Geno blasts the transfer portal

[cancontent]

When you are a professional it is all about marketing and promoting yourself and negotiating the best contracts. I also understand that the majority of the TV audience have no emotional connection to the schools, however the comment that I hear most frequently from fans who watch and prefer college sports is that the reason they prefer it is that every game counts, that it is clear that the players are giving their best and the college atmosphere at the games make them more exciting.

You refer to the right of the individual athlete to maximize their earning potential and see no problem in that. Then there is the argument that the athletes need unions to negotiate on their behalf as they are being exploited. All that sounds good and may work out very well for some college athletes but the minute you consider non revenue sports, and lower level competition in many schools you have to realize that play for pay and unionization will apply to them as well. The NCAA loves to run the commercial stating that most of college athletes have careers outside of their sport. They may have to revise that ad when schools are forced to eliminate non revenue sports because they can't afford the additional costs which will be forced on them.

I do not have a crystal ball but I do believe the changes that are underway will benefit greatly a small number of athletes, but will serve to make the product less appealing to the masses and will eliminate the opportunity to participate in collegiate sports for many others. I also believe there is a risk that alumni donors will be less prevalent in the future as classes continue to graduate with a lower emotional connection to the schools.

Coaches such as Gino are recognizing that the changes which are underway will not allow them to coach and build teams as they did in the past. They will need to become more like professional coaches.

That's the thing. NIL rights extend beyond the NCAA as it's already been adopted by the NAIA. I think it could help athletes in non-revenue sports along with their programs. Some of these athletes already have large social media followings which schools could further leverage indirectly while the athletes generate revenue where they can.

ESPN had an interesting article a while back that talked about NIL and it's potential for the NCAA. They talked about 2 sisters who play on a volleyball team who have larger followings than some WNBA and popular NCAAW players.

How athletes with large social media followings could be the real winners in NIL changes

A new era of NIL rights is coming as soon as this summer, and it won't be just the Heisman finalists or March Madness heroes cashing in.

www.espn.com

This section from the article caught my attention:

"When the pandemic cut short Mitchell's senior year of high school, she joined so many other bored do-it-yourselfers by trying her hand at a little renovation work on a shed in her parents' backyard in Michigan, tracking her progress on TikTok. The videos caught on, and her audience soon ballooned to more than 2 million followers.

Companies quickly took notice, and last June, Mitchell partnered with a tech company called Smart Cups, which sponsored a series of videos in which she created a bonfire lounge in her parents' backyard. The partnership was a hit, and more ads followed.

Still, the whole endeavor might have ended as quickly as it began. As she entered college, Mitchell planned to play volleyball, and existing rules would have prevented her from earning any revenue from endorsements. But Mitchell arrived at Aquinas at the perfect time. Last October, the NAIA revised its rules on NIL, and in December, she became the first athlete to profit from an endorsement, a demonstration of golf clubs on a mini-golf course she'd built for her dad inside their home."

I'm not an expert on NIL, but in some ways I think it could be beneficial to non-revenue sports. How the NCAA wants to do it is the question, but if NAIA already has there is a template that could be followed.

 

[HuskyNan]

Entertainment is exactly what all sports are about. I’m sitting in my favorite chair sipping on an adult beverage. I could be watching a Lakers game, a UCONN women’s basketball game, the Cornhole semi finals, the Little League World Series, or pickle ball for geezers. I’m watching to be entertained.

Yep. Pitchers’ duels in baseball will thrill the purists but bore the fans to tears.