I’m 50, so it’s hard for me to remember what I really was doing when I was an 18 year old in high school. I can recall driving an 82 Honda Accord, which had zero acceleration but could get something like 80 miles a gallon which was great for allowing me to hang out with my friends at an old all you can eat Chinese buffet off of 138 in Clayton County. It had a cassette player and we could mix tapes and listen to our music. I had the clothes I needed and I don’t think the wardrobe broke anybody’s bank. I’d dare say being a teenager back then was cheap, or so I can remember. My parents might argue otherwise, but I digress.
I can’t imagine being a junior or senior in high school and already getting five figures for being a college football team’s payroll, though.
I do recall, as many of you do, as well, that it wasn’t out of the scope of possibility that recruits were already receiving gifts from football programs under the table, so there’s that. But for programs to establish payments in advance and then ask for funds to be returned if they flip their commitment is another level of bargaining that I hadn’t anticipated. I’ve certainly heard this after they enrolled, but now they’re putting 16 and 17 year olds on payment plans and expecting them to make sound financial decisions with these monetary commitments. I don’t think I was ready for that at 18. Hell, I still struggled with it in my thirties if I’m being honest.
The grifting is a touch obscene, to be fair, as is the new lengths to which college programs go to secure commitments from youngsters. Here’s Dan Lanning pulling a social media stunt with a kid from the rooftop of a lavish hotel:
Let’s check in on how that’s going.
I’m certainly glad Kirby is our coach. And I’m starting to wonder about the belief that Lanning would be his successor if Smart opts to step down anytime soon.
Man that was weird. That’s all I got right now.
I am glad Kirby is our coach. also. I shudder to think of him becoming fed up with the current situation and hanging it up. College sports require some immediate rules help or a large segment of its fan support will finally say “no mas”. Pro sports are far mor sensible now, and I really hate saying that.
Well that was cringy. Lanning seems a perfect fit for the school he’s at. We are blessed to have Kirby Smart.
Coach Lanning has a long career ahead of him and will probably change his act up up based on his next stop and as he ages. Nobody thought when Lance Kiffin got fired on the runway he’s take his Krimson Korner to Oxford and put together the Top Ten, playoff adjacent team he couldn’t at South California.
Just lost some respect for Lanning. I hope to hell Kirby never gets that desperate.
In another place and time that’s child abuse. Giving a teenager that much money to try to force a decision to play a game for the need to “win at all costs” is morally obscene. But now nobody cares and those in charge and with influence work hard everyday to justify the unjustifiable. Honestly, what are we doing here?
Our content creator in perpetuity was right about a lot of things. This stuff is what is putting college sports on a collision course with “I’ll find better things to do with my time on fall Saturdays” and result in a resurgence of fall weddings.
The commitment to provide NIL in exchange for a commitment (with clawback provisions) was never what any of us who thought NIL would be a good thing wanted.
Frankly, the paragraph above is the kind of stuff that eventually is going to result in a player draft.
The law of unintended consequences is undefeated.
I wonder if Clemson asked Hershel to give that Trans Am back.
Just a reminder of the conventional wisdom amongst the commentariat at the old place on this subject not too long ago:
“If a junior computer science major can cash in on an app he designed, then why can’t a football player sign with Nike?!?!
Its not FAIR!!”
My only surprise is that the road to hell too so long to construct.
It did not have to be this way.
I have no problem with NIL. I have a problem with the implementation of it by the supposed “adults in the room.” As the days go by, people like Jeffrey Kessler, Mark Emmert (and all his bosses and people), Jim Delany, Greg Sankey, Greg McGarity, Nick Saban, and Judge Wilken who either wanted to maintain the status quo or burn the whole thing to the ground without a clue of what should be in its place are to blame.
Yes, I said that about Michael Dell building computers out of his dorm room in Austin. I stand by my comment.
How does one implement professionalism into this space and not end up here or in court?
There was no way to transition from an amateurism model to a pay for play model and not end up here.
The suggestions that NIL deals would be arms length transactions between current enrolled athletes and businesses looking for ROI in their advertising budgets were grossly naive.
All it was ever going to be was a race for everyone to be Auburn without any possibility of consequences.
We’ll see what happens when Wilken gets off her high horse and approves the House settlement or throws it out.
The NCAA intentionally made this worse in the aftermath of the SCOTUS decision.
I still want to see what your suggestion would be beyond playing college sports with college students because that ship has sailed.
I thought someone under the age of 18 couldn’t legally be held to a contract. So good luck trying to get the money back.
Calm down, everyone. In every State of the union there is a legal structure to protect minors, even from their parents’ bad decisions. I can tell.you about Georgia law. A high school kid under age 18 is not an adult. No one can deliver more than $25,000.00 directly to a minor. If Tennessee’s collective wanted to enter into an NIL deal with a 17 year old for, say, $20,000 per month someone, typically the parent, would file in probate court a petition for appointment of a conservator and a petition to approve the payment. The court could not appoint as a conservator someone who could not post a surety bond in an amount well in excess of the amount of the payments. The court also has the power to refuse to authorize the NIL contract, or to require that the clawback provision be eliminated. If an NIL deal gets approved the collectve delivers the money to the conservator. The conservator cannot disburse the funds. He holds it an approved interest bearing accounts. He can only disburse the income from those accounts for the minors support without getting a separate order from the probate court. At all steps of the probate process the court appoints either a lawyer or a guardian ad item to protect the child’s interests (you will be shocked to learn that sometimes parents’ desires for the money isn’t in the child’s best interest (sarcasm))
If UT give the minor the money without going through that process the contract with the clawback is unenforceable.
Is s high school kid is age 18 he can contract freely just as a 50 year old can, however.