It’s not just the college athletes in the revenue producing sports that’s a threat, y’all.
College coaches in non-revenue sports are worried about the impact legislation allowing compensation for athletes could have on their programs.
More than a dozen national associations in various sports — hockey, soccer, tennis, golf, swimming and gymnastics, among them — have signed a memo outlining “significant concerns” about effects of allowing athletes to profit for use of their names, images and likenesses (NIL).
The concerns include reduced resources for lower-profile programs, the risk of “crowdfunded recruiting” for boosters to “buy talent” for a competitive advantage, increased influence by agents and whether schools can effectively monitor for compliance.
“Crowdfunded recruiting” for golfers? Hell, schools usually don’t give them whole scholarships, but now we got to worry about out of control golf boosters? Who’s the genius behind this scare?
The memo, prepared by North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham and associate athletics director Paul Pogge…
Oh. Well, that explains that.
“It doesn’t take a Rhodes Scholar to say those businesses might be able to make a deal with one of those recognizable faces for a lot less money than they can make a deal with the athletics department,” said Kathy DeBoer, executive director of the American Volleyball Coaches Association that supports the memo.
“The athletics department can say, ‘It gets you the sponsorship of all these sports.’ They’re like, ‘We don’t care, we don’t want all the sports, we just want the recognizable face.’ So does money now go from the athletics department to these student-athletes, and therefore there’s even less resources?”
Can’t have underpaid volleyball coaches now, can we?
These guys aren’t even trying to pretend amateurism is about the academic experience anymore.
Get The Picture 
Let’s take a look at each of the sports mentioned:
Hockey – athletes don’t have to go to college for any amount of time to become professionals. Many of the great junior players never see one minute inside a college classroom. It’s the baseball model.
Soccer – once again, the truly elite men’s players don’t go to college unless they want to. Of course, many of the best players are international players who sign with the clubs. Women go the college route because there’s not really a true professional route other than the national team.
Tennis – the young phenoms generally go professional as quickly as possible. John Isner is an exception to the rule of college players who become successful professionals.
Golf – the international phenom turns pro as soon as possible. The top US players play college golf as a way to build a resume to prevent going the mini-tour route to the PGA Tour. The tour just announced this week they would be giving the top 5 4 year college players based on the world amateur rankings immediate status on the Korn Ferry Tour and 6-15 status on the Latin America and Canadian tours immediately following the NCAA tournament.
Swimming – Michael Phelps never spent a minute in a college classroom. Many others do but leave as soon as they are ready to swim professionally.
Gymnastics – college gymnastics is for those who currently decide not to compete professionally. Courtney Kupets is the exception to the rule.
NLI may encourage some athletes in these sports to defer turning professional before they are ready. Many of the large local companies (Coca-Cola, Delta, Georgia Power, etc.) aren’t going to give up their corporate sponsorships of UGA athletics … another red herring from the overpaid PE teachers.
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If only these ADs had the resources of something like a top business school to figure out how to make this all work. Or even access to alumni like execs at major companies to discuss solutions that work. No, better to cry that the unregulated boogie man boosters are going to cause havoc and beg for help from regulators to fix the problem that doesn’t exist yet.
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I’m not saying I buy into all the macro economic fear cited herein, but am I a heretic to want at least a restriction that says you can’t use NIL to induce a signing to a specific college ? I get that is not “free market” and I’m OK with that. I also admit, I’m not sure how you police that–the future carrot can be dangled pretty easily. Would the world end if the rule said you had to wait until after your freshmen season to be eligible to capitalize on NIL rights ?
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