The NCAA, many school administrators, and athletes have all made it clear they want a nationwide NIL standard. 

But Congress hasn’t passed a federal law, and the Alston ruling made it impossible for the NCAA itself to set guidelines. The question now: who will oversee NIL?

The NCAA’s constitution draft attempted to answer it, saying divisions, conferences, and schools should all write their own regulations. But the proposal only raised several logistical, legal, and ideological concerns at Monday’s virtual convention.

• William King, SEC Associate Commissioner for Legal Affairs and Compliance, suggested it would be a logistical nightmare for divisions or conferences to write uniform guidelines given irreconcilable state laws.
• Chad Hawley, Big Ten VP of Compliance and Policy, brought up potential “mixed signals” about who should oversee NIL, given that the NCAA has been lobbying for a law from Congress.
• Divisions may not even be allowed to write rules in the first place. NCAA President Mark Emmert told reporters that divisions will be discussing whether all proposed rules “comport” with the Alston decision.

Members of the Constitution Committee — who wrote the draft — didn’t appear to have concrete solutions. 

Board of Governors chair Jack DeGioia said the language had been added to the constitution because uniform NIL standards are a priority. 

But as for who sets those standards, “we’ll see what will be possible.”

At the Convention, everyone appeared to want a blanket set of NIL rules. But no one seems to want to write those rules — or be responsible for enforcing them.

The NCAA couldn’t figure this out before NIL rules took effect on July 1. And between August and now, the Constitution Committee couldn’t, either.

Pathways to finalizing NIL rules still exist — though they could take months, if not years.

• The Constitution draft can be amended at least two more times before it’s voted on in January — so the committee still has time to receive feedback and come up with a more viable solution.
• Once the draft is finalized, each division will have seven months to create their own governance structures. They could try to delegate responsibilities to someone else.
• Congress could technically step in at any moment and pass a federal standard, rendering any NCAA-wide decisions and even state laws irrelevant.

Of course, there’s another way to solve the NIL conundrum: Do nothing. 

Some NIL advocates, like National College Players Association executive director Ramogi Huma, have argued a federal standard is obsolete. States and schools would compete with one another to pass the most athlete-friendly rules, according to Huma. 

After all, the industry has survived — and arguably even thrived — for four-and-a-half months without a federal mandate. Maybe NIL doesn’t need one.