Robert J. Jones began his term as UW’s president Aug. 1 after replacing Ana Mari Cauce. (Kevin Clark / The Seattle Times)
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By
Andy Yamashita
Seattle Times staff reporter
In the wake of University of Washington quarterback Demond Williams Jr.’s tumultuous transfer saga, the school’s president has reiterated calls for a proper governing body and enforcement arm for college athletics.
Robert J. Jones, who began his term Aug. 1 at UW after replacing Ana Mari Cauce, on Tuesday was one of four college presidents to make a joint statement pleading with other schools to sign the university participant agreement drafted by the College Sports Commission (CSC). Georgia’s Jere Morehead, Virginia Tech’s Timothy Sands and Arizona’s Suresh Garimella were also part of the joint statement.
UW athletic director Pat Chun is one of 10 members on the NCAA’s House Settlement Implementation Committee, along with Arizona athletic director Desireé Reed-Francois. Sands is a member of the NCAA Division I board of directors. Morehead is a previous chair of the NCAA Board of Governors. Among the four presidents who signed the statement, each of the power conferences — the Big Ten, Atlantic Coast Conference, Southeastern Conference and Big 12 — is represented.
“We encourage our fellow presidents to sign the Participant Agreement,” the statement said. “It allows us to move forward together, rather than facing continued drift, escalating risk, and a system that asks student-athletes to navigate unnecessary ambiguity while institutions hesitate.
“We owe our students better. We owe the public better. And we owe our universities a governance framework that reflects the seriousness of this enterprise.”
The CSC was created as part of the House v. NCAA settlement and was expected to be college athletics’ new enforcement arm. It was expected to monitor name, image and likeness (NIL) deals between student-athletes and third parties and facilitate revenue sharing.
During its most recent NIL deal flow report Monday, the CSC announced it had approved 17,321 third-party deals worth $127.21 million since the launch of its clearinghouse, NIL Go, in June. It also declined to clear 524 deals worth a total value of $14.94 million. Reasons for declining included a lack of a valid business purpose, no direct activation of NIL rights and compensation not at rates commensurate with similarly situated individuals.
“There are competing interests in today’s college sports landscape,” the statement said, “some well-intentioned, others self-interested, that would benefit from continued fragmentation or the failure of this settlement altogether. That dynamic, and the cycle of lawsuits and workarounds it invites, serves no one. It undermines trust and extends instability.”
The CSC distributed the participant agreement Nov. 20. It required schools to waive their right to file lawsuits against the CSC and gave it the ability to sanction programs that violate rules surrounding the payment of student-athletes. All 68 schools in the Power Four conferences must sign the agreement for it to reach validity.
“At its core,” Jones’ joint statement said, “the Agreement asks institutions to do something simple but essential: play by the rules we have collectively committed to, accept accountability when we fall short, and resolve disputes through the agreed-upon process rather than prolonging costly litigation that fuels confusion and inequity. Stability is not created by new rules alone, but by a willingness to live by them.”
An initial deadline to sign the agreement was set for Dec. 3, but it passed without full support from all the Power Four schools. Texas Tech publicly pushed back against the agreement after the school’s general counsel advised against signing it. On Nov. 26, Texas attorney general Ken Paxton sent letters to the six power conference schools in his state and urged them not to sign the agreement.
Instead of a signed agreement, the power conference commissioners and the CSC received a seven-page letter Dec. 3 from Paxton and attorney generals from Florida, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Virginia that expressed concerns about the agreement.
The attorneys general highlighted several issues with the agreement, including the CSC’s potential ability to punish a university for actions taken by other parties such as state representatives. They argue that the new enforcement system lacks transparency and due process, and it conflicts with state laws surrounding NIL, among other issues.
Jones and his fellow presidents acknowledged that the participant agreement isn’t a perfect solution but said it’s a step forward in turning the House settlement from principle to practical implementation. Their statement said the agreement adds a layer of accountability while establishing “a more level playing field grounded in shared expectations rather than individual interpretation.”
Their statement also addressed the worry of the attorneys general that pressure to validate the agreement was to sweep oversight and judicial review of the pact aside.
“We do not have the luxury of waiting for perfection,” the joint statement said. “The responsibility of leadership compels us to recognize when the cost of inaction outweighs the discomfort of progress.”
Jones’ participation in the joint statement comes a week after Williams, a rising junior at UW, attempted to enter the NCAA transfer portal despite having signed an NIL license agreement with the Huskies days earlier. Williams announced Jan. 8 that he would return to UW.
Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger reported that Williams, or the school to which he transferred, would have owed UW the amount of his contract — $4 million, a source with knowledge of the situation told The Seattle Times — and suffered a revenue-share pool reduction because of House settlement guidelines.
“The past 48 hours have underscored just how complex and challenging the current college athletics environment has become,” Chun said in a statement Jan. 8. “What has transpired has been difficult for all parties involved and is emblematic of many of the current issues in college sports.
“It is critical in this post-House, revenue-sharing environment that contracts with student-athletes are not only enforced but respected by everyone within the college sports ecosystem.”
Jones and his fellow presidents echoed Chun’s calls for the new rules to be enforced and respected, urging action to fix a broken system that, they say, no longer works for universities, fans or the student-athletes.
“The House settlement and other recent changes have shifted the framework for college sports,” the presidents’ statement read, “but new rules without clear enforcement mechanisms lack credibility. Inconsistency across institutions erodes trust, creating uncertainty that ultimately harms the very people this enterprise exists to serve: our student-athletes.”
Andy Yamashita: ayamashita@seattletimes.com. Andy Yamashita is a sports reporter at The Seattle Times, primarily covering Washington Huskies football.
