Booster involvement has never been allowed in recruiting. The NCAA hopes it can enforce this in a post-NIL world.
Sports agent Russell Smith, whose Utah-based firm Oncoor Athlete Marketing represents around 80 college athletes, had this reaction: “I think it’s adorable that the NCAA is acting as if they’re going to crack down on anything.”
In conversations over the weekend with boosters, lawyers and agents involved in the types of NIL deals of concern to administrators, few believed the NCAA has the capacity to curb the budding “over the table” pay-for-play market. Not after Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s concurring opinion in last summer’s NCAA v. Alston antitrust decision that warned: “The NCAA’s business model would be flatly illegal in almost any other industry in America.” While not legally binding, his screed all but invited future lawsuits challenging the NCAA’s broader amateurism model.
“The moment they come to try to interfere with one of my clients’ deals — the next day is the moment they get hit with an antitrust lawsuit,” said attorney Mike Caspino, who represents several football recruits that have landed six- and seven-figure deals with school-specific booster collectives. “They’re saying there’s a whole class of people (boosters) who can’t participate in the market for athletes’ NIL rights. That’d be like saying red-haired people can’t buy meat. That’s antitrust.”