should get the ball rolling, how do I report this? This is going to be a blast.
Who else? Saban? Yeah, I know a guy who know.............
The sheer myopia and lack of self awareness of the NCAA is almost comedic. It is actions such as these that will hasten the 69 power five universities to create their own governing body and it needs to happen quick. The NCAA is obviously completely incognizant of it's surroundings.
January 30th, 2023 at 4:41 PM ^
I want to see Legal Eagle do a video on the NCAA and all this crap.
January 30th, 2023 at 4:43 PM ^
People talk as though the NCAA were some external organization foisted on college athletics, rather than what it is: the University of Michigan and a bunch of like-minded colleges and universities. "Fuck the NCAA" is saying "fuck the University of Michigan and its ilk."
January 30th, 2023 at 8:11 PM ^
Others view the current iteration of the NCAA as being a monopolistic slavery organization. It has no competing organization, and it profits handsomely from the work of college athletes. NCAA does not share its windfall revenue with any of the students that created the wealth. Not one penny.
January 31st, 2023 at 7:49 AM ^
I think that viewing the University of Michigan as a "monopolistic slavery organization" is absurd. There are several organizations that "compete" with the NCAA in the sense of providing alternate means of regulating college athletics, and the University of Michigan can opt to belong to them or to no organization at all.
The NCAA shares its windfall among its members, exactly as you would expect. Those go to supporting the very student support activities that make it possible for players to get facilities, coaching, scholarships, etc. See the University of Michigan for an example.
January 30th, 2023 at 4:48 PM ^
Forever and always…Fuck the NCAA
January 30th, 2023 at 5:02 PM ^
Is this the burden of proof for brining a case, or for convicting a school? The clip here reads like it's just for brining charges
January 30th, 2023 at 7:02 PM ^
Only if the NCAA lawyers get salty about it.
January 30th, 2023 at 5:09 PM ^
To summarize:
"Tips will now be treated as facts because"
***checks notes***
"we have found that the tipsters often lie."
Can't make this stuff up. The Onion is now writing by-laws for the NCAA.
January 30th, 2023 at 5:27 PM ^
Hey, NCAA, I got lotsa tips on OSU and various SEC schools.
What's your source?
Call of Duty chat. Very reliable.
January 30th, 2023 at 6:44 PM ^
what's an, 'NCAA'?
January 30th, 2023 at 8:34 PM ^
Get fucked NCAA. You have no power and there’s nothing you can do about it
January 31st, 2023 at 12:34 AM ^
The NCAA is governed by the institutions itself. Some years ago the power of money began chipping at the foundation of the organization. At this point the most powerful and profitable members of that institution no longer see the institution as necessary and have been laying the ground work for its demise.
This is just another in a long list of issues to give the most powerful the reason to leave or split from their own organization. The motivation being of course more money for the fewer.
January 31st, 2023 at 7:18 AM ^
As always, Cleveland State is going to get hammered.
As North Carolina, Kansas, and LSU have demonstrated, there will be no penalty if you admit nothing while MIchigan demonstrates the counterpoint which that you will get penalized for something if you admit anything. Take the 5th and tell them, "Thank you for your hard work and support."
January 31st, 2023 at 8:05 AM ^
Blow it up, start all over again. Time for a level playing field.
January 31st, 2023 at 10:11 AM ^
Nice to know any time we have a disgruntled former employee that the NCAA can automatically slap us with a Level 1. Not any Power 5 school, just us because we're apparently one of the few schools that actually answer their calls anymore. I hope Ono tells them to stay out of Ann Arbor