Companies ready to get athletes some dollars

As the NCAA works to finalize its rules allowing athletes to get compensation for use of their image and likeness, college athletes’ social media fame could be the quickest way they cash in on changes expected to go be implemented in 2021.

“The thing that’s great about social media is that it keeps score and it keeps things fair when it comes to fair-market values,” said Jim Cavale, founder and CEO of INFLCR, a software company that specializes in sports-focused social media. “Not just the quantity of followers but the quality of them — meaning how well they engage in the post — along with the activity of the studentathlete — how often they post and the variety of their posts not just their lives on the court but off the court as well.

“All that plays into the opportunities that they will or will not have on social media.”

The amount of money an athlete stands to make is directly correlated to the number of followers they have on social media sites, according to Cavale.

“I think social media is going to be at the center of this,” he said. “I also think the NCAA, with this current framework, is trying to make it be at the center of this.”

Part of the restrictions the latest proposal approved by the NCAA board of directors and pending approval from full membership states athletes are prohibited from using a school logo or marks in any form of advertising, including posts on social media.

But athletes can still generate revenue from posts that don’t explicitly mention their school or feature images of themselves wearing school clothing.

INFLCR works with more than 100 colleges as well as professional athletes from the NBA, NFL and NASCAR. The schools collect photos and videos of the athletes and upload them into INFLCR’s database and, in turn, the athletes sign into the company’s app to share the images on their social media platforms.

Cavale said 21,000 athletes a day sign into the app daily to grab the content that promotes their schools to share on their social media platforms.

Once the new legislation is approved by the NCAA, which is expected to happen at the organization’s annual convention in January, INFLCR plans to provide athletes with not just editorial opportunities to share but commercial opportunities with