LeBron James speaks out at the NCAA over the “Rich Paul” rule!

This could turn out to be a very bad look for the NCAA.

Whether the so-called “Rich Paul Rule” is set up for the man itself really does not matter at this point. In the age of social media, LeBron James will have some influence in the court of social media opinion.

Let’s put this in perspective. LeBron James has more Twitter followers at 45.3 million than the number one sports network in the world, ESPN. His Instagram followers pretty much blow things out of the water.

The one thing LeBron James does better than any athlete in history, besides possibly the late great Muhammad Ali, is to be able to control the narrative of the message he wants to get across.

I mean we all saw it up close and personal right? Last week, David Griffin has a couple of quotes about James in an article one day. Then the very next day he’s on ESPN explaining himself.

Did you hear LeBron James demand this action? Or did you hear that LeBron James’ people were shocked over the comments?

As for the NCAA, the organization will be painted in a horrible light that will have them trying to justify that college degree requirement well past that November 6 date for the agent exam. There are already comparisons tearing down the NCAA’s point of view.

It’s not like the NCAA can afford more public relations hits here. The debates of student-athletes not getting paid while Universities and the NCAA pocketing billions are starting to get old with quite a few parties.

It’s just that Rich Paul found a viable option for top high school players to avoid the hassle. Here are other issues the NCAA is dealing with these days.

• The number of lawsuits against the NCAA by former football players alleging damage from mistreated concussions is on the rise.
• The FBI put a serious crackdown on a college basketball scandal involving sneaker companies, coaches and others involved with wire fraud and conspiracy. This is an investigation that is ongoing that could spell prison time for coaches along with huge fines.
• College athletes are continuing to speak out about the Ed O’Bannon rule which prevents them from profiting from the NCAA using their name, image and likeness to produce revenue only for the organization. When the NCAA announced it was appointing a “working group” to “examine” the issues, people took that statement with a grain of salt and that’s being kind.
• Then there’s the NCAA’s move to restrict the ability of college football and basketball players to play immediately after they transfer. The problem with that is coaches can easily  move from college to college for huge bucks without facing penalties.

The prerequisites were controversial enough. Just look at the application process.

• Register Online in the NCAA Agent Certification System (ACS)
• Submit Application to NCAA: This includes a successful background check and paying a nonrefundable application fee of $250. According to the site, the fee is required annually.
• NCAA Review of Application
• Notification of Eligibility to Take the In-Person Exam
• In-Person Exam (or continuing education requirement)
• Pay Certification Fee of $1250 (annually)
• Reapply the following year using the same ACS user account

Pay attention to the annual fees in the application process. If you are the NCAA, how do you cut down on people who are unwanted? Price them out. Sure Rich Paul can afford those fees. But it’s a calculated effort to stop the next Rich Paul from coming in.