Chip: It's about time college athletes get paid for use of their name, image or likeness

BleedGopher

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per Chip:

Here’s how it could work:

If a local company wants Gophers receiver Rashod Bateman to pitch a product, he can get paid for it. If a company wants to pay All-America softball pitcher Amber Fiser to advertise on her social media account or make an appearance, show her the money.

Former Gophers wrestler Joel Bauman quit competition in 2013 after the NCAA ruled that he could not profit off his name as an aspiring music artist. It was ridiculous that the NCAA forced him to make a choice. Thankfully, athletes won’t be put in that position anymore.

It comes down to basic fairness. If every other student on campus can earn money doing those exact same things, why shouldn’t athletes be afforded the same opportunity?

The NCAA expressed concern about NIL being used as a recruiting tool and unscrupulous booster influence. News flash: That will happen. And guess what? Those outside influences happened before NIL, too. It will be nearly impossible to separate boosters and recruiting from a process that enables athletes to capitalize on their talent.

Unintended consequences undoubtedly will spring up, but allowing athletes to benefit from their names and images in a way that can be monitored by compliance offices (not an easy task, admittedly) will not become a boogeyman that ruins college sports.

“Even though I was on a full-ride scholarship, I didn’t have much money,” Maroney said. “If I was making $10,000 or $5,000, think about how much money I could have sent home to my family and my mom to pay her bills and make sure she’s straight.”

The NCAA said there will be no cap on earnings but also noted that compensation must be fair market value. Who’s to say what a fair market would have looked like for, say, Zion Williamson during his one season at Duke? If a company offered to pay him $100,000 to endorse a product, would the NCAA deem that excessive? If so, why? Based on what? The distinction between free market and rogue booster influence could become difficult to sanction. Realistically, third-party deals will be available to only a handful of athletes on campus. Endorsement opportunities are not in endless supply. The most likely avenue for athletes to earn money will be through social media, a digital frontier that is still hard for some of us old folks to comprehend. Athletes with large social media audiences bring value to marketers through engagement. Jim Cavale, CEO of a social media app called INFLCR that helps colleges and athletes build their brand, estimates that high-profile college athletes potentially can earn hundreds of thousands of dollars in this platform.


Go Gophers!!
 

As much as my old soul wants to say 'stop biotching and be thankful you've been blessed with the ability to go to college for free and compete and an incredibly high level in a sport you allegedly love,' there's an overwhelming part of me that says I don't even care anymore about old notions, and I'd rather have kids be playing college sports than not.

Last year there were like 89 early entrants in the 2019 NBA draft. 44 of those guys didn't get drafted. If even 15-20 of those could be dissuaded from just leaving school to pursue the grind of the G-League or Europe because all they want (or need) is money right now, and instead stay in college basketball that's good enough for me. That makes college basketball a lot better.

We all know the impact of this year's Gopher team because of the defection of Amir Coffey. His decision has been somewhat validated by earning a two-way deal and getting a cup of coffee in the NBA.

From a big-picture scale, there are a bunch of college teams that were impacted by guys leaving and not getting picked, and not coming out smelling like Coffey did. How good would Auburn have been if Jared Harper would've stayed in college? And would he have if he could've gotten some cash off his NLI after a run to the Final 4?

Rayjon Tucker was the top-rated Grad Transfer by most accounts on the market and had committed to Memphis. Would he have stayed there had he been able to (seems unlikely but play along) get some money off his NLI? If so, how good would Memphis have been?

Iowa State was a truck fire this season. Lindell Wigginton and Cameron Lard both went undrafted. I know Lard had his share of off-court issues, but let's say he and Wigginton could've made some money off their NLI...what's Iowa State look like this year with an all-league point guard and big man?

College basketball would be better if these type of players stayed like they used to.
 

Well, if they don’t wear a school uniform or any identifying team colors, I guess we have to go along. Remember that, short of a couple dozen players with national notoriety based on AAU exposure, these players develop their following because of their play in the school uniform. I don’t give a rip about the all-world playground legend and wouldn’t pay him a dime for his likeness. A Gopher star has some value to me, but it isn’t so much just the players’ likeness but the team’s players. To me it’s more about the school, and I’m not sure the players should cash in on that.
 
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People argue that they should have the same opportunities as regular students. But do regular students have a training table, trainers for injuries or improving their physical skills, free tutors and mental coaches, travel on chartered plans to Hawaii or NYC for contests, and who knows what other advantages. And they all wanted and signed up for that experience. But in this time it is not enough they should get paid. Welcome to the tilting of the playing field.
 

People argue that they should have the same opportunities as regular students. But do regular students have a training table, trainers for injuries or improving their physical skills, free tutors and mental coaches, travel on chartered plans to Hawaii or NYC for contests, and who knows what other advantages. And they all wanted and signed up for that experience. But in this time it is not enough they should get paid. Welcome to the tilting of the playing field.
It will help the blue bloods even more as they have a far larger national following.
 


If this passes, the rich get richer and the poor teams fold. Every player on a blue-blood program could earn significant cash. At a minimum they should put a cap on it.
 




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