Page 16, November 4, 2019, The Islander
Publisher The Islander EDIT0EIAL
BACK
I nr aii k I
What's next for
college football?
Before I get to the heart of this
week’s Back Talk, I want to say con
gratulations to the University of
Georgia Bulldogs and all their fans,
myself included, for a great win over
Florida on Saturday.
As they say, the Dawgs now “con
trol their own destiny” with two more
testers coming up - Auburn in two
weeks and Texas A&M in three - leav
ing Missouri and Georgia Tech on the
schedule, both of whom we should be
able to handle.
Of course, we were supposed to
beat South Carolina by three touch
downs... so there’s that.
At 6-4 A&M has played a much
tougher schedule than we have.
They’ve already played Alabama,
Clemson, UCLA and Auburn and face
LSU the week after they play us.
Auburn on the other hand is a real
big question mark. They beat a good
Oregon team, but lost to Florida, so
who knows how that will come out.
It still comes down to us and Flor
ida for the SEC East. If Florida wins
the rest of their games, we can still
lose one and win the East because of
our win over them.
So Georgia is in the catbird seat
provided we win at least 2 of our 3 re
maining SEC games.
California and the NCAA
Now to the heart of the matter...
Once the California legislature
passed a law earlier this year allow
ing college athletes to profit from the
sport - and several other states began
considering similar legislation - it
didn’t take long for the NCAA to read
the writing on the wall and follow suit
saying college players can now profit
from their name, image and etc.
This means college athletes can
now endorse products like athletic
footwear and appear in TV com
mercials for local car dealers and
plumbers.
There’s been some hand wringing
over this on the side of those who want
“amateur athletics” to remain pure.
Frankly, I’m not 100% sure how I
feel. Basically, I don’t care, but I won
der if there’s potential for long term
harmful change to the college game.
One sports writer, who was against
the idea, said that the companies
that will pay college athletes for their
name, like Nike® and Under Ar
mour®, also currently provide money
to colleges’ general athletic scholar
ship funds.
He said paying individual athletes
may deprive those scholarship funds,
which support all college sports pro
grams, of needed funding and short
change things like baseball, softball,
volleyball, rowing and whatever.
Another point that seems obvious
to me, is that these companies, espe
cially major ones with big advertising
dollars, are going to focus on high pro
file athletes.
Sure, Alabama has Tua Tagovailoa,
Najee Harris, Henry Ruggs, Devon-
ta Smith and Jalen Waddle, among
others, who will all most assuredly
be playing on Sundays and I can see
these five getting big time Nike® con
tracts, maybe even a big money group
deal, but what about their teammates
like Skylar DeLong, Nigel Knott,
Scooby Carter and Mac Jones?
Do you think Under Armour® or
Coke® is interesting in using Nigel
Knott in a TV commercial, even if he
does play for the Tide? I don’t.
Clemson’s QB, Trevor ‘Sunshine’
Lawrence would likely get all kinds of
offers, especially from hair care com
panies. But I’d bet no one, other than
Clemson alumni and devout fans,
could name any current players.
Georgia’s Fromm and Swift would
likely get deals, but from what Geor
gia’s Speaker of the House David
Ralston said last week, it doesn’t
seem likely our state will be taking up
this legislation before these two sign
up for the draft.
Fromm is a junior, so he’ll likely
go pro next year, unless he stays one
more year to try and pick up the ever-
so-elusive National Championship.
Alabama, Clemson and Georgia are
currently some of the top programs in
the country right now and I don’t see
more than a dozen guys among them
getting paid to endorse anything.
I think this new rule, for the most
part, will only benefit a handful of
players in a few big time programs.
And interestingly, almost assur
edly, this money will go exclusively to
players already getting full ride schol
arships. The lesser scholarship guys,
who could actually use the money
won’t get a shot.
I think many more colleges won’t
get a dime of this money.
The fact is, college players have
received remuneration in various
forms for years, at least they used to.
If you doubt this, read former Okla
homa cum Seattle Seahawk lineback
er Brian Bosworth’s autobiography,
“The Boz.”
My memory is he makes the claim
in the book that he received payments
for playing at Oklahoma, maybe not
from the college but from Oklahoma
boosters.
Ironically, he came out last month
in opposition to the move to pay col
lege players. He said players are in
college to get an education. Odd words
from the man who took a shot at the
NCAA when he wore a “National
Communists Against Athletes” shirt
at the 1987 Orange Bowl.
Anyway, I’m still on the fence about
this... I hope it doesn’t have a drastic
impact on college football.
Of course I can always switch over
to soccer.... Nah.
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