Starting out, of course, I have to reiterate my opinion that we'd be best off
dropping the idea of amateurism for scholarship athletes.  That said, if you
aren't going to do that, then the NCAA's position isn't that unreasonable.
 
First off, it isn't a First Amendment issue.  The NCAA isn't telling the
athlete that he can't say or write anything, only that he can't publish in a
commercial publication.  Lots of people work under similar stipulations at
their jobs.  Generally, the restrictions aren't this broad, but I would
assume that it falls under the same category.  As is often the case, when you
sign a contract (or whatever the correct terminology is for a scholarship),
you waive the ability to do certain things you were allowed to do before.
 
As to the merits, this is once again a case where the rule in most of its
applications is a good idea.  If you're going to have amateurism, you don't
want the athletes endorsing commercial products.  Writing for SI is doing
just that.  In this particular case, it would seem to be reasonable to allow
the article to go ahead.  Unfortunately, the rules have to cover general
conditions and can't be tailored to everyone's individual situations.
 
J. Michael Jackson
 
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