FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – With the release of the SEC basketball schedule minus dates and times, at least one item expected to come out of the spring meetings in Destin at the end of this month is off the cards.
However, that still leaves plenty for coaches and administrators to discuss. This is the second in a series this week addressing some of the most pressing issues that need to be discussed between moments of having a good time on the beach.
What should be done about collectives calling players to offer money to get into the portal?
Unfortunately for the SEC, it was the greed of one of its own members that tipped everything into a chaotic mess. Tennessee took a Wild West approach once the flood gates were opened that went against the rules at the time and when the NCAA tried to enforce those rules and provide clarity in the early days of NIL, the Volunteers sued for the right to buy players whenever and however they chose.
When the case landed in front of U.S. District Judge Clifton Corker in the Eastern District of Tennessee, he ruled the Vols had the right to do whatever it takes financially to make sure the best players the university could afford were wearing bright orange on Saturdays.
"The proffered reasons are not persuasive procompetitive rationales," Corker wrote in his ruling. "While the NCAA permits student-athletes to profit from their NIL, it fails to show how the timing of when a student-athlete enters such an agreement would destroy the goal of preserving amateurism."
If the definition of amateurism means doing things not like the professionals, then technically he is correct. The pros work under contracts and have rules regarding tampering.
That is not the case in college sports following Corker’s ruling. Anyone can negotiate deals with recruits now because the NCAA can’t enforce anything, even when they’re on other teams.
There’s still the facade that coaches can’t call up a player he likes at a rival school and start offering him money to leave, perhaps with a bonus should he go during the season and disrupt the rivals’ chances of winning. However, that hasn’t kept collectives from doing the same, whether at the direction of a coach or while going rogue.
“I had somebody tell me two days ago that there is a collective from a university calling kids at another school who are not in the portal and offering them money to go into the portal,” Arkansas offensive coordinator Eric Mateos said on the "Coaches and the Mouth" podcast. “The collective is recruiting. The collective is recruiting players. And it's like what is going on?”
It’s an issue the league definitely needs to discuss. Some sort of system needs to be put in place to prevent this from happening between league teams.
Should someone from the Texas One Fund collective call up a player from Texas A&M in an effort to pay him to leave College Station, it would get ugly. If the Grove Collective spends this fall trying to sabotage Alabama’s season by picking off Nick Saban loyalists, disrupting the season, things are going to be a mess.
That’s not to say either of those collectives specifically are doing anything shady. They’re just examples of what can happen in the current environment.
How to handle inter-SEC collective tampering and what to do about collectives outside the conference attempting to do the same has to be on the menu for discussion. Note that no part of that discussion will probably center around discouraging SEC collectives from reaching out to, let’s say a Big Ten player, because that technically doesn’t break rules as the government sees it, especially with the potential $20 billion NCAA antitrust settlement coming down, nor does it hurt the league.
"I mean, people were already inducing recruits before this ruling," Jim Cavale, founder of Athletes.org, an organization that has begun putting together a college players’ association, told Fox Sports. "That was already happening. The only difference now is when they’re doing it, if somebody says, ‘Hey, is this within the rules?’ They can say, ‘Yes, it is.’"
Collectives are already emboldened by the attitude NIL has created among athletes. Coaches often don’t even get the chance to pitch their program or what they can do to help prospects develop.
“I had some unbelievable text messages from transfers in this first recruiting cycle,” Mateos said. “You're just like, 'Hey, I'm Coach Mateos, would you like to get on on a call sometime today?' 'Coach, hey, I'm looking for this.' This is the opening statement? You know, like, no thanks.”
So, for now, SEC coaches are left to deal with money first attitudes and collective interference. There’s not much the league can do about the attitudes, but the collectives can be dealt with to an extent within the conference.
However, unless those discussions yield results, coaches like Mateos will be left to fend off the wolves.
“Our left tackle [Fernando Carmona] right now has already got guys trying to steal them from us already, and he just got here in January and there's already guys trying to steal him,” Mateos said. “And you know, you hear rumors and agents. These agents don't even need to be NFLPA certified like the thing with NFL agents where they all got to be certified through the Players’ Association. These dudes just got an associate's degree and live down the street from Johnny said 'Hey, Johnny, I'll be your agent' and you're like, 'All right.' Some of them are doing it the right way. It's not a blanket statement, but that's the challenge really.”
So, he, along with Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman, have resolved themselves to try to find players who are willing to shut out the constant barrage of noise and temptation because that’s all that can be done at the moment to survive the onslaught.
“I guess my goal is the players love playing here at Arkansas,” Mateos said. “They love playing for me, and then they love playing with each other. That some of the cheating that's going on doesn't really faze them. Like with Fernando, I called him and I was like, 'Hey man, I know people are coming after you trying to get you don't leave again. He's like ‘Coach, you ain't gotta worry about nothing. I'm riding with you.’ And like, I knew he would say that, but as a coach, you just live in this constant state of paranoia now that you can't help.”
