The NCAA is in the process of taking steps towards student athletes profiting from their name, image and likeness and one local athletic director has spoken out against it.
Bubba Cunningham, the longtime AD at UNC, told CBSSports.com that he felt the NCAA and member schools have a communication gap between them.
"The membership is further and further away from Indianapolis than we've ever been," Cunningham told Dennis Dodd in an interview. "What we do is end up accepting what comes our way and then trying to deal with it. That shouldn't be the way it works. More people are raising their hand saying, 'This really doesn't make sense to me."
Cunningham's concern is that NCAA student athletes would be professionals if they are allowed to earn from their name, image and likeness, he told Dodd.
CBS Sports obtained a letter that Cunningham sent to the Uniform Law Commission, where he talked about his concerns with the possibility of athletes profiting.
"Despite public pressure that has been exerted on NCAA leaders ... we urge those involved in the ongoing legislative conversations not to abandon a model that has provided educational and athletic opportunities for hundreds of thousands of student-athletes," Cunningham wrote.
The possibility of student-athletes being compensated has become increasingly closer to becoming a reality in recent months. In some cases, Cunningham is concerned that some student-athletes paid for their on-field performances "would be a step toward making them professionals."
Cunningham told CBS sports that several ADs in the ACC agreed after a recent conference call. The CBS Sports report article says Cunningham stated he "could not support any of the proposed NIL changes" but he is in favor of the NBA's G-League. The G-League has turned into a sort of minor-league farm system for the NBA. Cunningham stated that he wishes there was a similar system for football.
The NCAA office, located in Indianapolis, is more and more telling schools what's going on, "instead of being included in a wide-ranging discussion" according to what Cunningham told Dodd.
"I don't feel like many of us are engaged at that (national) level," Cunningham said in the article. "This governance structure is one in which where you seem to be given the outcome."
