Then he paused. I glanced over and saw that on his screen he’d brought up a presentation so everyone could follow along.
“I’ll start by noting that the basic amateurism rule 12.1.2 focuses on pay for athletics skill and participation. Basically, David cannot get paid for his athletic abilities. Let me clarify that. He cannot be paid for football or baseball if he plans to play those intercollegiate sports in college. He also can’t be paid for or promised any money based on those skills. As of now, I don’t believe David has any serious issues. There were a couple of matters of concern, like the car that was gifted to him by Range Sports. But we’ve taken steps to clear that up by returning it and paying for its use.
“As I’ll explain later, the rules for David now, as opposed to when he’s in college, are different. Let’s focus on where David could run into trouble in the future. The first potential issue is him being paid to model and do movies. This is different from his ownership in the farms, in that it uses his image and name. Rule 12.1.2.1 defines pay in terms of athletics. I expect all his modeling and movie work to date will be called into question and investigated. I am confident they’ll find what I did: David did not garner his modeling or acting jobs based on his skill on a football or baseball field.
“The presumption should be in favor of allowing David to continue whatever nonathletic activities he chooses. When I use the term ‘athletic,’ I’m referring to the intercollegiate sports David plans to play. He’s done a wide range of other sports that would not conform to the NCAA’s definition of athletics. For example, skydiving and SCUBA diving,” he said.
I cringed when he mentioned the SCUBA diving. I hoped like heck that Dad had told Mom, or we were in for a world of hurt.
“Bylaw 12.4.1 specifically allows for employment, which modeling and acting are. Where we start to get into the area where David can get himself in trouble is section 12.5, which deals with promotional activities. I want you to pay particular attention to 12.5.1.3. It deals with modeling and other nonathletically related promotional activities after he enrolls in college. Conditions a, b, and e clearly seem to be met, but all five conditions are required, so c and d have the potential to create a hurdle.”
On the screen, he had the five conditions from the NCAA Bylaws.
(a) The individual’s involvement in this type of activity was initiated prior to his or her enrollment in a member institution;
(b) The individual became involved in such activities for reasons independent of athletics ability;
(c) No reference is made in these activities to the individual’s name or involvement in intercollegiate athletics;
(d) The individual does not endorse the commercial product; and
(e) The individual’s remuneration under such circumstances is at a rate commensurate with the individual’s skills and experience as a model or performer and is not based in any way upon the individual’s athletics ability or reputation.
“I would suggest that we be careful even now of section d. An example where we could run into trouble is something like the ‘David Approved’ gear at Range Sports. While we can show that Range Sports is no longer using that promotion, we cannot risk his amateur status moving forward. While the rule applies explicitly to when he’s in college, they’ll take a dim view of it even now.
“Something else we need to make sure of is that his athletic activities are separated from everything else. This means that if he does an interview about a movie, he cannot talk about football or baseball. I would go so far as to suggest that he not wear anything that is school- or sports-related for those types of interviews. I’d like to see him start doing that now whenever possible. Once he reaches college is when these rules kick in, and he could put himself at risk.
“As an example, when David did his promotional interview for Our View, they showed clips of him acting and playing football. I know none of you knew in advance they were going to do that. But it could still raise the issue of his supposedly using his football fame to help sell the movie. I’ll be getting an affidavit from the show’s producers to the effect that none of David’s people knew about it and it certainly wasn’t planned. The critical point is that, in the future, David’s movie and modeling agents should check in advance to ensure that nothing like that is intended.
“This also means that anything web- or internet-related should also be separated into athletics and nonathletics. Fortunately, David’s high school houses his athletics websites and restricts its discussions and information, as regards David, to his football and baseball activities. That’s good for us. From what I’ve seen, his social media and web pages focus on everything else. I’m hoping it’s always been that way, and I also trust that it will continue in that manner, at least in part as a result of this conversation.
“David’s name appearing in the credits and whatnot related to the movies he does in high school would have no effect on his eligibility. Again, though, to be on the safe side, he should simply ask the NCAA’s membership services group for an interpretation of how the rules might apply to him. Better yet, once he’s chosen a college, it would be more appropriate for the school to ask. The NCAA would gladly provide an answer; they have no interest in trapping him after the fact.
“There’s another difficult matter we still need to work out once he enrolls in college. That issue is the use of his name and image as it applies to promotional and media activities. In my opinion, he should be able to perform any and all promotional activities for his films, even after enrollment. But those activities fit within the rules only if he is not paid explicitly for the promotion. His contracts with the studios need to clearly state that he’s paid for acting and not for separate promotional activities related to the movie. And he can’t be reimbursed for any expenses he incurs due to such activities.
“Bylaw 12.5.2, non-permissible activities, specifically limits eligibility to be paid for the use of one’s name or picture to directly promote any commercial product.
“Bylaw 12.5.3 restricts David’s ability to attend media events as well. We will be seeking clarification from the NCAA on that particular rule and how it applies to David’s acting and modeling. We plan to request a waiver for media events that support or are required for David’s acting career.
“Between now and when he enters college, we’ll be working on getting David appropriate waivers for these activities. There have been instances where a student-athlete has acted in and promoted a movie in the past. I would expect we could get a similar waiver for David.
“As I said at the beginning, I’ll be in contact with many of you over the next two weeks. I don’t want us to have any surprises from the NCAA. If we do find anything that needs to be done differently, we can get it resolved now. We appreciate you all taking the time to meet with us today,” Mr. Morris said, wrapping the call up.
He gave out his contact information in case anyone had questions, and the call ended. After I hung up, my phone rang again. It was Dad telling me to jump back onto the conference call now that everyone else was off.
“Hey, David. I think the call went well,” Mr. Morris said.
“I understand it better now,” I admitted.
“Good. I just wanted to tell you I’m working on a few items for the NCAA, specifically those areas I know they’ll have questions about. I’ll be in contact this weekend and next week with several of the people on the call to make sure we don’t have any significant issues. My goal is to provide you with a letter outlining potential problems and how I see them being resolved. My best guess is that I’ll have it to you by either the end of next week or the first of the following week.