NCAA board’s support of athlete compensation has ‘shock value.’ How it may affect TCU.
TCU athletic director Jeremiah Donati doesn’t know if the NCAA would’ve allowed college athletes to sign endorsement deals two years ago. Maybe even a year ago.
But change is coming to the college sports world. The NCAA’s Board of Governors announced Wednesday that it supports a proposal to allow college athletes to profit off their name, image and likeness through endorsement deals.
“The news that came out was significant because it demonstrated that the NCAA was willing to go that far,” Donati said. “That was not the case a year ago, two years ago, so this is really a strong statement with how much the NCAA is willing to evolve. That was the shock value in [Wednesday’s] announcement.”
The impact, positive or negative, it has on a school such as TCU remains to be seen.
Some would argue that TCU and its players are positioned to benefit more than others by being in one of the country’s biggest markets. Others would argue that players at schools such as Nebraska and Boise State are in better situations as the “only show in town.”
But Donati and TCU’s coaches knew this day would come. It’s been viewed as a much-needed step college sports had to take.
However, as Donati said, “It’s an evolution that needed to happen in a lot of ways, but there’s still unintended consequences that are going to sprout up. We’re going to have to deal with those as they come, but we’re just scratching the surface on all the opportunities that are really going to become available to kids.
“I think social media is going to be the biggest area that kids can make money off their name, image and likeness quickly. There’s all sorts of value for re-posting this, or endorsing that.”
Donati, who started his career as an agent with famed agent Leigh Steinberg at Steinberg Sports & Entertainment, estimates that a limited number of college stars could earn close to six-figure paychecks promoting products.
For TCU coaches such as men’s basketball coach Jamie Dixon and baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle, the new legislation is welcomed. Both are supportive of it and believe college athletes will benefit from it.
They also dismissed the notion that this new legislation could divide a locker room. If one player is receiving a $5,000 endorsement deal and another isn’t, that could seemingly lead to internal conflict.
“No, I hate that point,” Schlossnagle said. “Anybody that argues that needs to spend one day in an equivalency sport locker room. We already have Preston Morrison being the most successful pitcher in school history and he wasn’t on a baseball scholarship. It’s just an unwritten thing — the guys who play the best, play the most.
“If players don’t like it, then they’re never going to exist in a pro locker room where everyone is making different salaries. Or in a business office where three people are doing the same job and all three are getting paid differently.”
Dixon agreed with that notion, and went on to say that he has no worries about unintended consequences from the new legislation. He pointed toward TCU being fully committed to student-athletes already and this becoming an extension of that.
“As I’ve told our players, our support for the student-athletes by the university during this time with the virus and during this time with legislation changes being discussed, there’s no doubt in my mind that the student-athletes’ well being is first and foremost for the university,” Dixon said.
For Donati and the coaches, the main concern is the effectiveness of the “guardrails” the NCAA wants to put in place in terms of recruiting and maintaining a level playing field. The NCAA acknowledged it would need Congress’ help to implement regulations.
The NCAA doesn’t want boosters using endorsements to entice players to come to their schools or to pay for athletic performance.
Additionally, Donati would like to see restrictions on the types of endorsements players are able to obtain. TCU has long been affiliated with Nike and the idea that a competing shoe company could pay a player to wear its brand is troublesome.
“I don’t know how you can really have two worlds where the university has their sponsors and the student-athletes can go anywhere because you just crush the schools,” Donati said. “What’s the value to Nike if they have the swoosh on their jersey but are wearing adidas shoes? I just don’t know how that works.”
The counterpoint is that professional athletes are able to sign their own shoe deals. The difference between college and pros, though, is that the NFL, NBA and MLB have league-wide deals with Nike to be the exclusive uniform provider.
The Big 12, for instance, doesn’t have a uniform contract for the conference. Instead, everything is negotiated by the individual schools and apparel companies.
“That will be a big thing for any athletic department,” Donati said, “to make sure there’s no conflict between the sponsors that the university has partnerships and agreements with and who the student-athletes potentially do.”
