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- 🏅 Are Walk-Ons A Thing of the Past?
🏅 Are Walk-Ons A Thing of the Past?
Teaming up with
Hey there,
Thanks to the SEC conference’s spring meetings in Destin this week, we’ve got an SEC-heavy slate of news today. We’ll hear from officials at Florida, Texas A&M, and even the SEC commissioner himself on a variety of issues: logo sponsors on the field, making sure walk-ons remain a part of college football, and more. Just keep reading!
Please do us a favor and take a look at today’s sponsor, Purple Carrot.
If you want to get in touch for any reason, find us at [email protected] or simply respond to this email. Now to the news!
— Cole, Justin and Collin
KICK-OFF
Logos are Coming to CFB Fields Soon
Staring down a billion-dollar price tag from the House settlement, the NCAA is expected to get creative in paying back the damages. One potential revenue stream could be allowing sponsors to display their logos on college football fields nationwide.
“I believe the NCAA is going to allow us to put a sponsor logo on the field during the regular season,” said Florida AD Scott Strickland, “That's an obvious revenue stream that has not been there in the past. The pro sports are putting patches on jerseys. That doesn't seem like something that's crazy for us to consider these days.”
While most purists would rather keep the game more aesthetically clean, the money from this move could be substantial. A field logo could fetch about $1M annually for an SEC school, and corporate sponsor patches on jerseys could bring in over $5M annually. (More)
Roster Limits Could Mean Trouble for Walk-Ons
College football rosters may look drastically different in a few years thanks to one proposed change in the House settlement. Instead of 85 scholarship players, the rosters may be capped at 85. This would leave no room for walk-on players to join the team.
“I'm strongly against it," said Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko, “I think it's absolutely against college football, what it stands for and what it's about. I think that would be a major problem, especially when you look at legacies of Texas A&M kids that are going to get the opportunity to play football at Texas A&M potentially taken away from them.”
Elko isn’t alone in his concern. Nearly every SEC coach unanimously agreed about the potential pitfalls of a roster cap size, including Georgia’s Kirby Smart. “I don't know anybody that would be against having walk-ons,” he said, “At what cost does that bring us? I think it hurts high school football, and football as a whole, when kids can't even dream [about walking on].” (More)
SEC Commish Wants Congress to Step In
A few months ago, the SEC was calling shots. As the NCAA floundered in February, the conference partnered with the Big Ten to discuss how the two might usher in a new era of college sports. That feels like ages ago, though, which is why SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey is calling on Congress for help post-House settlement.
“I think Congress has still an opportunity to use the structure of this settlement to enact legislation to strengthen the future of college sports," Sankey said this week, “The breadth of the settlement is intended to give us a path forward, provide a level of clarity about the future that doesn't embed employment automatically.”
Like many stakeholders, Sankey is specifically worried about future antitrust lawsuits. If Congress doesn’t grant the NCAA antitrust exemptions, these legal issues could continue well past House v. NCAA. (More)
Teaming up with
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BEST PRACTICES
Sustainable Fundraising Means Building Trust
At the NIL summit earlier this year, collectives identified fundraising, donor fatigue, and sustainable revenue streams as their industry's biggest issues. Everyone seems to be asking the same question: “What’s the secret ingredient to sustaining donations over the long haul?”
The answer, at least according to marketing expert Mike Adorno, may surprise you: transparent communication. “92% of the media said collectives provide inconsistent communications relating to their goals,” Adorno said in a piece for Sports Business Journal, “With so much confusion in the market, donors want to know WHO will benefit from their donation, [and] WHAT impact their donation will have.”
It all boils down to trust. Like any donation, givers want to understand where their money is going and how it benefits the larger goals of the school itself. Without establishing transparent communication channels, expect donors to lose trust sooner rather than later. (More)
DOWN TO BUSINESS
Title IX is Still a Big Question for Rev-Share
College sports is working toward a revenue-sharing model, but many questions remain unanswered about how that model is employed. For example, how will Title IX operate in a post-house-settlement world? Some college sports leaders have thoughts.
Texas A&M AD Trev Alberts maintains a market-informed approach. “You think about proportionality,” he said on the issue, “Should the market… dictate or have an impact on what that [rev-share] percentage looks like? That would be my orientation, but I guess I could be corrected.”
Alberts is also aware that whatever Title IX implications arise, these decisions will be legally challenged by one side or another. Because of that reality, we may not have much clarity on Title IX outcomes for some time. (More)
Teamworks just announced a digital wallet tool that will make NIL payments easier for athletes to track. The service, available on August 1st, gives athletes a “bank” of sorts to receive, store, and spend money.
Texas A&M AD Trev Alberts thinks fiscal responsibility is college football’s most significant issue. “We don’t have a revenue problem in college football,” he said, “We have an expense problem.”
COLLECTIVE 101
Shifting toward Business-Brained Leaders
The legal shift toward revenue sharing has shifted the mindset of every school in the country. More than ever, college sports is a business, which is why business-minded people may be the way to stay afloat in the new era.
When On3 asked if we might have schools and collectives hire more business-minded people in the near future, Playfly Sports Properties president Christy Hedgpeth had this to say:
“I think potentially. You think about the backgrounds of administrators and why they got into this, and what their focus has been, that makes all the sense in the world. But there is an opportunity for maybe more traditional business experience to be a factor, a more emphasized factor maybe in hiring athletic directors.” (More)
Could NIL collectives be the ones distributing revenue-share payments to athletes? Reluctant to outsource any piece of the puzzle, schools have already begun brainstorming how collectives can help put together revenue-sharing contracts in the future.
Nebraska volleyball’s head coach just signed a new contract, which includes provisions for whether he should accept a job with “the NCAA or a successor organization.” The subtle inclusion of “successor organization” points toward a general unease about the future of the NCAA itself.
ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT
Quinn Ewers
School: University of Texas
Sport: Football
Class: Junior
Accolades:
A third-year quarterback who has played in and started 22 games
5,656 career passing yards rank eighth all-time in Texas history, and 37 career passing touchdowns tied for seventh
2023 AP All-Big 12 Second Team selection
2023 Big 12 Championship Game Most Outstanding Player
NIL: Quinn Ewers has landed NIL deals with EA College Football 25, Nicholas Air, Champs Sports, Hey Dude Shoes, C4 Energy, and 7eleven.
NIL BLITZ
♦️ USC commit Julian Lewis purchases a car for his father with NIL earnings
♦️ Indiana just turned their annual athletic department fundraiser into an NIL fundraising event
♦️ The WNBA has seen all-time viewership highs this season, gesturing toward a larger NIL market to come in women’s basketball
♦️ Arkansas collective announces a bundle package with content platform Hogs+
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BATTER UP
Today’s Poll Question:
Which potential change to college football would be worst? |
Last Edition’s Poll Results:
Will directing funds toward collectives as marketing agencies be an effective use of money for Universities?
Yes, collectives understand how to raise money better than anyone! - 49%
No, now more than ever schools need to be frugal with their budgets - 51%
“Should the market… dictate or have impact on what that [rev-share] percentage looks like? That would be my orientation, but I guess I could be corrected.”