The inevitable appears to be happening. We’ve seen a few states propose and pass into law name, image, and likeness legislation that paves the way for amateur college athletes to get compensated. We’ve also seen the NCAA express concerns but begrudgingly allude to concessions.
Now, we’ve seen Ohio State president Michael Drake and the NCAA’s Board of Governors throw their support behind a rule change to allow for college athletes to profit off of their name, image, and likeness — or NIL for short.
The one constant is change it seems, and it’s coming to college athletics barring any unforeseen, complete turn of events the other direction.
But what does it mean for Ohio State specifically? That’s what you are here for right? Here are three things we believe will be impactful to the program on the banks of the Olentangy when this all becomes reality in January of 2021.
Next … Competitive advantage for Ohio State
While some schools may be fretting this move towards player compensation, it might work out swimmingly for student-athletes going to Ohio State, at least the ones that have commercial appeal.
That’s because the campus sits smack dab in a large and bustling city with all sorts of corporate partnership opportunities. This isn’t Norman, Oklahoma or Ames Iowa, it’s the largest city in Ohio, and a top thirty-five media market. And while that’s not Chicago, New York, or Los Angeles, there’s a sweet spot there because of the interest in football.
Three Ohio cities landed among the top five in watching the 2020 NFL Draft, with Columbus leading the way in ratings for the entire nation. College football is king in Columbus and the athletes are treated like royalty.
That wasn’t lost on Ohio State either. Just hours after the NCAA released information with its support of player compensation for name, image, and likeness, Assistant Athletic Director of Player Personnel Mark Pantoni shared the following Tweet.
When this thing goes down, there will be plenty of endorsement and compensation opportunities in a large city that is married to significant public interest in college athletics. Perhaps no other program in the country offers as much.
Next … An oversight and management nightmare
If you thought the NCAA has become a paper tiger as of late, just wait. Once we introduce the ability for athletes to be compensated for their name, image, and/or likeness, there’s going to be a ton of loopholes to sort out.
There’s a lot of smart people trying to run this thing down that will eventually break the code to some degree, but everyone will be dragged through the mud to get there first. There will be some sort of structure of it all, but even as we find out the end game, I’m not sure how you begin to regulate and oversee a pay for play type of model.
The NCAA even admitted it’s still working out the intricate details.
“It’s also really important that in all of this conversation to recognize that what the Board of Governors approve and what the working group put forward is the clear framework within which a lot of detail is still to be developed,” NCAA president Mark Emmert said Wednesday morning. “That’s what the three divisions are working on now. So some of these answers will be ambiguous until all of the details are fleshed down in the coming nine months.”
The NCAA will try its best to come along with where this is going, but it’s going to be a wild ride. Frankly, it’s probably long overdue, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be easy.
Next … This only impacts a minority of athletes
Look, it’s not like this whole thing will be the wild west. Not all athletes will be appealing and marketable. Heck, not even close to one-third of all college amateurs will get some kind of deal done. It’ll be much less. For example –not to take anything away from the setter position of the women’s volleyball team, but there’s likely nothing there.
Your most popular football and basketball athletes will get a slice of the pie, but it starts to drop off from there.
So for all the college athletes applauding this move towards NIL compensation, it doesn’t mean they’ll get in on all the fun. It’s just simple economics and marketing.
Bottom line? We’ve just begun to scratch the surface on what this framework will lead to, and we’ll have to see it all play out as things progress through the rest of this year.
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