The NCAA Bails Out of the Jersey Selling Business: Thank Jay Bilas

Oh, this is rich.

On the heels of the Johnny Manziel pay-for-sign scandal, a strong "below-the-radar" discussion has been brewing.

That discussion: How can the NCAA which profits off the sale of jersey's with College Players names on them, penalize athletes for the sale of signed jersey's of there own.

Or to put it another way. It's been okay for the NCAA to make money at the players expense, but the players never see a penny of it.

Or yet another argument: The NCAA bowed down in a Twitter war.

The NCAA is in the midst of some serious legal challenges, primarily from a group of former and current athletes who are challenging the premise that they can't profit from anything with their likeness, but the NCAA can.

And on Thursday, the NCAA continued their acts of contrition. President Mark Emmert admitting that; "We are going to exit that kind of business immediately. I certainly understand how people can see that as hypocritical".

Ya think?  

Go to http://t.co/qpH4tNnIpH, type in "Manziel" in upper right search box, hit enter. This comes up. pic.twitter.com/N7KNvXIu24
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) August 6, 2013

This discussion got brought to the forefront, due in large part to a series of Tweets on Monday by

NCAA basketball analyst Jay Bilas.

Bilas tweeted out several images from the "ShopNCAASports.com" website, all containing jerseys with Johnny Manziel's name on them.

He also Tweeted this:

Go to http://t.co/qpH4tNnIpH and type "NCAA Executive Committee" in upper right search box, hit enter. This comes up. pic.twitter.com/7mwaNKO3TA
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) August 6, 2013

Read this SI.com article, which will explain a lot RIGHT HERE

Folks. Don't kid yourselves. There's been a lot of discussion over the past few weeks that the "Power Conferences" are going to break off and form their own group. The reason given is they want more control over the inconsistent NCAA rules enforcement. And they want to give their players a stipend, something the smaller Division I schools can't afford.

And we agree with some of that.

But. That is decidedly NOT the reason the split is likely to happen in January. No. The reason is two-fold.

(1) TV Money: The power conferences realize if they form their own league and play each other all the time, they stand to make a fortune. And not a small fortune. TV (ESPN, FOX Sports and others) will kill for those rights. And those of you who don't support a school in a power conference. Well, there's always regional sports nets.

(2) Lawsuit protection: The NCAA is petrified they are going to lose the suit brought on by former UCLA basketball player Ed O'Bannon and a slew of others. And trust us, they are going to lose. And it will cost them a LOT of money.

So don't kid yourselves, the NCAA didn't all of a sudden have this "revelation" they shouldn't be profiting off of kids who can't profit for themselves. No, they are trying to protect themselves for the soon to come end of a long, lengthy and what is likely to be costly lawsuit.