Ohio State Football: What NCAA ruling could mean for Buckeyes

In big news, the NCAA voted unanimously on Tuesday to start modifying its rule to allow college athletes to profit from their names, images and likenesses.

In case you haven’t heard, the NCAA came out yesterday with a plan to change its rules in regards to student-athletes making money off their names, likenesses and images.

In their official statement on NCAA.org, they said this:

"In the Association’s continuing efforts to support college athletes, the NCAA’s top governing board voted unanimously to permit students participating in athletics the opportunity to benefit from the use of their name, image and likeness in a manner consistent with the collegiate model."

This announcement came much sooner than fans originally thought it would, but for many it is a welcome change. The NCAA rule change comes after California created a similar standard for the state with an implementation date of 2023.

The NCAA is trying to beat this timeline by implementing their rule changes by 2021. But what does this mean for Ohio State and the rest of the college athletic landscape?

First off, we need to understand that the NCAA has a lot to figure out before this rule gets implemented. The board also said that modernization should occur within the following principles and guidelines:

"Assure student-athletes are treated similarly to non-athlete students unless a compelling reason exists to differentiate.Maintain the priorities of education and the collegiate experience to provide opportunities for student-athlete success.Ensure rules are transparent, focused and enforceable and facilitate fair and balanced competition.Make clear the distinction between collegiate and professional opportunities.Make clear that compensation for athletics performance or participation is impermissible.Reaffirm that student-athletes are students first and not employees of the university.Enhance principles of diversity, inclusion and gender equity.Protect the recruiting environment and prohibit inducements to select, remain at, or transfer to a specific institution."

A monumental task the NCAA will have to figure out is if they are going to put any kind of cap on what a player can make, or if it is an open ceiling.

A cap would create a more even playing field. Knowing that the big programs like Ohio State, USC or Alabama could not use their vast resources to just buy players would help in maintaining the competitive spirit in the game today.

It would also allow the smaller schools in Power Five conferences to try to bring in talent while continuing to build their programs.

Allowing unlimited sums of money to be funneled towards players would drastically shift the landscape of college football and would narrow down the list of contenders even further. Schools with lots of financial capital, large followings and robust alumni programs would gain the upper hand in recruiting kids with aspirations of making lots of money while in school.

Smaller schools would not be able to keep up, and I think there would eventually be around 25 schools that could rise to the top of this new recruiting module.

I believe the NCAA will try to keep a level playing field for all of their members. Otherwise there will be a lot of schools getting the short end of the stick.

The NCAA looks like it finally wants to reward student-athletes for performing well and allow them to have outside ventures. This seems like a great compromise between things remaining the same and moving toward a paid-player model.

It will be interesting to watch in the next two years what the NCAA does to try to implement this change while keeping the integrity of college football alive.

Regardless, Ohio State will need to monitor this process. One thing that is for sure to change are recruiting pitches about why a player could make more money off their likeness at your school compared to another.

This will be a new philosophy, but Ohio State is well-positioned to win this battle. The national brand and following should position the Buckeyes well in recruiting players to make money while in school.

Many fear the top schools in their respective sports will only get more talent because of their ability to help players build a personal brand. If the NCAA isn’t careful, this is a situation where the rich get richer – and Ohio State is among the very rich in college football.