Josh Rosen Is Attempting To Overhaul The NCAA With This 40-Page Proposal
[Yahoo] - Rosen reached out to Tye Gonser, a partner in Weinberg Gonser LLP, a Southern California business law firm, and USC law student Bryan Bitzer. Together they put the idea on paper. Gonser, who was a baseball player at Lafayette College, passed along the work exclusively to Yahoo Sports.
Working title: “The Modernization of College Athletics as an Incentive for Graduation.”
Basically, Rosen & Co. envision athletes being able to profit within the NCAA’s established amateurism philosophy. Instead of railing against it, they want to work with it.
Under this plan, athletes can profit from various revenue opportunities that arise during their college careers – after they graduate. No diploma, no money. For players who aren’t guaranteed professional millions, pocketing several thousand dollars on their way into the working world could be a considerable incentive to earn a degree.
Josh Rosen has always been an interesting dude during his time at UCLA. Whether it was the hot tub picture, being a damn good quarterback or being vocal about sitting out due to NFL concerns, he’s never been one not to speak his mind. Now, he’s trying to do that in an effort to overhaul the NCAA.
I don’t hate it. The biggest part of the plan is being able to make money, but it would come in after they graduate. I’m not a huge fan of that, because there are pro leagues that are making these kids go to college instead of being able to make market value right away. What if this is for a basketball player, who as of right now, has to go to school for 1-year. Why should he have to graduate in order to make that money?
That said, this is a step in the right direction. It’s an actual effort to move the NCAA past the 1950s, which is all we’re really asking for. Rosen was smart enough to sit down with a lawyer to talk about it all and put together the plan. With that happening, it’s impossible for people to not take this proposal serious. That’s been the biggest hurdle when it comes to the overhaul of the NCAA – people just put together a plan with no real action or effort like this and it causes people to just disregard the proposal.
The other major thing I don’t like about Rosen’s proposal is using the ‘Clearinghouse’ essentially as the buffer and the one to negotiate on behalf of the athletes to business. That’s where we’re missing the biggest thing. These kids should be able to deal with agents. We need to stop looking at agents as the worst possible thing and let the kids get used to working with them. There’s no reason why a college athlete can’t have an agent. I would try to work it so that’s the buffer instead of the Clearinghouse.
That said, I’m glad that we have a big name trying to overhaul the NCAA and bring back NCAA Football to our beloved video game rotation. Let’s hope this causes more discussion and some action since right now all we can talk about is how bad the Rice Commission has been.