The waters of Name, Image and Likeness are murky.
What should be about college athletes inking deals with various brands has turned into players directly asking for money. It’ll always be confusing, until the schools realize they need to pony up and implement revenue sharing with the players.
A big part of the NIL game is centered around social media. LSU women’s hoops star Angel Reese mentioning threats and sexualization following her team’s Elite Eight loss to Iowa made me think about it.
A lot of NIL deals are about branding expanding their reach to certain demographics. Any company that inks a deal with Reese, or Caitlin Clark, Kamilla Cardoso is looking to get in with the 18- 23-year-old demographic. Follower count and post frequency are written into a lot of college NIL deals.
Reese has 17 NIL deals. She has had deals with companies like Amazon, Coach and McDonald’s. She’s got 2.8 million Instagram followers, 2.9 million TikTok followers, and nearly 400,000 Twitter followers.
FS1 host Nick Wright on Tuesday said Reese should simply log off of social media to get away from the threats. He has a point. No one is bold enough to say anything to Reese’s, or anybody else’s, face. There are a lot of keyboard killers out there.
When you sign those deals, though, you have to keep posting and stay active on social media. It’s likely a breach of contract if a player cuts back on posts.
I’m not saying harassment comes with the territory. I’m saying Reese and other college athletes may not have a choice but to keep posting under the possibility of breaching a contract.
The harassment is getting out of hand, though. College athletes now have to deal with more “fans” having access to betting sites. Threats have come in because some guy with no self control didn’t hit on a parlay.
The players didn’t ask for the harassment. It does come with the territory, though. How much do the kids have to take, though? What’s it going to take for an adult to step in?
NCAA president Charlie Baker last month stepped in calling for states to ban college player prop bets. The state of Louisiana is implementing a similar ban this summer. That’s a start. It’s unlikely to happen, though, as player prop bets account for about half of all the action at sportsbooks.
So if college athletes are going to continue to be harassed and treated as avatars for gamblers, they should be compensated for it, right? I have a feeling we’re going to see whose side the schools are really on.
