We are doing that. And the expected result? Players, awash in money, pay other students to do their course work. It’s not going to happen. It is happening. And in the process, making the whole idea of student-athlete a joke.
Totally agree. And it’s been this way, as you point out, a long time. In the end those players who put in the work to obtain skills someone wants to pay for will be rewarded in the business world. Those who don’t and don’t make the NFL will look back with regret. And those who make the NFL then good for them. It’s all a system to move money around. As a fan, I’m perfectly at peace giving away some of my money so I can sit in my stadium with old friends and watch a bunch of people run around with GT uniforms on. It gives me a day away from reality and I really don’t care if the players are 18 or 30, if they can read or write, or whether they graduate or not. They are getting compensated and I’m being entertained. My emotional level for the “GT” brand is high and my emotional level for players is about zero - otherwise I guess I’d be jazzed about watching Nebraska play this season.
Interesting. In Japan, it used to be that companies sponsored the sports teams directly ... so it's the Aisin Argonauts vs. the Denso Dynamo.
I have already heard that may be where it's headed. It may be a while but sure seems like that will be the model. The academic side for most of these big universities is already a joke.
To the company's paying NIL money, NIL is a commercial. If you can't run your commercial during the Superbowl, do you have to pay for the time slot? I really don't know, but I would be surprised if there aren't some type of clauses in NIL contracts about visibility, good character, etc.
Probably are some for character but not likely for missing a game.
It will be interesting to see how states address the question of where NIL is earned. When I was working, and I traveled a lot while working at BellSouth International, Georgia considered 100% of my earnings to be Georgia based. I never tried to find out if Florida also had an interest. But we had a bunch of multiday Miami based meetings with our South American colleagues. My guess is that Georgia will want to tax all of the GT players NIL money.
Yep!
I think there’s a difference between “missing a game” and “willingly sitting out of a high profile game.” I know they can't explicitly be "pay for play," but i would be shocked if there isn't language skilled lawyers could manipulate to reduce compensation if someone willingly decides not to play.
"My hamstring feels tight and I am not comfortable with playing right now."
Lol. I'm not going to die on this hill. I just think there is more wiggle room in the "NIL can't be pay for play" comments.
There may be. There is also a lot of risk on perceived welching on payments to players by a Company or a Collective. If they do refuse to pay then their opponents will play that up big time and there is no real way to refute the narrative. Are they going to say our contract required him to play in "x" number of games? Not likely.
Going back to my premise that a company is paying NIL money to link his business with that athlete (ie it's a commercial). I could see a contract structured something like, we have 10 games on TV which historically averages 1 million people viewing per game. We will pay you $100,000 per million viewers. If 10 games produces 10m viewers, you get $1m. Any less you get less, any more you get more. The numbers are completely made up, but you get my point.
If the contract says 10 games for X team, then it's in violation of the NIL intent. If the athlete hits the portal, the NIL contract is supposed to transfer with the athlete.
