Blatant Homerism: Another article about Owen Heinecke; spring game ramblings
Two big stories are swirling around the Oklahoma Sooners football program this week, so let’s touch on both. First up, the Owen Heinecke saga – with the caveat that I’m not a lawyer.
Heinecke’s case is a microcosm of a larger issue currently swirling around college athletics and college football, in particular. For decades, the NCAA (which we will use as a blanket proxy for the schools it represents) maintained college football is not a business. As such, that purportedly entitled the NCAA to administer its own special set of rules that otherwise would not fly under the law. That special status allowed the NCAA to outlaw direct compensation to players, for example, and undergirded its ability to restrict their eligibility and movement between schools.
When the Supreme Court handed down a decisive decision against the NCAA in the Alston case, the legal system threw the governance of college football into chaos. An ongoing series of court decisions since then have poured cold water on the NCAA’s claims to many of the privileges it previously claimed. As a result, the conversation around the NCAA’s rules now entail issues like players’ property rights and the unreasonable restraint of trade.
In other words, the courts have opened up NCAA rules to challenges because it seems dubious that the NCAA legally has the power to write and enforce many of those rules in the first place.
Against that backdrop, how the NCAA applies its rules actually matters a great deal. If similarly situated athletes receive disparate treatment from the organization, it’s a problem. When comparing one case with another, the NCAA needs a better argument than “this one fits within our rules, and this one doesn’t.”
The bottom line is that the schools have benefited handsomely from the NCAA living in a legal grey area for the vast majority of its existence. That invited challenges to its way of doing business like the one Heinecke is now mounting. The legal system has told us as much, and the courts will probably have a say in dismantling it soon enough.
And now a few thoughts on a spring game I apparently can’t watch on television…
*Most of the chatter coming out of spring camp has focused on OU’s efforts to rev up its running game. Will the offensive brain trust show off any new wrinkles? If so, keep an eye on Jonathan Hatton and DeZephen Walker to see how the promising freshmen running backs are adapting to the new scheme. One of them may take over as the lead back by the middle of the season.
*Tight end may not be the strongest position on the team, but it seems as though it got the most attention from the front office during transfer season. We’ll get an inkling if the investment is paying off on Saturday. Pay attention to how newcomers Hayden Hansen and Rocky Beers hold up at the point of attack as much as how they look catching the ball.
*One name that keeps coming up in reports from camp: transfer receiver Mackenzie Alleyne from Washington State. That may have as much to do with the number of wideouts currently injured as it does with Alleyne’s ability to contribute. Anyway, the third-year sophomore should see plenty of targets in the passing game.
Meanwhile, explosive rookie Jahsiear Rogers sounds like a solid bet for spring game MVP.
*With Jadyen Jackson and David Stone sitting out, the time has come to find out what the depth on the interior of the defensive line looks like. The ability of UTSA transfer Kenny Ozowalu to contribute as both an edge rusher and three-tech defensive tackle is a situation worth monitoring.
*The talk of Taylor Heim suffering a significant injury theoretically creates an opening at outside linebacker. Will the coaching staff experiment with any other LBs in the Cheetah role? Michigan transfer Cole Sullivan may get some run there.