Photo courtesy of Don Juan Moore/Florida State athletics
A new law will take effect on July 1 in Florida. This law will allow allow college athletes in the state to make money from endorsements.
After many years of the NCAA cracking down on anything remotely resembling such, this is new territory. The debate rages on. What does this mean for college football?
The NCAA has taken a hard stance on this historically. The public has been largely split on the issue.
Schools of Thought
One camp has long been critical of the NCAA. This camp looks at what the athletes have done and endured, especially now with COVID-19 affecting everything from travel to social interaction.
They adore these athletes and their teams and have been critical of the NCAA’s stance for many reasons. That includes their own desire to play NCAA Football on various gaming platforms, which has not been allowed for some time due to this very issue.
The other camp thinks this will ruin college football. They expect that it will create some free agency situation, as if the transfer portal has not done that already.
Money paid behind the scenes has resulted in multiple NCAA violations for different universities. This also had an adverse effect on many athletes who played no role in the violations.
It is about checks and balances, folks.
A New Era
This law and the Name, Image Likeness (NIL) program called “Apex” that Florida State announced Monday actually helps establish those, and puts schools on a level playing field. It does so while allowing athletes, who have been banned from making any money off their likeness despite showing up every day, and then playing games for others to profit off of, to be able to market themselves and profit.
This also provides a check of the “secret” contributors, and the ones willing to use a player’s image and likeness without going through the university. Want to endorse a player for your company to benefit? You now get to go through compliance for approval.
The program will tell players, based on a software platform “INFLCR”, the value of their services. Under the law, a student-athlete may earn compensation for his or her NIL for an amount “commensurate with the market value” of the authorized use of an athlete’s NIL.
The program that Florida State is implementing will tell athletes what that valuation is. Not only that, but players will receive college credits for classes to learn about the program.
Former Florida State fullback James Coleman spoke with Charity Grady, Florida State Director of On-Campus Recruiting, on the topic. For the full interview and much more detail listen here:
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