Mark Emmert thinks players using their likeness is a terrible thing

With the growing argument of collegiate athletes using their likeness to make money while in school rises, the state of California is already taking it to the next level by trying to make it a state law that players CAN use their likeness if they play for a California division one school.

However, NCAA President, Mark Emmert, thinks that players using their likeness to make money is an ‘existential threat’ to college sports. He’s not joking, either, which is what I thought it sounded like.

According to CBS Sports, this is what Emmert told a group of athletic directors yesterday:

“You’ve got 50 different states with 50 different labor law rules,” Emmert said. “If you move into what are, in essence, labor negotiations, you have to do that state-by-state … It just falls apart in its complexity.”

Now, California is already on the move to make this a law and North Carolina has had talks about it as well. Two states isn’t a big deal. But what is a big deal is that it’s California and North Carolina, two states known for basketball, and if those states pass that law, then those states would be banned from NCAA postseason, which means no Duke, North Carolina, or UCLA in the NCAA tournament, which the NCAA does not want to happen.

Emmert called players using their own name and likeness a terrible thing. But maybe Emmert should take a look in the mirror and realize that the real ‘existential threat’ to the NCAA is the current sitting president of the NCAA for torpedoing college athletics into the ground with their refusal to let kids be kids while making a little bit of profit.