NCAA didn't want loss in court or public opinion, chose no action to enforce NIL: Legal expert

A to Z Sports' Craig Smith, a former litigator who practiced as a member of the Bar of the Eastern District of Tennessee while in Tennessee, believes the NCAA didn't file a Notice of Appeal in its lawsuit filed by the states of Tennessee and Virginia against the non-profit monolith because it knew it would result in a loss in court and, perhaps more importantly, in the court of public opinion.

"It's interesting that the NCAA did not proceed with a timely filing of a Notice of Appeal," Smith prefaced before saying, "That would at least have allowed them to preserve their right to appeal and keep their options open.

"Perhaps they did not want to incur the expense of the process, as an appeal would have been relatively time-consuming and costly. Or perhaps the NCAA knows they are now fighting an uphill legal battle and simply didn't want to take another loss both in the case and in the court of public opinion."

The NCAA is already facing a host of other issues -- most notably the potentially imminent collapse of the ACC -- so trying to restrict NIL, which has made top football recruits even bigger stars and arguably brought more interest to the product, would not be best for business.

Even if old-school college sports fans may not approve of what NIL has done to the sport.

NIL agency founder predicted NCAA not taking action against NIL

I spoke to Postgame CEO and Co-Founder Bill Jula back on January 31, and he essentially predicted that the NCAA would not get the necessary help from Congress to take meaningful action against the current NIL system.

"First of all, my opinion is -- and I know there are, like, 3 or 4 different proposals that have been bounced around for the last year with a bunch of different congressmen -- much like my answer to fans worrying about what (NIL) is supposedly doing to college sports, it's kind of a similar answer when it comes to congress," Jula prefaced before saying, "I think they have bigger fish to fry. I personally don't think I don't think anybody's gonna truly go out on a limb and make anything happen here anytime soon.

"I think they're gonna let the market the free market continue to do its thing. You know, again, are there some issues involved in all this? Sure. But is it enough for Congress to get together when they traditionally don't get together on anything and come together around college sports? You know, I just don't think anything is really gonna happen. I don't know exactly what it would be, They're talking about bundling some of these proposals around giving athletes healthcare and providing clearing houses where these deals have to go through. I mean, it's kinda just people who are upset about not being able to see what actually is happening but I don't know what that actually does for the athlete to change what's actually happening right now."

Congress usually messes with the lives of Americans by coming together and agreeing on legislation. Luckily, they didn't come together and do anything meaningful regarding NIL, so their inaction ended up being a positive.

That's probably an evergreen statement.