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Jack Welch
Fox television personality Shannon Sharpe believes college athletes should be paid. He recently called out University of Georgia head football coach Kirby Smart about his comments on Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deals. In my opinion, NIL is a mess. But how should it be fixed?
Over the last year I have heard lots of naysayers give negative opinions about paying student-athletes, but I do not hear legal ways to fix NIL. The NCAA disagrees with paying student-athletes but has not done anything to correct the problem. They are arguing student-athletes are not employees under federal law.
Is the reason the NCAA does not want to pay players or is it because they do not want to share profits? Is the NCAA trying to keep the integrity of amateur athletics? The NCAA currently produces nearly $11 Billion in annual revenue from college sports. This is more than the estimated total league revenues of both the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League. Should players be compensated more than scholarships, considering head coaches are making millions of dollars?
On Fox Sports’ Un-disputed, Sharpe and his co-host, Skip Bayless, discussed Smart’s issues. The discussion focused on younger players making more than older players in NIL deals. Sharpe is in favor of paying college players whatever necessary to attract them to a particular college.
Sharpe criticized Smart for having a problem with college players wanting to make more money. He brought up Smart’s salary of $3.75 million in 2016 when he became Georgia’s head coach. Sharpe said this was Smarts first head job and former successful coach Mark Richt was getting paid $4.1 million when he was fired. He felt the Smart’s youth and lack of head coach experience did not allow him to be paid almost as much as Richt. Yet, Sharpe is not against paying 17- and 18-year-old students more than proven college upperclassmen.
Smart said 17 and 18-year-old student-athletes should not be compensated as much or more than older proven players. Some of these youngsters are receiving $10,000 dollars a month ($120,000 per year). He asked what these young players will do with all that money. He believes young players are not mature enough to handle the pressure of receiving lots of money.
Smart believes the NIL system has flaws with how deals are given to players. He said it is a reverse system, where younger players are receiving more than older players because of recruiting demands. The younger players deal keeps rising yearly because older players already made a deal. Older players no longer must be lured to the university. Then each year, NIL deals increase to attract selective new young talent. Whichever college can give more money in an NIL deal, they sign the top recruits.
To further complicate the problem of the out-of-control NIL system, Smart talked about the transfer portal. I believe Smart is correct. Both the transfer portal and NIL are a big mess. Kirby is speaking truth. People like Shannon Sharpe do not see the big picture.
Thought for the week, “The NCAA makes so much money off of their kids, and they put ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous, restrictions on everything that they can do.” Aaron Rodgers
Dr. Jack Welch is an educator and college football coach. His doctorate is in educational administration, and he has been an educator, administrator, and football coach, mentoring young minds, for over 40 years. He is also the author of Foundations of Coaching. He can be reached at jackwelch1975@gmail.com.