Bill being introduced to allow student athletes to profit from their image
Texas QB Sam Elinger posted a series of tweets last night beginning with
Consider a full-time unpaid internship that requires 1-4 years of participation, with a minimum 40-hour work week. This internship generates millions of dollars for your company, and billions of dollars for the broadcasting companies that cover your industry.
— Sam Ehlinger (@sehlinger3) March 7, 2019
He later posted a link to another which described a bill which would "change the definition of a qualified amateur sports organization in the tax code."
Personally I'm fine with this as paying all student athletes due to title xi would be a mess. This allows the individual to market themselves.
It provides advantages to the monied fanbase that is most fixated on sports (not Michigan). Michigan's monied fanbase would rather buy libraries than quarterbacks. The question isn't whether 'bama will get all the good starters, it is whether or not Alabama's legal bagmen will want to spend enough to buy Michigan's starting quarterback and just stash him on Alabama's bench where he can't hurt 'bama.
Seriously? Are you on crack? You don't think Michigan's monied fanbase will pay for Michigan football. Look up these three names:
Stephen Ross
Bobby Kotick
Don Graham
Those three people can and will spend more money on football than the entire Alabama and Georgia alumni bases combined.
Hell - I would throw in a couple of grand every year.
This is how it should be done. It’s impossible to be fair under the law in paying athletes directly due to the necessity of payment equality between football and, say, field hockey. This way, anyone has equal opportunity to earn whatever the world values their worth at.
What is Title XI, and what does it have to do with college sports?
c’mon, nobody is going to bite at my snarking pointing out the Roman numeral failing in the OP???
What is with having a thoughtful and thorough discussion on the topic? This blog is for snark!
This has always seemed like the most logical middle ground.
Is the name of the bill the The LaVar Ball Act?
As long as the marching band is included in this, i'm okay with it
Yes, as Americans who are not NCAA athletes they are already covered by this. In fact, we are covered by it already.
You can pay anyone in the marching band to be in your commercial. Have at it.
I'm OK with it too, although apparently Sam doesn't value his education or the fact that he gets to be prepared and audition on a national stage for a job that could make him a millionaire overnight. As I've said repeatedly, if you don't like the deal, you don't have to take it.
And if the deal is not as good as it could be it can't be improved?
That's equivalent to saying "If you don't like America then you can get out!"
uhmmm, actually there is another choice and most of the coveted players are taking it. You get the “education” along side money from the bagmen.
sad that people are forced to turn to the black market to get their market value.
And if the rules were changed, there wouldn't be dishonest people anymore? Give me a break.
Bring back EA sports NCAA Football
Hoping this gets strong bipartisan support, it just makes too much sense.
Wouldn’t this muddy the recruiting waters more? Or would it be more fair for us.
Say I’m the CEO of a game developer and a UM alumn. Couldn’t i throw some money around and put some players on payroll for events or commercials and in exchange they play at UM and that would be fair?
being able to profit from your own name and likeness seems like a no-brainer... why the heck shouldn't players benefit from their own likeness?
of course there's going to be some unintended consequences that arise, so its something they'll have to monitor.
It’s prob high time something like this occurred. I think about the guys who drew SO much attention while playing college ball but didn’t quite make the NFL cut - Denard.