Stewart Mandel ($$) yawns at the “OMG, the boosters!” affect on whatever the new NIL rules ring in.
Of course, there’s the theory out there that some Boone Pickens-type mega-booster at a non-traditional school will just go and buy an Alabama-caliber class by signing them all to six-figure endorsement deals. First of all, a lot of guys still wouldn’t take the deal if they truly want to play somewhere else. Notice the NBA is now paying likely one-and-doners $500,000 to go play in the G-League, and yet plenty are still choosing to go to Duke or Kentucky for “free.” But also, that mega-booster is going to find out really quickly he’s not getting much of an ROI when half those guys either never make it off the bench or transfer before they ever see the field.
I’ll be writing about this subject in more detail later this week, but when all is said and done, I’m guessing that just like in pro sports, a small handful of superstars in their sport (think Johnny Manziel, Zion Williamson, Tua Tagovailoa or Sabrina Ionescu) will be able to get rich in college, but for most, this will primarily be a means to bank an extra $10,000-$20,000 a year through local appearances and sponsored social media posts. Which seems … fairly harmless.
Which is a pretty good sales point in and of itself on the recruiting trail. Just ask Ohio State.
Other than coronavirus, the most-talked about news in college sports last week was centered around the NCAA Board of Governors putting forth its support for rule changes to allow NCAA athletes to profit off of their name, image and likeness.
Like most powerhouse programs, Ohio State football’s recruiting team had already made its personal branding opportunities a major staple of its program and a major staple in recruiting pitches. We can expect that to pick up even further in the future, and as pointed out by Eleven Warriors’ Colin Hass-Hill last week, that has already started with Ohio State coaches on Twitter.
If you don’t think Kirby’s taking notes, you’re crazy.
Get The Picture 
What was the ROI calculus on offering Cam’s dad 180k?
I’ll hang up and listen.
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Admittedly, I often have a hard time keeping up with your galaxy-brain insight on the subject, so I’ll just ask: are you saying it’s better to let the money pass under the table so you don’t have to know about it, or simply noting that midway through his Heisman season, Cam would have been raking in a shit ton more than $180k had he been allowed to capitalize on his NIL?
Hang up and listen back atcha.
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What Derek MIGHT be saying here–and I’d agree with him–is that Megaboosters don’t really care about any ROI.
Also, howevermany Cam Newtons we find out about under the current rules, there’ll be lots more under unlimited NIL rules.
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Why? Simply because they’ll be out in the open? That just means you don’t want to watch the sausage being made.
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When you legalize an activity that’s been prohibited in the past, don’t you think that activity is going to increase?
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“Coach, I’d like to help, but I don’t want to become a bagman unless I can do it publicly.”
Yeah, I can see how that would happen.
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Oh, I think there are some bagmen and boosters who will LOVE the notoriety and celebrity once they can come out in the open! They will become stars on Finebaum and you’ll begin to hear loudly what you once heard quietly, “I OWN THAT BOY!”
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Right or wrong, I envision a world more annoying than all my wife’s friends hawking pyramid scheme makeup.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, that’s why when I emerge from an alley in downtown Athens, my first turn is to Little Italy pizza to satisfy my hunger. Ask about their specials and tell em Mudcat sent ya.”
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I’m simply stating that if anyone thinks economics is what drives under the table money they’re fools. The “over the table” money won’t be any differently motivated.
Mandel is FOS to suggest that ROI will drive that market. It won’t.
If you think that boosters buying these kids improves college football can we at least do the auction down on the docks in Brunswick? You know like we used to? Its historical!
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I don’t believe boosters buying these kids improves college football.
I believe you’re being hysterical about it.
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There IS something unseemly about knowingly turning 16 and 17 year old kids into commodities going to the highest bidder all for the entertainment of adults, no?
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LMAO. You mean that isn’t already going on now?
You really need to give up and follow D-III football, man.
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IF thats the case I’d prefer an enforcement model.
If we paid Fields to come to Georgia, I’d like to know why we didn’t pay him enough to stay.
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Except… they’re the ones receiving the money. Which makes your slave auction metaphor ridiculous.
(I’m assuming that’s what went on in Brunswick).
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I’m sure none of these kids will be improperly influenced by parents, other relatives, high school coaches, street agents and runners who will be trying to get their hands on that cash.
Cecil Newton tried (succeeded?) to sell his own son. Its not ridiculous at all.
A 16 year old kid is in no position to be an actor in a commercial contractual transaction. Its why, under the law, they cannot be bound by one.
So kids that can’t buy a car or lease an apartment can negotiate the appropriate rate for 3 to 5 years of their lives and not be victimized themselves in the process? We’ll soon see I suppose.
Ever heard of Hollywood child actors? To summarize, its a bit of a hit and miss in terms of adjustment to life as an adult.
The cure for the exploitation by colleges of these players should not be worse than the disease itself. I fear that’s exactly what we’re doing.
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Or…
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I’m sure that will be very valuable almost none of these guys who have zero real market value.
But it is good for recruiting! Why not build up false hopes that a pro career that will support them for their entire life is right around the corner?
After all, anything to take time away from the college curriculum that 98 to 99 percent of these guys will need in life, right?
Why not have a “lottery ticket buying course” instead?
The numbers of college athletes who will make a living in a pro league is minuscule when compared to what it takes to fill out 128 rosters.
While it would be wonderful to believe that the stupidity of the average booster will support kids who would otherwise suffer financially and that the trade off is worth it, I have sincere doubts that we’d be doing most of these kids a favor.
They’re for the most part coddled too much already for their talents. Putting them up for sale at market isn’t going to help.
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Still not slavery. An absurd comparison.
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For some people, an apple may only be compared to an apple. Millennia of figurative writing would disagree with that sort of concrete “thinking” but its no doubt out there.
All of the suggestions of college football being a “plantation” obviously were wrong as every athletic department building was constructed after the Civil War and few, if any, actually raised crops on their grounds, so different and stuff.
Btw: the nfl draft has been compared to the institution so hate on this:
http://justcommonsense-lostinamerica.blogspot.com/2015/04/nfl-slave-auction.html?m=1
https://www.bet.com/news/sports/2019/03/06/another-year–another-set-of-ridiculously-offensive-questions-be.html
https://theshadowleague.com/why-the-nfl-combine-conjures-slavery/
https://atlantablackstar.com/2014/12/09/5-ways-the-nfl-combine-reminds-us-of-slavery/
https://ussporthistory.com/2016/02/25/constructing-the-fantasy-plantation-the-nfl-combine-and-the-language-of-numbers/
And these:
https://www.cnn.com/2017/08/15/us/espn-fantasy-football-auction/index.html
http://sports.cbslocal.com/2017/08/16/espn-fantasy-football-slave-auction-sketch/
Enjoy!
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I can’t determine if you’re being willfully obtuse or simply unwilling to concede a point…
But it’s an inane comparison. The idea of taking young, (predominantly poor and black) men who are currently providing a service for a pittance of what the institution derives from said service, and offering them a means to earn significantly more, is being compared to slavery. By you.
College football is being compared to a plantation because they AREN’T getting paid.
But please, point out how it’s a flaw of concrete thinking to point this out. Then look in the mirror, raise your hand, and pat yourself on the back. You deserve it.
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“I believe you’re being hysterical about it.” – clip and save for nearly every single one of Derek’s posts
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“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
George Bernard Shaw
Enjoy sheepdom trbo!
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This will fall on deaf ears, but here goes. . .
It’s not that I disagree with a lot of what you say. It’s the fact you appear to have the need to antagonize, belittle, and demean anyone who dares to question your enlightened posts. It’s obvious (at least to me.,) You have all the answers and your way is the only way intelligent people should behave/think/act. It’s a distasteful, onerous task to plow through some of your posts. Perhaps we should also visit what else Mr. Shaw had to say about progress.
Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.
George Bernard Shaw
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I’m wrong about everything multiple times a day. I’ve changed my mind on just about everything at one time or another.
I just hate stupid. I understand that some believe my reaction to stupid is excessive. I wish I had more tolerance for it. I just don’t. Makes me angry.
I think you misread my frustration which is directed at exactly what you are saying:
people who speak with authority on shit in such a way that demonstrates that they haven’t even tried to use the brains God gave them.
I have not one single opinion that I am unwilling to revisit based upon sound reasoning and evidence. I’m not changing a view just because someone thinks I should.
I’m not willing to believe every disagreement is the product of sincerely held beliefs.
In short, if you come at me with “the earth is flat” I’m calling you stupid and fuck your damn feelings.
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According to Mandel, “plenty” of the best basketball recruits choose to play in college rather that accept the $500K they could make in the NBA’s G-League.
I guess the slavery of college athletics might no be so bad, as slaveries go.
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Gosh, maybe those kids will stay in college and turn down NIL money, too.
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“Peep the #s. No more lies and fake pitches now, you gotta show it.”
“1.6 million-plus social media interactions in three days.”
How the hell do you measure that? They sound like Georgia Tech.
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Every social media platform has analytics that measure engagement with posts. It’s how they sell advertising. Facebook and IG only really offer a look at it to people who boost posts or who have business pages, but if you’re on Twitter every user can look at their analytics. And teens definitely know how to measure who is looking at their posts and the impact and reach they’ve got.
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Release the bots!
#404THECULTURE
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Mandell: “But also, that mega-booster is going to find out really quickly he’s not getting much of an ROI when half those guys either never make it off the bench or transfer before they ever see the field.”
That is an irrelevant point by Mr. Mandell. The simple fact is, this new rule will afford boosters the OPPORTUNITY to buy a roster of 5 stars. It’s immaterial how many stay or pan out.
Liberals are awesome at coming up with social justice ideas, but lousy at rationally implementing them – the devil is in the details and they never think through unintended consequences. This new rule opens the floodgate to widespread corruption in college football, as well as further increasing the divide between the top and bottom tier programs.
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Dude. I don’t know how you managed to make this a red vs. blue issue, but congratulations, I guess you’ve done it. But if we’re pinning the idea of “allowing” athletes to profit off of their own likeness and name on the libs, it has always fascinated me that the only thing you have to do in order to turn a free market capitalist into a big government socialist is to change the discussion to college sports and 18 year old athletes (many of whom are poor!). Their ability to sell their skills on the free market has always bothered a lot of us in college sports and I’ve never understood why that is.
But, buddy, if you think that there isn’t “widespread corruption in college football” then I’m concerned you’re just being naive. And, I hate to break it to you, but Georgia isn’t some lilly-white unsullied institution on a hill either, as much as we’d like to believe there’s never been any rule breaking at Georgia, I think we all know that’s not the case. As for increasing the divide between the top and bottom tier programs, there’s another socialist idea for you, the idea that Vanderbilt and Northwestern deserve the same opportunities that schools like Alabama and Ohio State have just because they’ve worked harder and invested more in their programs. Leave aside the fact that we’re fans of one of the programs that’s going to still be on top!
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You need to educate yourself on how these political characterizations are made:
I’m sure there is an answer as to why I don’t fit neatly in here, and I’m sure its a dumb one.
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“Georgia isn’t some lilly-white unsullied institution on a hill either”. I’ve often wondered if we’re ever going to see some major recruiting scandal hit UGA. I hope it doesn’t happen, but if recruiting violations are as rampant as some people seem to think, and we’re pulling in top-rated classes ever year, you’ve got to stop and think about it for a minute. And we were pulling in pretty decent recruiting classes before Kirby got here too. Not top 3 every year like we are now, but not too shabby either. I think it would all come down to plausible deniability.
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Well Kirby learned from the guy who’s been pulling in number one recruiting classes for a decade without getting caught, so I’d say we’ll be fine.
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I wonder if they all subscribe to the theory of Mutually Assured Destruction. Like Saban isn’t going to rat out Pruitt or Kirby because he knows they’d return the favor in a heartbeat.
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Duuuuuuuude, do I really need to explain this to you? Looks like I need to, but alas I don’t think you’d get it.
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I’ll never understand what it is about the NIL issue that turns supposedly free-market conservatives into staunch communists.
On second thought, capitalists have never wanted to pay labor (especially brown labor) fairly so I guess you’re consistent with your principles after all. Hooray!
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Because people are stupid and don’t / can’t maintain intellectual consistency. Amateurism is literally communist and all the evils and inefficiencies that come with it (black markets, distorted incentives, lack of meritocracy and competition, suboptimal outcomes for buyers and sellers than what would occur in marketplace of voluntary exchange, etc.). If you like amateurism, you are literally supporting socialism, even if you loooove Fox news, also most likely makes you a hypocrite as well. (Apologies for the play pen pit stop).
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LOL! That’s right, giving people the right to profit from their labors is some lib-tard conspiracy! We need more good ol’ conservative regulation to make this right!
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Student athletes ca$hing on their likeness no matter the sport…BFD, those that can/do successfully may be so small it becomes negligible, hence the bagman cometh….hoops, at some level of questionable behavior/activity (coaches/players/institutions) have fallen in line to the aau events/shoe companies way of doing business with prospective student athletes…hand shakes, envelopes, bag of goodies, houses for mama and the like have happened and will always happen, ca$h for likeness ain’t changing that flow….Boone Pickens types contribute for one reason, there are other types that contribute in other ways that have Boone Pickens type checking accounts because they can….
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Cash for likeness does not preclude the cessation of those things that occur now in the name of amateurism. It just adds to it. To ignore the bad shit that can occur from sale of likeness is to also ignore whether rules can be enforced. How well do you think the rules are enforced now? 10% sounds about right and can be applied for sale of likeness. It is wide open to cheating and because that elephant is brought up for discussion and because some can’t reply to that question, it is relegated to the bin of who is more in touch with the bad shit that goes on now. That is not a reply to anyone asking questions about the downside of paying for players’ likeness.
Truth is, most who advocate for paying players can’t approach the downside for fear they don’t have answers. First time we are “outbid” by Clemson , FU, etc. for a great Georgia player, the howling won’t stop from the very same people advocating it, whether they admit to not answering questions before it happens or they don’t.
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Anyone ever think the reason these kids are dropping down on the $500,000 and the “G” league is they’d be taking a pay cut from say the Dukes, Kansas’s, UNC’s and Kentucky’s. It’s not be that long ago that Tark the Shark had quite the team in Las Vegas. Perhaps that was one of the first, naw you’d have to go back to Adolf Rupt, Vic Bubbas and Bear Bryant who was well known ( before scholarship limits ) to recruit kids just so Bama wouldn’t have to play against them.
I was able to visit Bama as a high school coach way before Bear wasn’t able to climb up in his tower. He had quite the gathering of boosters at every practice. The players parking lot was more spectacular than the boosters parking lot. The only thing is the players parking lot was a bit further away.
I don’t think pay for play, rights of NLI will cut out the bagmen completely. It’s been a Network for a long time.
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Good Lord, the $500K deal has only been around a month or so. Maybe we should wait a little while longer before drawing any big conclusions about it.
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