FAIRNESS WINS OUT
The NCAA’s NIL changes are working out nicely for athletes.
I was often warned to “be careful what you wish for.” This was by people who underestimated by ability to wish for nothing but great things for yours truly and others.
In sports, a regular wish warning came at any suggestion that a slightly above average coach needed to be fired. As if the invariably slightly-below average replacement is the call I would make were I in charge.
As for college sports, I was told my wish that the free-for-all that would come with athletes being given rights to earn money off their name, image and likeness, would ruin the game. Really?
Don’t tell me what to wish for. We’re a couple weeks into the NCAA dropping its rules against athletes earning some of what they deserve, and it has been tremendous.
I get excited every time I receive a press release about a college athlete having signed an endorsement deal. And, figuratively, I pour one out for those who missed out on millions because of NCAA regulations.
The purity of amateur sports in general, collegiate sports in particular, is a manmade concoction of ingredients, designed to tug at the hearts and minds of fans.
That monster tackle signed with My Favorite U because it’s a great school.
We know darn well that educating athlete students is hardly the priority of most of the universities that play big-time football and men’s basketball, the money-making sports.
Give basketball coaches a choice between a 5-foot-10 guard, who will graduate in four years with a degree in biomedical engineering – missing a few practices along the way because of class assignments – and a 6-8 leaper, who will dominate the conference on the court while barely staying eligible, they will take the latter every time.
“That’s a trick question, Jerome … stop,” a coach friend texted me in response to the above scenario.
This coach is serious about his players graduating, but that’s not what college basketball is about.
This is not to disparage college coaches. The entire system is out of order.
Be honest. You and I don’t watch games to see a player’s GPA. Yards per carry and points per game rank well ahead of the most recent score on a quiz.
Yet, the first argument against college athletes earning money for entertaining us is the ridiculous assertion that said so-called education is money.
Why should schools have been the only ones to prosper from the thousands of fans wearing No. 10 jerseys at Texas games in 2005 and No. 2s in College Station circa 2012?
Or do you believe Vince Young and Johnny Manziel were given academic scholarships at Texas and Texas A&M, respectively.
Another hilarious “argument” against relaxing the NIL rule was athletes would make very little money. Well then why get in the way of that?
Every nickel that can be earned should be earned.
I don’t have a wandering mind that allows me to waste valuable time on the platform, but whatever money there is to be made on TikTok should be made.
I have never heard of Aquinas College, but volleyball player Chloe Mitchell has more than 2.6 million followers thanks to a series of posts of her turning her parents’ backyard shed into a hangout spot.
Were it not for NAIA changing its rules against athletes making money, she would not be able to pull as much as $20,000 for a sponsored post on her timeline.
The Cavinder Twins have more than 3.4 million TikTok followers, with some of their lip syncing and dancing posts pulling 20-plus million views. That they are the two leading scorers on Fresno State’s women’s basketball team shouldn’t keep them from getting paid.
Athletes we have never heard of are cashing in on brands they built through ingenuity and creativity. Brands for which others are rewarded.
That the GreenPrint Real Estate Group is going to pay Texas A&M running back Isaiah Spiller and safety Demani Richardson $10,000 apiece to be interviewed at an event is interesting.
And good.
The market will settle. There is enough to go around.
Most importantly going forward, money won’t need to be passed under the table nearly as often.
This is what I wished for … the American way.