California’s Fair Pay to Play Act passed on Monday, allowing athletes to be paid for the use of their name, likeness and image. On the same day, Florida quickly moved to propose its own similar law. Pennsylvania, too, is throwing its hat in that cash-lined ring.
Missouri players chimed in on the matter, too.
There are plenty of things I don’t know about these laws. I don’t know if the rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer — although, seriously, how much richer can the richer get and how much poorer can the poorer get?
Dan Wetzel put real numbers to that thought in his column on Monday:
“Consider this: In the past three years in football recruiting there have been 97 players ranked as 5-star recruits by Rivals.com. Five schools (Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, Ohio State and LSU) signed a combined 55 of them, leaving just 42 for the remaining 125 FBS schools. Five schools got nearly 57 percent of the best players.
The current top five teams in the weekly AP poll? No. 1. Alabama. 2. Clemson. 3. Georgia. 4. Ohio State. 5. LSU.”
But those are worries for another day, because I don’t know what impact these types of laws will have. I don’t know if the NCAA, ever the luddites, will stay staunch and start banning institutions from these states from championship play, or if they’ll adapt and work with lawmakers to find a middle-ground that allows student-athletes to be like other students while also monitoring potentially shady or illegitimate “business opportunities.”
Don’t know. Can’t say. Too early to tell.
Here’s what I DO know, however:
If bills like these come to fruition, get ready for an influx of college athletes becoming social media influencers.
The number of college athletes that could pull in legitimate, nation-wide endorsement deals would be a small, small fraction of total student-athletes. Maybe this would open to the door to local endorsements, but with football and basketball (the two most realistic sports this bill would affect) being a full-time job, players wouldn’t suddenly have more time to go and film commercials or record radio spots.
Where does this leave us?
Influencers.
Imagine all that sponsored content, coming directly to your Instagram feed -- and think about the opportunities former Mizzou athletes may have missed:
Blaine Gabbert throwing some steak and asparagus on the grill, talking about the great deal he got on both at Hy-Vee.
Maty Mauk revving the engine on his scooter with two girls flanking him, thanking Royal Power Sports for getting him back on the road.
Drew Lock “securing the (Patagonia) bag” he got courtesy of Alpine Shop on Broadway.
The truly marketable players (with solid representation) would likely accept deals like this few and far between — can’t saturate the market with your image, driving down the worth of your endorsements. Plus, you’ve got to be authentic, lest you end up in the crosshairs of BrandBot3000, Darren Rovell.
But imagine all those fringe marketable players, or the players that have a viral moment, like Gahn McGaffie’s return (“You’ll be returning to the Deuce for their 2-for-1 happy hour! #ad”). We could get a plethora of forced, tacky influencer-type posts as student-athletes try to cash in for, well, a little extra crash. And I’d do the same thing, too, without a doubt, if I were a student.
Hell, I’d do it now, with no second thought. Give me 50 bucks and a little direction and I’ll be screaming about the benefits of how your hemorrhoid cream keeps me on the go 24/7.
We’re all so caught up in the potential downfall of the NCAA or the end of amateurism or the death of college sports as we know it — real minor stuff, honestly — that we’re losing sight of the real benefit of bills like Fair Play to Pay.
Hilarious spon-con.
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