“The Ringers of the 19th Century”

Posted on by

Well, you know things are getting weird when the Department of Justice is weighing in on “student-athletes” like this.

In case you’re not familiar, Zeigler is a Tennessee point guard who has played four seasons of college basketball in Knoxville. Although one season was cut short due to an ACL injury, he still played a full four years and believes that it violates antitrust laws for him to be denied the opportunity to earn a proposed 4 million dollars as a known college commodity by shutting the window at four years.

If you read through the thread above, you’ll see the reference to “ringers of the 19th century” and how the lack of unilateral expectations for academic requirements is mentioned as a reason for necessary regulation. Does this even exist today? You can walk off the street at Ole Miss and enroll in freshman classes, while Vanderbilt has more stringent requirements in the SEC alone. The difference between playing football at Tech and Florida State has to be somewhat different, no? Make it make sense.

This is a bit different than the Pavia case, in that Pavia argues that the junior college years shouldn’t count against his years of playing time at a D-I program, where he can earn NIL revenue. On the contrary, Ziegler maxed his playing time and is now wanting more. The NCAA’s position is that college sports should be a means to an end, and not the end itself, and sees that the inability to get athletes out of a college program after their eligibility is exhausted prohibits high school seniors from being able to enter. Technically, they’re not wrong.

My guess here is that the interest from the DOJ is stemming from the fact that this is an athlete who is just asking for more where it exceeds what would normally be considered a cut and dry case of “you’ve played all you can”. If Zeigler is successful, it feels like the “give an inch” principle that could lead to limitless eligibility and the Bluto Blutarsky’s of the world could be a part of Animal House for seven years or more, while owning the frat house because they can simply afford to buy it.

Why spend seven years in college to become a doctor when you could earn more than one just playing sports for seven years?

Can’t fault a player for trying, to be honest.

9 thoughts on ““The Ringers of the 19th Century””

  1. This could be the final nail in the coffin for “amateurism”. If this goes forward, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a lawsuit on behalf of high school athletes arguing that their rights are being violated by now making enough roster spots available. Eventually the NCAA or conferences or whoever seems to be in charge these days will professionalize these athletes to avoid this BS.

    The only people really winning in all of this are the lawyers.

    • “The only people really winning in all of this are the lawyers.”

      Well said … and Wilken continues to sit on her hands with the House settlement and has declared a postponement on ruling on the settlement.

    • As the first attorney I worked for often said (facetiously), “federal judges are just one step below heaven” – back here in reality of course, many of them have been feelin’ it and letting us know it these past few months – but even then I don’t think there’s a federal judge around who would find that K-12 education/public schools/interscholastic sports are “commerce” subject to the antitrust laws….

  2. Zeigler’s theory would be antitrust violation because him taking up roster space indefinitely prevents a high school senior from having a roster spot and earning NIL , wouldn’t it?

  3. A friend of mine says you can still be a judge if you pee and then forget to zip up your pants. You can’t be a judge if you pee and don’t unzip your pants.

  4. When the NCAA and their university president overlords chose to die on the hill that they must be amateurs and we keep the money it was all over. There was a pathway to manage this and they ignored it. Judge Wilkens was really given no alternative than to call them on it, but she’s wrong on a lot too. FAFO.

Comments are closed.