Clemson football will be watching the NCAA like a hawk this summer

The Clemson football program will be looking to the ‘powers that be’ this summer as some major decisions could be made sooner rather than later.

The NCAA has pushed off its rulings on name, image and likeness bills for far too long and the latest report says the organization’s council is ‘unlikely’ to make recommendations despite states whose laws will go into effect this summer.

The state of Georgia, for example, will begin allowing collegiate athletes to be paid for their name, image and likeness beginning July 1st of this year.

The result? An uneven and unfair playing field, especially when it comes to recruiting.

Clemson football- and many other programs- are going to be watching the NCAA like a hawk and asking for action to be taken

The state of South Carolina passed an NIL bill earlier this year, but it isn’t scheduled to go into law until July of 2022.

How would it be fair for Clemson to recruit against the likes of Georgia, Alabama, Florida and Florida State- states who will already have NIL bills in place- while the Tigers have to wait for their bill to be passed?

The NCAA’s main job as the governing institution is to try and create an equal playing field. Having individual states make their own decisions is anything but equal and it’s going to hurt Clemson in a bigger way than most might want to admit, at least in the onset.

The NCAA is waiting for congress to set a national precedent, but honestly, that shouldn’t be surprising. This is an organization that has passed the buck on many topics for years and it’s starting to catch up with them.

Still, Clemson- as well as the rest of the nation- will be watching to see if anything changes and what might come of it.

This is a strange time we’re living in and whether or not you agree with NIL payments, they’re coming. But if the NCAA doesn’t find a way to uniformly implement them, we’re looking a wild west scenario unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.