Duke AD Kevin White 'Deeply Concerned' About Allowing Athletes to Profit off NIL

Duke athletic director Kevin White has publicly expressed his concern about the NCAA potentially allowing student-athletes to profit off their name, image and likeness. 

In a statement released Tuesday, White said he was "deeply concerned" about consequences and potential complications stemming from the implementation of NIL legislation:

White, along with North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham, cited concerns voiced by the NCAA Student-Athlete Advisory Committee in his statement, including "unfair recruiting and competitive advantages, difficulty monitoring compensation and ethics."

ESPN analyst Jay Bilas, who played for the Blue Devils from 1982-86, criticized White's statement on Twitter for being "stunning in its tone-deafness":

"It says, 'the money is ours, to pay ourselves fair market value, and should not be re-directed’ to where clear value lies. We shall call for strict equality here only, as we fail to provide equal resources to each sport or athlete.'

"Further, 'We are worried about recruiting, and know the most important key to winning and financial gain is procuring athletes. We point to a hand-picked "relative few" that parrot us, but ask you to ignore the athletes that will benefit most. It’s OUR MONEY, not theirs.'"

The NCAA Board of Governors announced last October the start of a process to adopt a policy that would allow student-athletes to profit off their name, image and likeness. 

Last month, the Associated Press reported commissioners from each of the Power Five conferences sent a letter to Congress asking them to move forward with NIL legislation that would establish national guidelines instead of relying on potentially different rules within each state.

Per the Board of Governors' announcement, the NCAA wants to have each division develop a set of rules "no later than January 2021."