“I propose we play it by ear. If they want something more than just to confirm David’s eligibility, we pull out the waiver to allow him to fulfill his obligations for promoting movies. I don’t believe they have a leg to stand on, but we need to get him eligible first. My plan all along was to attack that as a separate issue, but if they want David to do something, we need to get this in return,” Mr. Morris said.
The way the NCAA rules read was that you couldn’t engage in the promotion of commercial activities while you were a student-athlete. A strict reading could mean that if I did a movie while in college, I might not be able to have my name added to the credits. And I couldn’t give any interviews about my role in the movie. But by that same token, I was in the clear for everything I did while in high school.
Mr. Morris had suggested that I split sports-related topics and acting so there would be no confusion with the NCAA. They’d gotten worried when I helped Washington with their fundraiser at the same event where we’d also played a baseball game. I didn’t think anyone expected over twenty thousand people to show up. We’d had similar crowds the following weekend at State.
Universities aren’t stupid. Having a student who could draw that many fans and potentially be the face of their program was huge. Even for a school like Michigan, which consistently sold out, it would be a major plus for away games. Places like Northwestern couldn’t sell out when they had a draw like a ranked Stanford team. If my fame could put butts in seats, it would mean big money to the conference as a whole. What had them excited was I was pulling these numbers for high school baseball, which was notorious for drawing mediocre crowds at best.
It would be interesting to see what the NCAA wanted to talk about.
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President Ellison met us at reception. This almost felt like a recruiting trip. The building was new, and it was easy to see they weren’t hurting for money.
“I thought I’d show you around,” President Ellison said to begin the tour. “While I’m doing that, I’ll give you some background on the NCAA.
“The National Collegiate Athletic Association is an organization that’s led by its members. We’re dedicated to the well-being of college athletes and to their lifelong success.
“The NCAA consists of 1,121 colleges and universities, 99 conferences, and 39 affiliated organizations. More than 460,000 student-athletes make up 19,000 teams that take part in the NCAA’s 90 championships. Those are in 24 sports across 3 divisions. We have a staff of 500 employees here in Indianapolis that supports our members,” President Ellison said.
He then gave us a tour of the facility, and I met many of the employees. Several wanted pictures taken. Caryn promised to send over signed photos for anyone who wanted one.
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We were finally ushered into a large conference room with coffee service set up in the back. President Ellison indicated we were to sit on the far side of the long table. There were name tents for the people on their side. We were given a Sharpie and asked to fill out ours so everyone would know each other.
I read the name tents as I scanned down the other side of the table: Mark Ellison, NCAA president; JT Picket, chair of the Board of Governors; Jim Phelps, member of the Board of Governors and athletic director for the University of Michigan; Jackie Davis, chair of the Initial-Eligibility Waiver Committee; Steve Anchorage, chair of the Amateurism Fact-Finding Committee; Lesley Sanchez, chair of the Legislative Relief Committee; and Andy Hill, chair of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. President Ellison kicked off the meeting.
“David Dawson asked for this meeting to expedite his eligibility. It is my understanding that Mrs. Davis found enough questions to forward his application to Mr. Anchorage’s committee to do some due diligence. Let’s have Mr. Anchorage give us an overview as to where we stand on his amateurism status.”
“Some of you may remember Mr. Morris,” Mr. Anchorage began. “He worked for us a few years back, reviewing applications for initial eligibility. Mr. Morris has been helpful in providing the documentation we needed to conduct our review. I have some grave concerns that Mr. Dawson may cause us problems related to naming rights once he enters college. I believe we need to get an agreement in place to protect our member institutions before we can issue him his letter of amateurism status,” Mr. Anchorage stated.
“Are you worried that David will challenge your control over student-athletes’ use of image and name?” Mr. Morris asked.
