While the NCAA likely doesn’t have any idea what to do about the impending collision between widespread legal gambling and amateurism, you can be damned sure it’s feverishly preparing for its coming payday from sports betting. Start with this:
As of this morning, the NCAA has still not announced plans to allow college athletes to control their own names, images and likenesses…
However, the NCAA does not move equally slowly on all potential initiatives.
When it comes to monetizing revenue streams related to its college athletes, the NCAA shifts from operating at a snail’s pace into Speedy Gonzales.
Early this morning, the NCAA was proud to announce the launch of its newest initiative: monetizing college athletes’ game statistics. According to an article that appeared this morning on Bloomberg.com, “the NCAA has signed a 10-year partnership with the U.K.-based Genius Sports to centralize the data, and ideally make some money off it.”
While there is no doubt a financial benefit for the NCAA in mining player statistics, one is nevertheless left to wonder what the NCAA plans to do with this data, and why this initiative was consummated even while other, presumably more important matters remain unaddressed.
One hypothesis, raised by Ebon Novy-Williams of Bloomberg.com, is that the NCAA’s data mining initiative could mark a first step toward the NCAA selling data to companies for gambling-related ventures. Indeed, such data could emerge as a valuable revenue stream given that, also today, the Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act — a statute that had disallowed for state legalization of sports gambling in 46 of 50 states.
What a happy coincidence! Although “you can’t sell your names, only we can sell your names” admittedly isn’t the best look right now… not that anyone at the NCAA is likely to give a shit as long as the checks roll in. Besides, it’s only what’s on the front of the jersey that matters, amirite?
Oh, and let’s enjoy this amusing analogy.
First, and placing emphasis on the phrase “sports betting right”, such fees would account for the derivative quality of sports betting: Leagues provide the games upon which bets are made. Leagues then expect to receive a portion of the share, much like a player or musician expects to receive a portion of a royalties associated with others trading on their identities or talents.
Well, some players, anyway.
I can hardly wait to hear Emmert and Delany twist themselves in verbal knots explaining the difference between the NCAA goose and the student-athlete gander. Somehow, I won’t be surprised to hear it all justified as being in the best interest of the player, who, after all, is only there to get an education.
Get The Picture 
The National Corrupt Athletic Association never ceases to amaze when it comes to greed, hypocrisy, and tone-deafness.
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I get the desire to make money in any way possible. I really do. But I’ve never understood how sports leagues expect that they should get a cut of sports betting. You’re playing the games either way. The scores and stats are publicly available facts. So if I build a sports book and start taking bets, why exactly do I owe Roger Goodell money? When someone runs a celebrity death betting pool, do they owe a cut of the pot to the estate of whichever celebrity died? If I place a bet on whether recreational marijuana gets passed in the Georgia legislature this term, do I owe the reps and senators a cut? Ridiculous. It isn’t like the leagues aren’t already making money off of ticket sales, concessions, television rights, online streaming rights, apparel contracts, etc.
Get that money, I guess. There will be plenty to go around now that betting’s legal. I guess the casinos will go along with it just so the leagues don’t try to lobby against them in the state houses.
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These are tough times for hopeless romantics 😞.
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I hate how college football has turned into a continuous narrative about player pay.
It’s either a professional sport or it isn’t. If it is, let’s have a college draft, contracts (which would legitimately restrict transfers), players who live off campus and don’t even pretend to participate in school, etc. Maybe part of the contract could relate to educational opportunities if the player so chooses. Maybe the weakest teams would get to choose first in the draft.
Or if it isn’t, make it be a true student/athlete sport. Players must gain admission on the same academic basis as any other student.
Clearly any type of compromise where they try to meet in the middle of this spectrum of outcomes won’t work.
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“Clearly any type of compromise where they try to meet in the middle… won’t work.”
Why? You act like anyone has tried to compromise. That’s not the case. At all. And the assertion that we either have to accept the status quo or move to make college sports a full blown professional league is the same false dichotomy that the rich pricks at the NCAA keep pushing to justify their greed and dishonesty.
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What compromise would be anything more than a temporary stop-gap? Anything less than the players getting full market value based upon the billions generated by P5 college football will still result in the same pervasive “unfairness” rhetoric.
I think it’s hard to argue that P5 college football is NOT currently a pro sport played by predominantly non-student athletes. So let’s dispense with the facade and just accept it for what it is. Or go the other direction and make it a true student-athlete competition. And as the Senator would argue, ain’t no way that’s happening as long as those in charge are getting rich off of the current state of affairs.
As for the Senator’s involvement, he certainly has his own opinion, but I think he is also just reflecting the ubiquitous media focus on the topic.
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I can’t speak for Chili, but in my mind, as long as it was freely entered into on both sides, a compromise would be fair, regardless of the form it took.
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The Olympic model is a compromise that has been discussed here before, for one. There’s a Grand Canyon of difference between a professional league and what we have now – which is players getting ruled ineligible because somebody paid them $100 for an autograph. So I just don’t agree with the notion that there has to be some grand re-imagining of collegiate sports.
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Huntindawg – You can thank Senator Blutarsky for this incessant pay-for-play coverage. I’ve never seen anyone in my life more obsessed about a topic. He’s more obsessed with the NCAA than CNN is with Russia and Stormy Daniels. I digress… you’d think Bluto was being personally deprived of millions by the NCAA or had a kid at the East Badger State who lost a year of golfing eligibility, because of some technicality. Darn he’ll have to wait 12 months to get on the PGA tour. Life is over as we know it.
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And worst of all, the fact that he apparently has a gun to your head forcing you to read his posts each and every day.
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Well, it is his blog.
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And just like CNN, you can’t live without him, apparently.
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If it bothers you so much, why do you keep reading the blog?
I’m not asking because I want to run you off, but I don’t get why you complain so much about it.
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I typically skip the PFP posts (outside of this one) since I don’t care. However, I’ve noticed over the last year that it seems like folks on here are complaining a lot more (about these types of posts in particular, even in the comments of other posts) to and about the Senator. I understand that we have now established as a society that the interwebs is where we go to roast people for their opinions, but it seems a little over the top here lately, especially since we’re all ‘on the same team.’ Anyway, I appreciate the blog and don’t get worked up about the posts and stances I don’t care for….at the end of the day I just want to talk Dawgs…
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Thanks, Ben.
I think the hope is that if I don’t tire of the subject, I’ll tire of the complaining. 😉
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I see a mess, with some States in the game, and others not.
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Lookout the big bad all seeing NCAA will getcha!
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This is the ultimate hypocrisy. The NCAA will now make money on player stats, but insists they are students and not to be paid. Ludicrous. Times are changing and it is time to pay these guys for the income they are bringing to the table.
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UGA is the NCAA. The NCAA is UGA (along with all the other schools of course).
There seems to be a lot of people who don’t get that or don’t want to get that. I realize it’s uncomfortable to think about but the NCAA isn’t some separate entity. It does things the way the schools want it to.
So if you have a problem with the big, bad, evil NCAA, chances are you really have a problem with the school you profess your undying love to.
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So this is the next front on the reason to be against the NCAA cartel. You hate your school if you disagree with the NCAA. Since UGA likes the status quo, I need to like the status quo. To think otherwise is to hate UGA. Got it.
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I don’t want people to stop hating on the NCAA. I just want them to talk about how the schools are the problem. And yes, that includes UGA.
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Absolutely the schools should be taken to task as well when appropriate … if I misunderstood your comment, I apologize.
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Get ready for Weekly College Football fantasy gaming, driven by those stats the NCAA is going to sell.
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