Notre Dame AD: NCAA Can't, Congress Won't Really Enforce NIL

Notre Dame athletics director says NCAA can't handle new rules, but can conferences?

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Don't look for schools any time soon to start handing out participation trophies in the form of payments.

Name, Image and Likeness is likely here to stay and there's no indication there will be equality and standards involved in the whole thing for awhile.

Fans and media in Arkansas whining about fairness are wasting their breath.

This is one thing the Razorbacks can't wait until the bandwagon gets rolling, then jump under it if they want to win games. But if you're not trying to win, why are you even going through all this?

USA TODAY Sports

In an interview with Pat Forde on SI.com, Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick admitted as much.

According the story, he had a blunt "no" when asked if the current NIL stuff is sustainable.

"We went from what people thought was an overly restrictive market to the most unrestricted labor market in the history of sports.” — Jack Swarbrick, Notre Dame athletics director at SI.com

Winning is now an arms race. Five-star high school players and really good transfer players are the weapons of choice.

If you think NIL is not used to lure the best players, I wonder if the sky is blue and the grass green in that world you're living in. 

"This morphed so quickly into talent acquisition fees that it’s just stunning." — Swarbrick

Maybe the biggest takewaway from the story is a massive lack of interest by the NCAA to do anything about it. Swarbrick doesn't think the university presidents are too concerned about it (and they have the votes) and Congress doesn't want to get into the whole thing.

Matt Cashore / USA TODAY Sports

He sees a possible path to enforce things, though.

"I can see a lot of that [rules compliance and enforcement] being transferred to the conferences," Swarbrick said in the story.

That will be a lot of fun, especially in the SEC. Fans will start yelling at a higher volume than they do now about already-perceived preferences becoming more obvious.

But don't expect it to go backwards.

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