Episode Transcript
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(00:04):
Hey everyone and welcome back to the big life podcast jordan i am so excited
to be here with you miss number one in the rpi rankings so let's talk a bit
about that yeah yeah we i mean this is,
all like absolutely insane obviously you've been successful over the past couple
(00:25):
years but like Like the Michigan State I committed to was ranked like 200 and
something, maybe 300 and something. Like we were bottom of the bottom.
Like name a school, they were above us. The fact that we are now ranked number
one in RPI, I think I get to appreciate it a little bit more after committing to them,
knowing that this wasn't going to be the reality and now working our way through
(00:47):
it and being able to see all the change we've made and the way the program has grown over the years.
But absolutely amazing thing to wake up to. I am a little bit not surprised
because we've played good teams, but there was an RPI change where it used to
be that a tie, I believe, was like half a win and half a loss.
Now it only accounts for a third of the win. So it doesn't help you as much.
(01:11):
Ties hurt you more than they used to in previous years. And we do have two ties.
So even with that, it's great to see. I mean, it's an amazing feeling being
number one in anything. So super happy about that.
I'm so happy for you. I'm going to humble you a little bit as I educate people what RPI is.
For those who don't know, RPI is the magical math that goes on behind the scenes
(01:34):
of helping create a ranking.
The one thing that RPI doesn't have is the quote-unquote eye test.
However, it is a huge, huge accomplishment to be on top with your number one ranking.
I would highly speculate. I'm pretty sure the polls already came out this week.
Michigan State is sitting number Number five, the United Soccer Coaches poll,
which is typically the one that's respected by the NCAA.
(01:58):
So fifth in the nation, nothing to put your nose bone on.
Won an RPI, and we'll see kind of as the season keeps going where that trajectory can turn.
So, so, so happy for you, though. That's really, truly an amazing accomplishment
as someone who played against Michigan State when they weren't necessarily the
Michigan State that is today.
Today like prep a scout for us I feel like it
(02:20):
was just one of those we're actually ranked
number four in NCAA rankings so thank
you thank you I do I I deserve I humbled you you deserve to humble me it's all
right it's all right it's fine but other big moments in the big life and this
week caught us off guard in some good and bad ways first up we projected last
(02:41):
week we thought that Ohio State Indiana was going to be a close 1-0 win for Ohio State or a tie.
It ended up being a 3-0 win for Ohio State. So I think that is a really big
statement win for Ohio State as they go forward.
I think they're now ranked 20th going
into this next week. So really good rankings coming from the Big Ten.
And on top of that, the other weird fact, because I feel like it keeps coming
(03:03):
up, last week we talked about how Indiana and Minnesota had ties with Brown.
And so we're We're like, wow, those are really good ties. You know,
that'll be interesting.
Ohio State then played Brown on Sunday and won 2-0. So I think it shows a lot
about what the Buckeyes are up to and what they're going to bring into this Big Ten season.
Absolutely. I thought it was. I didn't realize that teams were playing non-conference
games again on Sunday because the conference game started Thursday.
(03:27):
We just had a bye week, so we didn't play anyone on Sunday.
I figured that's how everyone was going about it, just assumed.
So when I saw that they played non-conference games after playing conference
games, I thought that was a little bit interesting. Has that happened before?
That's my knowledge. I really don't know. Obviously, just not being directly
in the Iowa program anymore, what changed.
(03:47):
But it has never happened before that we played non-conference opponent after
playing a conference opponent.
But it did happen for the Iowa Hawkeyes this week as they won their rivalry
week, as they were calling it.
They had the border battle between Iowa and Nebraska, which is probably our
biggest rivalry, we would say, in the Big Ten.
And Iowa came out the victors, winning 2-0 at home. And then they went on the
(04:10):
road to Iowa State, which is the game that every year is the game everyone circles.
There's a little, you know, history behind it in the sense of Iowa,
Iowa State compete in every sport that they have, you know, compatible every
year. And they call it the Cyhawk series.
And the women's soccer program always kicks off the Cyhawk series is where the
first teams always play.
This year football actually played first and we're not going to talk about the
(04:34):
results of that but Iowa then beat Iowa State this year in women's soccer as
well so just very interesting as we had a rivalry week for the first time ever in Iowa history.
Awesome. You know, I would suspect that it's because we had those couple extra
days in preseason that that then allowed you to have an extra bye week,
which then you just schedule games on Sunday. Now that I'm really thinking about it. Big brain.
(04:58):
But moving forward, Penn State, big win against Michigan, 6-0.
We talked about the Michigan possible comeback. This is not a great look for
them. 6-0 is definitely a statement win by Penn State.
So what are your thoughts with this Michigan team as they face this loss?
Yeah, like I said, I feel bad because I feel like we've talked about them a
(05:20):
lot, but I do feel like in a lot of ways they've been a story of Big Ten.
And at the end of the day, you're moving now week by week. You are hanging die
for your life by a thread.
You're just praying to make it into the conference tournament and praying to keep moving forward.
I think in a lot of regards, probably this Michigan Michigan team knew that
(05:41):
it was a long shot potentially to steal points from Penn State.
So my hope is like, obviously they lost big and you never want to see that,
but is there really a difference between a one zero loss and a six zero loss?
So hopefully they can learn from it, regroup, and then really take the points
from the table in that mid table block.
And that'll help control their destiny a bit more, but that's really now every
game you don't have throwaways anymore. more.
(06:03):
Absolutely. But my concern with this Michigan team would be for a team that
struggled so much was possibly on the up and up taking that momentum and then
to get crushed so badly what this will do to their confidence moving forward.
Hopefully they can bounce back again. But six nothing's a definitely a statement
one, like I said, by Penn State.
And then with the big news out of this and let me tell you, my jaw hit the floor
(06:26):
audible gasp when I read this.
I did not realize quite how bad it was, but Purdue gets their first conference win in three years. I.
I'm shocked. I genuinely, when I learned this fact, I couldn't believe it.
I fact checked it about three times.
(06:46):
It was absolutely baffling to me.
And so I was quite honestly, I was very happy I got Jordan's raw reaction when
I told her the news, but I didn't realize Purdue had been struggling that bad.
And I think the reason is, you know, you look back and Purdue was an extremely
successful team in 2021.
They had some standout players there. I believe they were at least pushing for
(07:09):
the Big Ten title, if not winning the conference title that year. It was big.
And then I guess it crumbled.
And looking back, Purdue had zero
conference win the 2022 season and zero conference wins the 2023 season.
And I think games against Purdue tend to be competitive.
Last year, we did go on the road, and I know Iowa won big. But the year before,
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I know we were one of the teams that tied them.
And they have a very good foundation. So I did not realize that they were that bad.
But they got the win on the road against Northwestern. And yeah,
it was baffling to me when I found out.
Yeah. Yeah, I think you put it like it was never like a huge scoring game.
We weren't going into Purdue being like, this is a game everyone's going to
(07:53):
get on the field for, like a blog game or anything like that.
They were always fairly competitive. And this was...
My first choice in a school originally, like I was like, I want to go to Purdue
so bad. They were a great team, a great program.
I didn't realize quite how badly they fell off. So when I talked about Michigan
State kind of being down and out when I committed and now we're number one,
Purdue was number one and now they're kind of down and out.
(08:16):
So things worked out for me in the best way possible, I guess.
But I'm shocked to hear three years.
Like I, that's crazy. Absolutely. And I think we're going to,
that offsets the podcast curse that she did. There we go.
We're we're back to even absolutely and
you know there's so many other big headlines i feel like in the ncaa
(08:37):
we cover the big life it's the big 10 that's what we care about
but i know i think looking forward once we talk about rpi what this means you
know i know wake forest took down number two virginia i know that there's been
shuffling around that top five block you know we got michigan state creeping
in at number four right now so it'll be very excited to stay tuned with a bunch
(08:58):
of women's soccer news as I think anything on any given day it's proven that
any team can and has the possibility to win and that's been shown all season
throughout all of division one it's game time right there is no more days off
no more easy games conference play is here and it is,
intense time I'm excited excited to get into it you know starting to get a little
(09:20):
bit cooler getting that real fall weather going too it's it's feeling good okay
anyway to our interview We are so,
so lucky to be joined by Rick Allen,
who is the owner of The Informed Athlete.
And what The Informed Athlete strives to do is, as Rick will put it,
he was in NCAA eligibility for 25 years and has now started a company for the last 16 years.
(09:46):
Inform athletes about their rights, their powers, and the basis of NCAA eligibility
as it can be a crazy world in so many different regards.
And as you know, I think everyone is kind of staring at the news of what is
going to come with NCAA athletics this year. What are all these changes we're hearing?
And nothing is set in stone. And Jordan and I have said all the time,
(10:08):
we see our news, but what do we know?
So we thought we'd talk to the person who probably knows more than someone who's
been in an eligibility office his whole life.
So we're so excited to talk about Rick. But first, we do want to give a little
bit of information about something that we will talk about in the interview.
It's referred to as the House Settlement, which is the big lawsuit going on
(10:29):
in the NCAA, which has kind of impacted and made all these changes.
Jordan, can you give us a quick briefing on what the House Settlement is?
That way, going into the interview, people have a better understanding.
So the house settlement is essentially legislation that is happening in a lawsuit
that is happening between the NCAA and the power five conferences.
This went on when there's still the power five conferences. So any school that
(10:53):
was previously a part of them is what was named in this lawsuit.
And it's basically a legal battle that addresses back pay for former athletes
who are here for NIL opportunities,
video games, et cetera, things of that nature that they would have earned revenue
on or money on had the new rule changes been implemented in their time. It goes back to 2016.
So any athlete that was a part of the university will receive kind of this back pay for it.
(11:18):
While it is $2.8 billion, the number that we've been thrown around and given
from Michigan State University is around $24 million that we would be in charge
of. And this will affect...
While the Power Five are named, it will affect all schools and universities
in the NCAA because the trickle-down effect of that money will then be handled
(11:40):
by the rest of the schools and universities.
While the Power Five will maintain most of it and pay most of that,
there will still be money left over, I think around a billion dollars to have
other universities pay.
The judge that was ruling on this kind of essentially told them to go back to
the drawing board with these rulings and with their ideas.
(12:00):
So we don't know all the logistics of it while it was supposed to be kind of
handled rather quickly.
Because of this, it has been pushed back a little bit.
Absolutely. Yeah. So it sounds like almost every Division I university is going
to have some sort of price tag to pay in this lawsuit.
And it's going to impact us in so many ways. So us and Rick kind of break it
down, but get into some speculation hour about with the expert about what he
(12:23):
thinks the impacts potentially can be.
And there's still a lot of unknown, but Rick talks a lot about what we do now.
So we're so excited to kind of explain more of what is happening with all these
rule changes in NCAA athletics.
Welcome back guys to the big life podcast. Today, we are joined with Rick Allen.
He was one of the first full-time NCAA compliance directors in the country and
(12:44):
worked on campus at two major division University for the past 25 years and
consulted with college athletic departments around the country before forming
the Informed Athlete in 2008.
Their goal now is to help other college athletes and high school students learn
about the rules, eligibility issues, and scholarship recruiting towards the
NCAA. Thank you for joining us, Rick.
(13:05):
Pleasure to be here. Thanks for inviting me. This is great.
So as we get into it, I mentioned that you started the Informed Athlete.
Can you tell us a little bit about what that is and what it does?
Informed Athlete is a business that my wife and I have.
So we combined her professional experience of handling marketing for some of
(13:25):
her clients and managing their websites with my experience with NCAA rules,
having been at University of Illinois and Oklahoma State University,
and then consulting after that.
But it actually started about the time our son was being recruited for college
baseball. baseball, we would get, I'd get a lot of questions in the stands,
(13:46):
in the bleachers, out in the parking lot from parents.
And my wife and I talked about it and said, you know, you should start a consulting
business and to help athletes and families out and let them know what they need to know.
So yeah, we're now in our 16th year of consulting directly with athletes and
families, is advising them about transfer rules, academic eligibility,
(14:10):
if you're transferring from JUCO to a four-year school, medical hardship waivers,
scholarship appeals, et cetera.
Yeah, that kind of leads me into the next question I had, which was,
what are some of the biggest differences in terms of the compliance issues or
eligibility with the different divisions and different levels in college?
Two of the main differences, Division one has probably the most strict academic
(14:35):
requirements for continuing eligibility for athletes to progress from sophomore
year to junior year to senior year, etc.
They have that percentage of degree completion requirement that the other levels
don't have that requirement.
And then, of course, they have the five-year clock rule in D1,
(14:55):
which is a little bit different than the other levels, which is instead of a
continuously running five-year clock,
there's the 10-semester rule where they don't count semesters if you're not a full-time student.
So that's probably a couple of the major differences. But then another one is regarding transfers.
(15:16):
You know, Division I has the transfer portal windows, that limited period of
time when an athlete can put their name into the portal.
And there's much more flexibility at the other levels to do that than there are at D1. want.
So I want to pick your brain a little bit, especially about the transfer portal.
And it's something that Jordan and I have obviously noted, I feel like has just
(15:39):
seen a massive uptick since the pandemic, mostly from the stories you've heard
from the speculation, I guess, why, in your opinion, why has there been such an uptick in transfers?
And, you know, does it typically benefit athletes? Or what's your experience
with the transfer portal in recent?
Well, the surge in athletes going
into the transfer portal of course the first
(16:02):
surge was when as as we mentioned
earlier when we went from having to get permission from your coach and athletic
department to just being able to do it and say i would like my name entered
into the portal i'm planning to transfer over end of story and and so there
was a big surge at that time and then now effective last
(16:25):
spring back in April when the NCAA came out.
As a result of lawsuits that they were being faced with, they ruled that it
doesn't matter if you've previously transferred once already or even if you
previously transferred twice.
You now have the opportunity to be immediately eligible at the next school as
(16:48):
long as you're satisfying all the academic requirements and making progress toward your degree.
So now, theoretically, an athlete could transfer after every year to a new school
and have the opportunity to be immediately eligible at the new school.
I don't think any of us recommend that, but it would be possible to do that. Yeah.
(17:11):
So part of your mission is to help athletes when things don't go according to plan.
As we've talked about, kind of everything this past year with all the changes
and the breakdowns has not gone according to plan.
So can you explain a little bit about the lawsuit and changes that are currently
happening in NCAA right now?
The lawsuit that's being referred to as the the House settlement,
(17:37):
what it's looking like it's going to lead to is increased scholarship opportunities
at D1, but also possibly reduced roster sizes.
So as an example, right now, now certainly that would depend on the funding
availability at specific schools.
You know, SEC schools, Big Ten schools would probably fully be able to fund
(18:02):
those increased scholarships.
You know, smaller D1s, Ohio Valley Conference, et cetera, you know,
they probably wouldn't be able to fund all those scholarships.
So that's, I think, one of the main things that's being discussed.
And then, of course, the other impact is how that's going to overlap with Title
(18:24):
IX, you know, because, of course—.
We know that football and basketball are the big revenue generators at almost
every school in the country.
So, you know, they're going to schools are going to pour all their resources into those sports.
And unfortunately, some sports may end up may end up being eliminated at some universities.
(18:48):
Yeah, we're speculating into a lot of our questions, honestly.
What we know right now, obviously, this is a women's soccer guided podcast.
And so we know that the NCAA has announced that there will be a roster cap of
28 in NCAA women's soccer.
And I think a lot of people's question is the money.
(19:08):
Like you said, conferences, bigger programs might have more likelihood of funding
a full 28 scholarship roster.
Whereas right now it is 14, I believe, scholarships spread amongst however many teams.
If you, in your brain, in your experiences with this,
where do we think, where is the money coming from and what are your speculations
(19:33):
about how a non-revenue sport like women's soccer will be impacted compared
to a football, wrestling, basketball program?
Well, unfortunately, I think the reality is that a lot of the sports that don't
generate revenue for the department are going to be at risk of being cut.
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I mean, obviously, I've been in the business a long time. I think soccer is
probably safe because of the number of female roster spots.
Again, the overlap with Title IX, I think having that many numbers will help
the sport of soccer specifically.
(20:15):
So I'm just curious, like at your schools, how many players have you had on
your rosters in recent years?
Yeah, my highest roster at Iowa was 36.
Okay. yeah ours is 32 this
year with the plan of it being 35 or 36
next year which obviously is no longer in the
picture but it's hovered yeah around the 32 35 range okay yeah i was just sure
(20:40):
i actually talked to a parent just a day or two ago they were increasing the
roster side they were they were this was a small college but they were increasing
the soccer roster size from like Like last year, it was 27 or 28.
I think they have 41 this fall, which seems like an awful lot to me. Yeah.
(21:00):
Yeah, that's quite a bit. But you mentioned the overlap with Title IX.
Assuming for Michigan State specifically, if we were to keep all sports right
now, which they've come out and that's the current plan.
Obviously things change as you go, but right now we plan on not cutting any sports.
Our field hockey team actually has to increase their roster size and scholarship
because they have to do it to meet Title IX requirements.
(21:24):
And what I didn't realize about Title IX is I always thought it was 50-50 where
you had to have equal opportunities for men and women.
But it's actually based on the people that come into the university.
So if like Michigan State has a 45% female attendance, it has to be 45% female
scholarship or roster spot availability, which I didn't realize.
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I always thought it was 50-50.
One of the things I became more familiar with when I was traveling across the
country consulting with programs is I needed to learn a little bit more about Title IX.
And there has been over the years like a three-prong test, I guess,
is I think what they called it.
And you were okay, I guess, in
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terms of the Title IX law, if you could satisfy one of the three prongs.
And proportional to overall student enrollment was one prong.
Financial funding comparatively was another prong and so forth.
So, but without getting into, you know, a lot of the details,
yeah, the proportionality to enrollment would be one way to satisfy it for more
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proportionality to scholarship dollars would be another way.
But, you know, that's the tricky part is because, you know, obviously division
one football, you've got over a hundred guys on that roster.
And about the only other sport in women's that even comes close to my knowledge
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is either crew or equestrian.
I was like, that's what I know for Title IX at Iowa, because that's like one
very interesting thing.
I feel like as a woman's athlete, Title IX is so imperative to why we're able
to do so much of what we can.
However, I don't know that a ton of people fully even understand Title IX.
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And what, you know, that sports was not the intention of Title IX.
It was just kind of like a byproduct because of other legislation being passed
and that it's sponsored by the school in different aspects.
So for Iowa, for example, I know that in the 1980s, the women's soccer team
and the women's rowing team were established in the same year because our roster
(23:37):
size was effectively balancing out football.
So it's different programs like that that balance each other out in that regard,
which is just always interesting to me about how much Title IX and different
lawsuits like that impact our lives, yet we don't fully understand them.
Yeah, I think pretty much everyone at Michigan State, besides our field hockey
team, is making cuts to their rosters.
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Like everyone is below or every roster currently is above what it needs to be doing.
Which is hard and sad to see. And with all of these changes,
I'm curious, because you've worked with athletes at all levels,
what do you think the impacts will be and maybe some discrepancy between these
levels as these rules change and the money becomes a bigger and bigger part
(24:19):
of the conversation as you become more professional with college athletics?
Well, these roster size limits, one impact is going to be, I think it's inevitable,
is going to be you're going to have athletes transferring down from D1 to D2,
and then that may cause a ripple effect,
D2 possibly transferring to NAIA or Division III.
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You know, it's also impacted the impacting the high school recruiting.
And especially when you tie that to the transfer portal.
So many programs now they are looking their first option to build their roster
for the next year is to look into the transfer portal than to be focusing on high school.
(25:09):
They still need to do high school recruiting, but there's not as many spots
being offered to high school kids.
The last time we saw massive cuts or potential cuts in college athletic programs
was during the pandemic.
I know you kind of mentioned before, but at Iowa, we had our men's swim and dive team cut.
We also, for a stint, have our women's swim and dive team cut.
(25:32):
We had men's gymnastics cut, some sports like that. Scott, when those cuts happen,
can you explain some of the NCAA rules that apply?
Meaning I know those athletes were allowed to keep their scholarships throughout
the rest of their academic career, even though their sport was cut.
Can you kind of explain some of those nuances to like what actually happens
to athletes when their sport gets cut?
(25:53):
So when their sport is discontinued at their school, they...
First of all, now can be immediately go into the transfer portal,
even though it may not be that window of time on the calendar.
They also should be allowed to continue on scholarship at their school if they
(26:16):
want to stay there until they graduate.
But of course, most athletes want to continue competing.
So most athletes are going to transfer because they want to continue competing,
even though they could stay on their scholarship at their current school until
they graduate if they want to.
So that's really, Sam, about the only things that have changed.
(26:37):
So that's for if your sport gets cut as a whole, what happens now with these
roster limits where let's say I'm number 29 or 30 on my roster and I'm no longer
able to meet that 28-person roster limit.
My sport's still at the university, but me, myself, and I have gotten cut.
What happens to my NLI and what happens to me as I don't make that new roster?
(26:58):
So that's actually starting to happen already. Recall specifically the family
of a track athlete contacting us that the athlete had been told,
sorry, you're no longer going to be on the team.
We don't have a spot for you on the roster. Their scholarship would continue.
The school didn't, you know, the athlete was academically eligible.
(27:20):
Hadn't violated any team rules, hadn't had any misconduct issues.
So the school was not allowed to cancel the athlete's scholarship.
She could stay on scholarship if she wanted to, but she wasn't going to have a team to compete for.
So we've talked a lot about some of the new rule changes that have happened,
and the NCAA is continuing to change.
(27:43):
And right now, all we can really do is speculate on some of it.
However, there has come out with, I think, like four major rule changes that
the NCAA is considering implementing as we move forward into these next academic year.
One of that being applying football's four game rule to all sports.
Can you maybe describe a little bit about what that is and what that would mean
(28:05):
if they apply it to all sports?
So for those who don't know.
In virtually every sport except NCAA Division I football,
and then there's one other exception I'll talk about in a minute,
but in virtually every other sport, whether you're at D1, D2, junior college,
(28:27):
once you participate in a game during your regular season, if it's for one minute,
if it's for one play, a kickoff in a football game, to pinch hit in a baseball game,
you've triggered the use of that season of eligibility,
even if that's the only time you get in the whole season.
(28:49):
Football, for the last few years at Division I, has had the four-game rule where
where an athlete can play in up to four games.
And as long as they don't play in any other games beyond that,
they can claim that as a redshirt year.
And so I think part of the reason that that rule was implemented was to cut
(29:12):
down on the number of medical hardship waivers that needed to be submitted.
You know, in the past, prior to that rule going into effect,
if a football player got hurt in the first or second game of the season,
their school had to process a medical hardship waiver.
Well, now, if you only play in two games, you don't even need to worry about that.
(29:32):
But the NAIA organization, a couple of years ago, they implemented a rule across
all of their NAIA sports.
As long as an athlete doesn't participate, as long as they don't participate
in more than 20% of the games in their season,
That can be considered redshirt under the NAIA rules, and that's for any sport in the NAIA.
(29:57):
So I think that the NCAA is going to move toward allowing a rule somewhat like
the four-game rule in all sports.
Sports, I think it's inevitable that there's going to be some kind of a change
to where soccer ladies may be able to play in three games and still be able
(30:20):
to claim it as a red shirt.
So I have a couple of questions surrounding this. One, is the four games,
four games in total, can they be any four games or is it the first four games?
It can be any four games during the regular season.
So one of the other possible rule changes that they're looking at implementing
is allowing student athletes and recruits in all sports to remain their college
(30:42):
eligibility while having an agent and considering pro opportunities.
So I think this would be a huge thing and I really hope that they implement
it because I think when you have sports that go pro in the middle of your school
year or right after your collegiate end,
it's really hard to kind of gauge your options and figure out what's going on
without having an agent to kind of advocate for you and see what's out there.
(31:06):
Yeah. So a little bit of brief history behind that is coming from my perspective
because our son was recruited and played D1 baseball.
So the thing that was, I think, unique about the sport of baseball for years
is that baseball players could be drafted by the major leagues right out of high school,
(31:29):
and it's been that way for years.
But the NCAA still had this rule that
you gave up your collegiate amateur eligibility if you had an agent to...
Negotiate with possible pro teams. So for years, it was kind of a gray, murky area in baseball,
(31:55):
that your family could negotiate with a major league baseball team if you were
a projected high draft choice, but you weren't supposed to have an agent representing
you in those negotiations.
A few years ago, they loosened that rule to where baseball recruits can now have agents.
(32:17):
College athletes should be given the right to have an agent and be able to have
and represent them so they don't get taken advantage of by these professional sports teams,
but still not ruin their collegiate eligibility and so forth.
So just generally speaking, I think it's probably a good idea to be able to
(32:40):
have that, you know, and now with NIL, it's kind of become a little bit of a gray area anyway,
because you can have an agent for marketing your NIL opportunities,
but you're still not supposed to have an agent to represent you in negotiations
with pro sports teams. Right.
(33:03):
I'm sure enough back doors have been broken and some gray areas have happened
that they're going to have to finally change this rule,
which for women's soccer, as Jordan and I have talked about constantly on this
podcast, is going to be beyond crucial as the draft for the National Women's
Soccer League has been eliminated.
So it's going to be free agency out of college for players going directly to college to pro.
(33:26):
So having an agent to evaluate your options, whether I should stay for my senior
year or if I already have a pro team interested, is going to be critical for
athletes to be able to make informed decisions.
Yeah, I was not aware of that, but that makes perfect sense. Absolutely. Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely. I think the other two rules that are changing,
(33:49):
I mean, one being the national letter of intent, which it looks like they would
implement something very similar. So that wouldn't be a huge change.
And then allowing student athletes in all sports to earn prize money before
enrolling in college, which is kind of a thing, but not really as much in women's soccer.
That's going to impact, I feel like more like the tennis and golf world.
You know, the thing about what's been impacting a lot of these rule changes,
(34:14):
it seems like the NCAA is getting sued, you know, from all directions nowadays.
And, you know, if, look, I'm an old school guy.
I've been in this business a long time. I admit, I still think there should
be some limits on some of this stuff. But it seems like every day there's somebody
filing a lawsuit saying that you placed the limit on my opportunities.
(34:38):
And so that's not fair. player it's funny
I remember my family never had
an athlete in the family until me and you know you hear the
issue is right now I feel like with all the changes in
college soccer is there's not a clear avenue as to where to
get the information and so my family I
remember I ran a bunch of road races when I
(34:58):
was younger like 5ks 10ks and I won
a couple and by winning you won like 200 dollars or whatever and my mom's like
no no she doesn't want it like she can't do it and I was I was 13 because we
didn't know if I was allowed to accept the $200 for winning the community charity
5K because I wanted to play college athletics.
(35:19):
So it gets so skewed that you really have no idea at certain points where the
communication is so low.
That's one reason that...
I believe our service is valuable, you know, because a situation like that is
if, you know, families are, if they find us, if they're doing a Google search,
if they find us or they've received a referral from somebody else's,
(35:42):
you know, we can educate them on what some of those rules are and let them know
that before they get caught in a bad situation or they do something that negatively
impacts their eligibility and so forth.
Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, honestly, Honestly, when I'm asking you these
questions, half the stuff I'm pulling up is from your guys' different newsletters
and from your website, where this is how I'm learning.
(36:05):
Already in college, half my information, because it is such a changing and involving world.
And even when you're in it, a lot of times I don't know exactly what's going
on, much less when I was getting recruited at 13, 14 years old,
trying to figure all that stuff out.
So NIL and all these rule changes happening. One of them was the ability for
a university now to pay a direct almost salary to their student-athletes.
(36:29):
Do you suspect that this will change the way NIL works as well,
if you're gaining a salary basis from your university, or there'll be any stipulations on that?
I think it's going to. I don't know how.
I don't have a feeling for how it's going to change. But if you kind of put
yourself in the shoes of an athletic director at a major university and you will need to,
(36:56):
as a result of this House lawsuit settlement,
if you will need to be able to fund additional scholarships in the various sports,
soccer, baseball, softball, etc., etc..
Are you going to want your donors donating directly to the athletic department,
or are you going to want them donating to the NIL collective that's aligned with your university?
(37:19):
I would think you want the money coming into your pot of money that you and
your department control compared to the NIL collective, which is supposed to be separate.
That's one thing I don't know that we've really ever talked about on the podcast
is is the difference between those collective funds and the general athletic funds.
(37:40):
I know it was a massive point of controversy during my time at Iowa because,
of course, when the NIL collective became a thing, when Iowa Swarm became a
thing, so many people wanted to donate, be a part of that donation.
They're like, oh, I'm giving money directly to the hands of Caitlin Clark and
Spencer Lee and all these amazing athletes, which is great.
(38:02):
What they They didn't know is our NIL collective at Iowa supports men's wrestling,
men's football, men's basketball, women's basketball.
So the money that people are now donating doesn't go to women's soccer.
Was only going to. Oh, OK. And so the women's soccer program,
(38:23):
if I'm a donor and I choose to put $1,000 in the collective instead of $1,000
donation to the general athletic fund,
they're taking money away from the small programs.
And a lot of people didn't understand how the negative impacts of collectives
can go towards non-revenue sports and the impact that can make.
(38:43):
The other thing is we're seeing a lot of push for the money to go what used
to go to small sport NIL, right?
Because we had two separate entities or things where you had the one that supports
the football and the big teams and you have the rest of us, the women's sports.
But you you're seeing a
big push for this money now to go towards a fund for the
(39:05):
lawsuit that 24 million dollars to buy in for football where
where teams used to get these huge
nil deals we are now losing that money to in order to pay off this lawsuit for
our football program so money going towards our nil program as a whole is being
redirected or attempted to be redirected from our athletic standpoint in order
to pay that 24 million dollars yeah yeah now that this house settlement,
(39:29):
I think, is going to have a huge impact.
I don't think there's any way around that. I mean, you know,
the Big Ten universities,
Iowa, Michigan State, etc., they have enough resources and donors to be able
to fund that settlement.
You get in Northern Iowa or, you know, Central Michigan or Western Michigan,
(39:54):
those universities don't have those.
You know, they're Their budgets aren't nearly as big as the Big Ten schools
to be able to fund all of that.
And those are the schools where I really think a lot of those smaller teams
are in danger of being cut.
Yeah, absolutely. And at the very least, if they're not going to get cut,
(40:16):
I think you're going to see huge discrepancies now between where before they
could maybe play some other teams because of the travel budget that's going
to get sliced, where you're only able to play kind of regionally or locally
because you don't have the same funds to travel.
Great point. Great point. Yeah.
Yeah. I think there's a lot of speculation with it.
And I've seen a lot of stuff with the NIL is that when you can pay a salary basis,
(40:39):
you're going to sign a sort of like contract with the university where that
becomes your only NIL deal and you're no longer allowed to collect money outside
of it because you're gaining both the scholarship and then a salary basis from university.
But I have no idea. That's just some of the some of the rumor mills we've been
seeing. Well, I know I have greatly appreciated Speculation Hour.
(41:00):
And I know it's kind of where a lot of people's brains are going of what is this impact.
And I know we're extremely thankful to have someone a little bit more educated
than my Twitter feed, which is where I feel like I get a lot of my information from.
But for people like me, where should or where can people kind of stay up to
date on these changes so it's not just random news that you see on Twitter that you hope is real?
(41:22):
Yeah, NCAA, well, NCAA posts periodic updates on their website.
But even then, you know, a lot of it is not easy to understand.
And so that's why, you know, our business is, you know, what we do is try to
explain things to the athletes, to the families and try to make it understandable.
(41:47):
And, you know, even though we may not agree with it, you know,
we can at least try to explain the rationale of, you know, here's why this rule
is the way it is, so on and so forth.
But, you know, there's also resources out there.
You may be familiar with daily email D1 ticker.
(42:08):
If you've heard of that, there's, and I didn't know until recently,
there's separate ones for, there's D1 ticker. It's a twice daily email blast,
one in the morning, one in the afternoon.
There's D2 ticker, D3 NAIA.
There's, well, there's another one, but you have to be a member of NACDA for that.
(42:30):
There is a college AD service email that that you can subscribe for that comes
out periodically and so forth.
But, yeah, I think just, you know, finding the solid resources you can count
on if it's the actual NCAA website or, you know, service like ours.
(42:53):
You know our mission is just to provide the
most accurate information we can to athletes and
families so they can decide what's best
for their specific circumstances so yeah absolutely like i said i get most of
my information from your guys's newsletter and half the stuff i read off today
came from that so i really appreciate you appreciate that jordan well my camera
(43:19):
definitely I probably zoomed out and I already zoned out for a sec.
I thought you were frozen. I was like, yeah, that's right.
Well, I know. I think I have all my speculations answered for a little bit.
We may need to do once we get more information on the actual house settlement,
a part to follow up with Rick about what, how many of our speculations came true. What do we think?
(43:41):
But thank you so, so much for taking some time out of your day to spend with
us and kind of educate us.
Well, thanks for inviting me. I really enjoyed the discussion and,
you know, learning a little bit more about some things I wasn't aware of,
you know, as you mentioned earlier.
And, hey, yeah, I'd love to do it again sometime if we want to do a follow-up.
(44:04):
Yeah, definitely. We'll definitely have to take you up on that.
But again, appreciate it so much. Thank you for coming on. Thank you. Take care.
Good luck. Right. That was weird.
When's that working? I have no idea.
All right. Thank you so much, Rick, for coming on to the pod and taking a part
(44:27):
of our little speculation. You know, once again, I know that there's so much we don't know.
And Rick acknowledges that, too, is there's still this lawsuit.
The solutions aren't answered. But we've heard about how this might impact so
many sports, especially as we care about women's soccer.
So the impacts are going to be there. And it's just going to be a matter of
how hard we get hit. it. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
(44:47):
I mean, it is a forever revolving and changing world. And over these past few
years, it has been going rather quickly.
And I don't think these next few years are going to be any different where the
rules will continue to change and there will continue to be more and more regulations
as the NCAA kind of tries to save themselves essentially with these rule changes
from all these lawsuits that keep coming.
(45:09):
And while we don't know everything, he does know a lot and he was able to give
some more educated insight and some,
you know, maybe more educated speculation into what is going on you mean my
tinfoil hat and my twitter and reddit rabbit hole haven't been educational i
guess i guess an actual person with experience has been a lot better than me,
You know, I mean, he was just like one of the first full-time NCAA compliance
(45:32):
directors in the country. So like, he doesn't really know what he's talking about. It's fine.
Twitter can do it. Twitter is basically the same thing.
So anyway, Jordan, big week ahead. What does it look like for you?
Yes, big week ahead. We face off against Nebraska this Thursday and then Penn State.
(45:52):
So it is definitely a big week for us. Nebraska being one of the teams that we were co-champs with
last year and who Iowa just beat so we're
looking forward to that game they're always super competitive they're one of the
schools that like I believe they practice slide tackling
in games so that'll be it'll be physical for sure and then Penn State being
I think our number one number one rivalry you know as a as a women's soccer
(46:15):
team here we always look forward to that game and it's been a battle between
my time here and I think that's that's the big one for us every year is Penn
State and going back my sophomore year.
That's kind of where my career started, I feel like, was at Penn State and at that field.
And I'm looking forward to going back there and being able to maybe be a little
nostalgic of it going into my senior year.
(46:35):
But definitely two huge games for us this week.
And hopefully I can come back here next week and tell you we're still undefeated. So fingers crossed.
I love it. And hey, for someone a little less invested in my game of the week,
I have decided to come up with my Big Ten game of the week.
So what matchup I think will be the most interesting.
It's really anticlimactic though, because I think all eyes for me are on the Iowa Hawkeyes.
(47:01):
On Thursday, Iowa, who's ranked number 17, will be going to Ohio State and playing number 20.
So I think that these are two teams that have had very high rankings and necessarily
aren't the big dogs or seen as that in the Big Ten.
And I think that this can be a statement win for either team and
it's going to need to be a statement win for either team so I think that that
(47:23):
is a game to ranked opponents that I think will definitely be one on my watch
calendar not that you're biased or anything right not that I'm biased or anything
anything nothing like that but it will be Ohio State versus Iowa Hawkeyes.
So that being said I am glad to hear all is well in the big life Jordan we are
wishing you the best Best of luck this coming weekend against Nebraska and Penn
(47:46):
State. Like you said, two incredibly hard opponents.
And as always, guys, tune into College Soccer. Follow your news outlets.
Get on the same Twitter feed as me, because I feel like my only Twitter feed is College Soccer.
Get your tinfoil hats out and your speculations. I'm ready to go.
So as always, soccer on. Subscribe to the Informed Athlete. Thank you guys for
(48:06):
listening. See you next week.