College Football: Time for Pay for Play

Aggie QB Johnny "Football" Manziel may just prove to be the catalyst for a seismic change in college football. He's under scrutiny for ....gasp- ...maybe accepting a few bucks for signing a few autographs. Or a lot of money for signing a lot of autographs. None of this of course might be true but it's the stuff of sports TV and Radio up and down the dials.

College football has grown in a multi-billion dollar business. Networks are paying billions of dollars for rights fees to show the games, then charge us for watching. Colleges are selling all sorts of memorabilia with the names and yes, even "authorized" autographs of their players for millions of dollars more.

Everyone is getting rich. Except the players who make it all possible. The argument against actually sharing some of the loot with them is "purity." They tell us the players already get full-ride scholarships, great housing and food and the training facilities are top o' the line. But the players who put on the show we tune into, are required to be amateurs. Play for no pay.

Up until the flow of money to the schools and networks turned into a flood, one could accept the premise.

Not any more. It's time for the players to get a piece of the action.

Here's one solution: Players would earn money based on sales of everything from t-shirts to ball caps. Sure the big stars would get the most, but there could be a fund established for all players equally for a cut of a very juicy pie.

How would they get paid? Not while actually in school, but on a pro-rata basis. Play one year, you get 25% of what's in your trust account. Two years and you get 50%. Play all four and well ...a nice nest egg even for players that don't make it to the pros. Plus a degree which might come in handy if you don't get drafted or picked up in free agency.

The NCAA has long ago lost any power or true credibility. It's a toothless old lion from another time. I won't be surprised at all if the big programs like Texas, 'Bama, USC etc decide to go their own way without the NCAA. Then they can make even more money.

Take Johnny Maziel for example. He's not allowed to receive any sort of money for what he does, but Texas A&M can charge a bunch of money to sit with him at a fund raiser or take part in a meet and greet.

Fair? Hardly.

Time for the money, or at least some of it, to go to who is truly feeding the cash cow called college football in the first place.

The players.

Brian Olson
Owner/Consultant
Conversation Starters Public Relations
"We start the conversation about you."

When a Thousand Words is better than a Picture

OK, to be clear, I'm not blogging about the old picture being worth a thousand words thing. This is about not using the picture in the first place.

Driving home from the mountains Sunday night I heard about the terrible injury suffered by Louisville's Kevin Ware playing against Duke for a spot in the Final 4.  Listening to ESPN Radio the most used word to describe it was "Gruesome." Post-game interviews with the coach and fellow players were emotional to say the least.

I haven't and likely won't see video or pictures of the incident where he broke his leg. I was in Church when it happened, I'm not really a college basketball fan and as Texas wasn't playing, well I just wouldn't have watched in the first place.

But there's the news, highlights shows and of course, Social Media. It's just about impossible to not see stuff even if you're not interested in seeing it.  Reading about the accounts of the injury, it was indeed gruesome.

But to their credit, most media outlets used good judgement and other than the the folks who saw it happen live and couldn't have avoided seeing it happen, the rest of us have been spared. This wasn't about seeing the injury, but the story about it and in the days following.

I did see a picture of Keven being released from the hospital  Here's to a quick recovery for the young man. That's the kind of image I like to see!

Louisville is on their way to the Final 4 in Atlanta, and my guess is Kevin will be there to cheer on his teammates. And ...very likely back on the court next season. Let's hope so.

In this case, a thousand words was worth far more than the picture.

Brian Olson
Conversation Starters Public Relations
"We start the conversation about you!"

NCAA and Pay to Play? Here's One Way.

I caught an interesting discussion yesterday on ESPN's PTI. (A great show by the way) It was about some way to pay NCAA players, who through their play generate millions of dollars for college sports programs all over the country.

OK, your argument against is these students are getting valuable scholarships, along with tutoring and you can't beat the travel and national attention which pays off in some big time pro contracts. Fair enough. For some.

But to my original point, the ROI for schools on scholarships is to be envied. So how about this idea? Let's say a star QB for a team generates a lot of money in the sales of his jersey. Or a premier volleyball player generates some significant cash for her school through merchandise sales. Perhaps a percentage of sales from all team merchandise can go into a collective pool for players.

Give them a percentage, akin to what the pros make for merchandising rights and keep the money in escrow in some sort of account that generates a fair rate of interest. When the player graduates or leaves early for the pros, the school cuts them a check. They're not as much getting paid, rather they are being rewarded for generating money for the school.

The NCAA generates billions of dollars in revenue from college sports. I do believe it's time for those responsible for the cash flow to get at least part of the revenue stream.

I'll finish with a fearless prediction. Bye bye Fiesta. The Cotton Bowl joins the BCS at Jerry's World.

I love college sports, especially football. But I also realize it's all about money so let's get real.

Brian Olson
Conversation Starters Public Relations
"We start the conversation about you"