The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
California law gets some mixed reviews
PHILADELPHIA — Mike Aresco says it’s a bad idea.
Dan Hurley says he loves the idea.
And Geno Auriemma? He can’t wait for some agent to call him up and complain about playing time on behalf of a client.
When Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law the Fair Pay to Play Act, which gives California college athletes a legal right to gain compensation for the commercial use of their identities starting in 2023, he kicked off an era that is sure to be as volatile as it is historic.
How soon will other states follow?
Will a federal law transplant state legislation?
NCAA president Mark Emmert derided the legislation as another form of professionalism. The glacialpaced NCAA has a working committee on name, image and likeness issues led by Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith and Big East commissioner Val Ackerman that will make its recommendations at the end of the month. Will they be sufficient to lead the NCAA to its own legislation or will college’s governing body get steamrolled by states and/or Congress?
“All these people who are crying this is going to be the end of the world as we know it in college athletics are going to have to get used to it,” Auriemma, the UConn women’s coach, said as the American Athletic Conference gathered for basketball media day at the Philadelphia Airport Marriott. “That’s the way it is going to be and they have to figure out the best way to manage it.”
This is not outright paying college athletes, although its critics argue it is a gateway move. The act allows athletes to hire agents. Athletes cannot make deals that conflict with school sponsorships.
“I love it,” said Hurley, the UConn men’s basketball coach. “To have some spending money,
obviously in some confines of rules and regulations, the more you can go do for studentathletes the better. To be able to benefit from their likeness, I think it’s a great thing. I was a college athlete. I grew up in Jersey City. My dad was a probation officer and high school coach. There wasn’t a lot of disposable income to put into my bank account. I didn’t have one. You scrambled and try to figure out ways to make ends meet.
“There’s no time for parttime jobs for our guys between study hall and classes and the workload as a player. Most of these guys are from backgrounds where there’s not someone at home with a lot of disposable income. I know a number of guys on our team are sending money home from costofattendance (stipends) to try to help out at home.”
Count Aresco among the contrarians.
“California, that makes no sense,” the AAC commissioner said. “I don’t believe they did it because
they think it’s really going to be implemented. I think they did it to drive public opinion, to try to force the issue with the NCAA. You can’t have a state having its own rules when you have a national enterprise. If the NCAA litigated it, I don’t believe it would stand (in court). What’s next? States changing the transfer rules on their own? California can have 200 scholarships in football and everyone else has 85?
“There are some things you can do, but the main thing is this is an amateur undertaking. If you don’t want to be part of it you don’t have to be part of it. You can to go the G League. You can play in the XFL. My feeling is the NCAA and the schools should have a right to run an amateur enterprise if they want. It’s not as though the kids are exploited in the sense that they’re getting hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of value in their scholarship, nutrition, tutoring, facilities beyond belief, community recognition … What you don’t want it to become is pro sports. Once it becomes pro sports I don’t
think it’ll have the same popularity. People don’t need to see contract disputes and union issues.”
Aresco insists that if you’re going to the route of allowing athletes to cash in on likeness, you need to be careful.
“Very careful,” he said. “How is it going to affect recruiting? Is the local car dealer going to be able to pay somebody an exorbitant amount to be the face of the dealership? And how do you limit it?
“Val Ackerman and I have talked about it a lot. They asked the conferences to submit their thoughts. We said what about use the schools’ marks (logos, etc.)? What about doing endorsements when you should be at practice? All sorts of issues. What about camaraderie within the team when the star quarterback has a bad game and he’s getting a big sponsorship and somebody else isn’t?”
Unless local businesses go down the boosterclub avenue of stuffing pockets, exactly how many athletes are going to cash in bigtime at each major college?
The star quarterback, running back, wide receiver and an AllAmerican defensive player or offensive lineman in football. An elite recruit in college basketball. At UConn maybe an elite women’s basketball player. In an Olympic year, a threat for a gold medal.
“How many players are we really talking about,” Auriemma said. “How many kids at UConn are going to have agent and going to be marketable enough that it’s really going to make a big difference? I don’t know. I do think has to be uniform across the board. It can’t be some places you can, some places you can’t.
“I’m OK with it. It’s where it’s going. I don’t like the idea a kid has an agent. You bench the kid and the agent calls and says, ‘You’re costing my kid money.’ Like it’s an NBA or NFL situation. My guy’s not getting enough shots. You’re depriving him of making a living. I don’t know where all this goes. I kind of fall somewhere in the middle.”
USA Today interviewed agents and it was estimated Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence and Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts could land four endorsements worth $250,000 each, while most stars would fall in the $10,000 to $25,000 range. If EA Sports resumes its college football video game 30 players from 130 FBS schools could get around $1,500 each. Most Division I athletes would get zero.
“For people to say these kids get nothing out of college is ridiculous,” Auriemma said. “That everybody is making money but them is ridiculous. If these kids had to pay for the exposure they get would cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“(Diana Taurasi) was part of that announcement in California. I love D obviously. She said, ‘I was up on campus and they’re selling No. 3 jerseys and still making money off of me.’ I would trade D all the money we made from selling No. 3 jerseys the last 20 years for the $15 million or so she’s made playing basketball because of what we helped her do at UConn. We’re all getting something out of this. I just don’t know how to best manage it, but it’s coming and I’m ready for it.”
Hurley was quick to add he doesn’t know the best way for the NCAA to manage it either. What he didn’t sound especially worried about were potential jealousies in the locker room.
“Welcome to the world, man,” he said. “Work harder to achieve more. Keep grinding. Just because someone was receiving more or is at a higher success point at 21 doesn’t mean at 26 you won’t surpass them in some form or fashion. That’s how the world spins. I hate to sound callous … I was a high school coach 10 years ago (making relative peanuts to the $3 million he makes today).
“I don’t get that (argument), especially in sports. It’s such a bottomline business. We just need smart people, working diligently on ways to make it work, because it could get crazy in terms of recruiting with schools trying to set up endorsements. So it’s not as easy as let’s do it tomorrow, but let’s get working on it.”