Still going to give advantage to whatever entity that is paying the most. I guess that comes down to the school and the conferences. That being said, this statement caught my eye, "The bill would codify the right for student athletes to get paid for the use of their
name, image and likeness (NIL), while mandating that colleges and universities also provide them with "comprehensive" academic, career counseling, and medical support, according to text obtained by Fox News Digital."
So, schools are going to allocate even more attention and resources to these coddled individuals who are paid and given a free academic ride? The way I see it is this:
If you want an education and get paid by a school unlike the typical athletes, you should have to either pay for your education or qualify for an academic scholarship just like every other student. However, I also believe that sports are their own discipline and take great dedication in order to succeed at. So, why force athletes to get both and pay them to do so? This soaks up a lot of resources by providing free education to many individuals who might not otherwise choose to focus on--along-side their athletic journey. Some of these young men and women are more athletically gifted than intellectually gifted.
Such a change might present the student-athlete with more opportunity to focus on what their natural talents are and give them a better shot to pursue a career in those sports--even if not in one of the major American professional leagues. Meanwhile, schools would no longer be handing out free academic rides to young men and women already being paid while other students have to pay--again unless one or the other qualifies for an academic scholarship.
While some athletes might be gifted enough to qualify for academic scholarships or opt out of pursuing academics altogether, some student athletes will choose to pay for an education in the event their athletic career doesn't work out. This actually creates revenue for the schools that might not otherwise exist under the new model. This gives schools additional revenue. Revenue that the schools could potentially use to fund other sports, for example. Which is another problem that is presented in this video.
On the latter note, so much for being an everything school. I submitted a note last year to Danny about collaborating with the school's media department, local businesses, etc. to help build markets for non-revenue generating sports in an effort to at least help them generate revenue to be self-sustaining. If the new legislation does indeed have the stated impact on non-revenue generating sports, these sports will have needed something like this yesterday.
I really wish there was a 24-hour tv station and online publication geared towards airing all Tennessee sports material that donated a portion of its revenue to these non-revenue generating sports. It would give the communications/advertising departments a lot of real world experience (keeping the costs low). It could be an entire production from media coverage, production, design, advertising, etc. and real-world brands could advertise on the commercials, team jerseys, digital assets, radio, television ads, etc. and realize a return. The students working for this operation could interview professionals from major sports publications to add meat and credibility to their material while gaining real-world experience. This would also be free advertising for the major sports publications.
The list goes on. I love our major college sports, but I'm not liking the monster they are becoming. There are ways to make it all happen.
