Carroll 5-star QB to cash in at Ohio State, which UIL prevents from happening now | Opinion
With nearly 100,000 followers between his Instagram and Twitter accounts, Carroll senior quarterback Quinn Ewers is not exactly a Kardashian but he is looking at hundreds of thousands of dollars in the IG world.
He’s a five-star recruit, and he’s committed to attend Ohio State after he’s done playing this season at Carroll.
He has all of qualities necessary to make real money in the wonderfully weird world of influencing, among other potential opportunities.
Ironically, the NCAA will soon no longer be his greatest obstacle to cashing in.
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of student athletes who play NCAA sports to make money from not only their name, image and likeness (NIL), and some will likely see direct payment as part of their compensation to attend a certain school. Ewers should be a part of a wave of student athletes to take in money during their college careers over the table as opposed to under it.
What SMU once received the Death Penalty for will soon no longer be an NCAA violation. The violation will soon be if the school isn’t paying athletes.
“It’s going to be X amount of dollars per autograph session. It’s going to be so much money for appearances at local restaurants,” said Peter Carton, the director of SMU’s Sport Management program in a phone interview. “As far as influencing, it could be $15,000 per post on Instagram, if you have so many followers on whatever social media account. There is no playbook for this.
“Right now know one knows anything because everything you see are projections. We are taking everything from the pro athlete and applying it to what could be. So whatever metrics you are seeing we’re applying to the stars in college athletics. These people, depending on their level of engagement, are highly bankable.”
If Ewers and his family were so inclined, Ewers should sue the Texas University Interscholastic League on similar grounds.
With the SCOTUS setting the precedent that the NCAA’s decades-old approach to amateurism is unjust, it’s only a matter of time before high school athletes will lobby for the same opportunities.
That is, if a family is lucky enough to actually locate a lawyer, or an entire law firm, that is willing to bill $400 an hour for a case that will take a year to go to court.
High school sports does not have the cash making element of NCAA Division I football or men’s basketball, but there are select instances of a high school athlete whose popularity is such they could monetize it.
The chance to make stupid money lasts only so long, and if the 19-year-old freshman volleyball player at the University of Texas can make some real cash off their IG, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok accounts nothing should prevent the 18-year-old Arlington Martin running back.
The UIL currently has rules that sound very NCAA-ish. The rules that the SCOTUS just took a sledgehammer to and all but deemed un-American.
According to Section 441 of the the Texas UIL rule book, to be eligible to play Texas UIL sports you need to be an amateur.
Section 441 says you are not amateur if you “(1) received money or other valuable consideration for participating in a UIL sponsored school sport;
“(2) received valuable consideration for allowing his or her name to be used in promoting a product, plan or service related to a UIL sport or contest;
“(3) accepted money or other valuable consideration from school booster club funds for any non-school purpose.”
There are some other rules, and some minor exceptions, but this is what prevents a guy like Quinn Ewers from taking advantage of his status, fame and potential reach, right now as a senior at Carroll.
By the time he enrolls at Ohio State, assuming that’s where he does actually go, the rules and the guidelines regarding NIL for people in his position should be established. He should be eligible to make real money the moment he is done playing for Carroll.
The Supreme Court has ruled, and the NCAA’s previous rules regarding amateurism will soon be demolished.
It’s only a matter of time before this trickles down to high school.
That is, if someone can actually find a lawyer to help.
