College athletics and NIL — ‘wild, Wild West,’ ‘bidding wars,’ ‘can of worms’ and opportunity
In case you haven’t noticed, college athletics have become the wild, wild West.
And East.
And North.
And South.
I refer, of course, to the opening created when the NCAA was pushed to suspend amateurism rules related to name, image and likeness. The era of legally paying for endorsement, autograph signings, etc., is here.
I chose to take a let’s-see-how-this-unfolds approach. But it didn’t take long for athletes to be wheeling (tip o’ the cap to the northern panhandle’s “Friendly City”) and dealing. A company called American Top Team, a south Florida MMA training company, is paying $500 a month and up to $6,000 total to every University of Miami football player that signs up. That’s a potential investment of $540,000. A report said 14 Nebraska players will get paid for promoting Degree deodorant. And now Oregon’s Kayvon Thibodeaux, potentially the NFL’s next No. 1 draft pick, is collaborating with Nike’s Phil Knight to create an original NFT. (If you don’t know what an NFT is, I suggest googling it. Good luck completely understanding.)
I look at this from different perspectives. As a marketer, I see great potential for businesses. As a traditional football fan, I foresee an even greater imbalance between the haves and have nots.
Charleston attorney Charles R. “Rusty” Webb, who held an NFL agent’s license for two years, REALLY sees an imbalance on the horizon.
“I knew Nike was going to be next because they’re not going to let some millionaire in Florida out-recruit them,” Webb said. “It’s just gonna be paying players under the guise of marketing and PR.”
It has Webb, who is also on the litigation team in the Huntington opioid distribution trial, shaking his head.
“It seems to me this is not what was intended,” Webb said. “These rich alumni are going to twist this into just paying players en mass for quote-unquote advertising. It’s beyond, what I’m sure, was anticipated. But I’m not surprised by it. If there’s a loophole, people are going to take advantage.”
Again, I see different perspectives. I’ve never rooted against someone legally making money or getting rich. Regarding marketing and advertising, I see the potential of a win-win for both businesses and athletes. But I also see how this will tip the scales even more so toward bigger programs.
“Define advertising,” Webb said. “I could pay a guy to stand out on the street with a poster with my name on it. I can pay whatever I want to pay him and call it advertising. I mean anything can be advertising or use of image. So, this is just a fast track to paying players for nominal services. It’s the same thing universities have been doing illegally for years, but now they can do so legally. The NCAA has to go get exempted from the antitrust laws and then they can put the rules back on. That’s the only chance amateur football has: Congress.”
Webb continued.
“I think it’s bad,” he said. “Clearly. If you’re a traditional college football fan, I don’t see how anybody can like this at all. It’s going to become a bidding war. Alabama can say it won all these national championships, but are they going to outbid everybody else? Texas can outbid Oregon. They can put the entire team in a production of ‘The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas’ and pay each $50,000 for their performances.”
“And there’s no cap. It’s just the smell test.”
There are some rules. At WVU, for instance, a player can’t use the logo, have agreements contingent on continued enrollment or on specific athletic achievements. Policy says they can’t stump for alcohol, tobacco, gambling, etc. (How would that hold up in a court of law though?)
Across the country, however, dollars are flying and athletes are cashing in. And, as Webb points out, different markets make the smell test even more difficult. What might not pass the smell test in Morgantown might in New York.
“It’s a can of worms man,” Webb said. “And it’s exploded much faster than I thought it would. Much faster.”
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Mitch Vingle covered sports in West Virginia for 38 years. Follow Mitch on Twitter at @MitchVingle and be sure to check out the rest of Wheelhouse Creative’s website for your marketing and advertising needs. If interested, call us at 304-905-6005.