NCAA cries for help after loss to Tennessee in court. Expect no mercy | Toppmeyer

If the definition of insanity is repeating actions and expecting a different outcome, then folks at NCAA headquarters are auditioning for an asylum visit.

Or, NCAA President Charlie Baker and company are just gluttons for punishment.

In the continuation of a theme, the NCAA lost a court ruling last week amid an antitrust lawsuit brought by the states of Tennessee and Virginia. Judge Clifton Corker granted a temporary injunction in favor of the states. The injunction will be in place until the lawsuit concludes.

The upshot: This injunction freezes the NCAA’s flimsy NIL rules. In the absence of guardrails, NIL inducements shall flow freely.

How did the NCAA react? Did college sports’ governing body present new ideas that would help stem these unrelenting court beatdowns?

Nope. Just the opposite.

Baker, on Friday, told reporters the NCAA needs Congress to award it antitrust exemption to shield it from lawsuits. Once again, an NCAA leader looks to the government to solve his problems. The NCAA, for a few years, has unsuccessfully sought a federal bailout.

“We are going to need Congress to do something,” Baker told reporters in Washington.

If the federal government is the grand solution to your problems, I’m afraid you don’t have a solution.

Congress turns a deaf ear to the NCAA’s plea for antitrust relief

Baker is a broken record stuck on a bad song. A year into the job, he’s become a parody of his predecessor, Mark Emmert.

Congress appears disinterested in offering the NCAA a federal antitrust bailout. Each political party seems to realize the NCAA is as popular as tofu at a carnivore convention. Becoming the NCAA’s ally just isn’t smart politics.

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Perhaps, the NCAA thinks repeated courtroom defeats will prove to Congress its need for federal help. So far, that strategy falls on deaf ears.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) swatted down Baker’s latest cry for help.

“Until the NCAA gets it act together, any ‘get out of jail free cards’ for them are dead on arrival in Congress,” Blackburn said in a statement to the AP.

No help for the NCAA to the Right, and none to the Left, either.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) suggested the NCAA ought to pursue collective bargaining with athletes rather than a golden ticket from Congress.

“(The NCAA should) start negotiating directly with the athletes to come up with an entirely new model that gives them the pay and protections they have long deserved,” Murphy said in a statement to the AP. “Until the NCAA takes these basic steps, simply coming to Congress to bail them out is not a reasonable approach.”

Finally, we’ve found something to unite political parties: a loathing for the NCAA.

Court injunction a win for Tennessee and the free market, loss for NCAA

Last week’s court injunction froze the NCAA’s NIL guidelines that had attempted to prohibit pay-for-play or NIL deals being used as a recruiting inducement.

This injunction is a victory for the Tennessee Vols, whom the NCAA is investigating for potential violations of its NIL guidelines. The injunction does not prohibit the NCAA from sniffing around, but it presents a hurdle in penalizing what it might find.

More importantly, it’s a victory for anyone who thinks athletes should be allowed to negotiate NIL deals unencumbered on the free market and make decisions about their future with the benefit of details.

The word inducement sounds dirty, but that’s what money is: an inducement. Your salary is an inducement.

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Imagine having to weigh multiple job offers at once. Tough choice, right? Now, imagine having to make the decision without knowing what your salary would be from either employer. That’s no way to make a decision. You’d be a fool to accept a job without knowing what the salary is.

That’s what these frozen NCAA rules had asked recruits and athletes to do: Decide on where to play in college without being able to negotiate the value of their NIL deal with a school-associated collective. In effect, the NIL guidelines asked athletes to make important decisions without having all the facts.

Injunction supports Brett Kavanaugh’s NCAA opinion

This injunction is a victory for those who believe, as Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote, that the NCAA is not above the law. Kavanaugh warned the NCAA in 2021 after it lost a different antitrust case by a unanimous Supreme Court decision that the NCAA needed to either obtain federal legislation to relieve its antitrust problems or pursue collective bargaining. Otherwise, it could expect to keep losing lawsuits.

The NCAA repeatedly failed to secure federal relief. Meanwhile, it ignores Kavanaugh’s other suggestion: collective bargaining with athletes.

Even as NCAA leaders bemoan unfettered NIL deals, the bigger headache is that athletes enjoy complete freedom of movement, without penalty. With no employment contracts or transfer limitations, athletes can hop from school to school in pursuit of the best deal. Through collective bargaining, the NCAA could aim for an agreement that would place lawful restraints on athlete movement, which would provide the roster stability coaches crave.

Instead of embracing collective bargaining, the NCAA marches to the beat of its broken drum and begs Congress for a lifeline. It’s third-and-18 for the NCAA, and it’s once again handing off to the fullback against a stacked defense. Insanity.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s SEC Columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.

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