THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: A Few good thoughts as college sports nears a wreck

Mark Few has earned our trust, so we should believe him, right?

The United States Supreme Court can demand our trust, so we MUST believe its decisions, right?

Fair enough.

So, in very different ways within the past two weeks, Few (who was testifying in front of a congressional committee) and the Supreme Court both announced point-blank that college sports is heading for a wreck down the road.

How far away is this awful collision?

Well, no need to panic, but as of this morning, it is EIGHT DAYS from ka-boom.

Yes, July 1.

That’s the date that many of the 19 states which have legalized NIL (name, imagine and likeness) for college athletes turn on the faucet.

Are you a superstar quarterback who is coveted by the University of Alabama?

Theoretically, a super-rich Bama booster can offer you a million dollars to put your face on billboards at his string of auto dealerships.

AS THESE laws have not passed in other states, like Washington, college athletes cannot make a dime — beyond tuition, room and board.

Few is steaming about all this, and not just because all his top recruits will head elsewhere for the money.

Nah.

What makes Few’s face and neck go red is that the NCAA — which is supposed to be the administrator of college athletics – should have seen all this coming years ago.

And taken careful, well-considered action.

“We are at a critical juncture in college athletics, and it really isn’t an exaggeration to say the future of college sports is in jeopardy,” Few told the congressional committee.

“We absolutely should have addressed these NIL rights a long time ago, and I’m embarrassed that we’re here having to deal with it right now.”

Few is all in favor of athletes be given the right to sell their own NIL rights, by the way.

He always has been.

He’s just trying to avoid this thing turning into the Wild West, with 19 states enforcing different laws.

“These changes are long, long overdue,” Few said.

“All athletes deserve to use their own name, image and likeness in commercial endorsements and on social media, and I am very much in favor of them profiting as much as they possibly can from this.”

So, what’s been the holdup?

Why wasn’t this basic right granted years ago?

YES, THAT would come down to the iron fist of the NCAA, which has jumped through years of hoops to keep all revenue for itself and its member schools.

Few has worked with the NCAA — he’s still on some committees trying to put some order into the mess — but he’s clearly frustrated.

On Tuesday, however, the entire issue took a serious turn when the Supreme Court essentially ruled that the NCAA had no right to prevent student-athletes from earning some money.

The sad thing is everyone knew how this ruling would come down, and yet no one did a thing to fix the problem.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote the opinion for the court’s unanimous opinion…

"Nowhere else in America can businesses get away with agreeing not to pay their workers a fair market rate on the theory that their product is defined by not paying their workers a fair market rate," Kavanaugh wrote.

"And under ordinary principles of antitrust law, it is not evident why college sports should be any different. The NCAA is not above the law."

IN A way, that is the end of the NCAA’s stalling and nonsense about how there would be an unfair shutout of athletes in non-revenue sports.

There are still problems, however.

Remember those laws that go into effect on July 1?

The one ideal solution — and what Few was lobbying for during his testimony — is an all-encompassing federal law that would swallow up the 19-state quilt, and create a national mandate that makes sense of how NIL is implemented.

That sounds good, and it probably will come to a federal law in the end.

But this is Congress, and several members have proposed individual laws that are, naturally, just a little bit different.

You didn’t think this thing could breeze into law, did you?

One silver lining is that athletes in states that have not approved NIL rights presumably can still sell their names or images — and will NOT be punished by the NCAA.

Thank heaven for that.

The organization had to be beaten over the head for years just to understand the right thing.

Now…

The NCAA will actually have to do it.

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Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. “Moments, Memories and Madness,” his reminiscences from several decades as a sports journalist, runs each Sunday.

Steve also writes Zags Tracker, a commentary on Gonzaga basketball which is published monthly during the offseason.