Originally Posted by
mkirsh
I posted this in a thread a while back, but my concept would be:
1. Allow the players to hire agents. It's crazy to withhold professional representation and advice from them
2. Allow them the rights to their likeness so they can sign individual marketing deals, with a portion of the revenue shared with the school. So whenever the school sells a Grayson Allen jersey, Grayson and Duke share in the proceeds; if Jack White gets sponsored by Outback Steakhouse he and Duke would share the proceeds.
3. There needs to be some formal structure to regulate #1 and #2. Certifying agents (can draft off the NBA process) and setting a standard percentage of revenue share common across all schools.
4. If you want to be a little more restrictive so you don't have Bagley driving a Bentley to class while Mike Buckmire rides his bike, you could put the athlete's money into a trust that pays out a nominal amount while in school (like up to $20k per year) and the rest after 10 years or upon graduation, whichever is first.
This should avoid any title nine issues since this isn't funded by the schools, and also curtail, if not eliminate, under the table dollars. It can create a bidding war between schools (ie the Kentucky boosters can put together a better package than the NC State boosters), but a) some of that exists today in under the table dollars and "soft dollars" like exposure, and b) this is probably an issue only for a limited number of players. There are LOTS of problems with this so I'm not pretending this is an easy solution, but I think it would be a big step in the right direction.