Trending
By Bill Contz
For the Mirror
Having made a previous living knowing that the precise length of a holding penalty represents 45 precious feet of hard-to-occupy NFL turf, I tend to be a bit of a numbers geek.
As such two recent, sit-up-and-take-notice NIL items had my full attention.
Firstly, during Big Ten media days Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork revealed that "around $20 million" was allocated from collectives and brand affiliates to Buckeye football players in 2023.
Quick math tells me that the 100 scholarship and non-scholarship gridders in Columbus each pocketed an average of around $200,000 last year alone.
I'm told there is no truth to the rumor their signature helmet sticker will be changing from the Buckeye symbol to a dollar sign (yet).
While that outrageous annual outlay is obviously skewed towards their premier players, it does nonetheless set a bit of a precedent when a school's AD goes on the record and basically quantifies the annual costs to field a championship caliber football squad.
Stanford softball standout NiJaree Canady left the toney campus in Palo Alto for greener pastures in Lubbock by agreeing to a tidy little seven-figure deal offered up by Texas Tech.
The Red Raiders' collective, the Matador Club, reportedly waved a red cape at Canaday worth $1,050,024. Talk about taking the bull by the horns!
A source close to negotiations said the previous high-water mark for NIL deals involving D-I college softball players was $175,000.
Today's premier amateur(?) athletes should start referring to the 21st century as the new milleni-NIL. And why not? They're the current main attraction and the vast sums of money that collegiate sports generate is theirs for the taking.
Like it or not, the truly elite college player will continue to gravitate to schools flush with well-funded collectives.
Since most of those schools are affiliated with Power Five conferences, further clarity should be provided to these upper echelon athletes in regard to the manner in which they will be compensated.
I contend these conferences should better use their call letters to distinguish and differentiate themselves to clarify the type of financial packages they offer.
For example the Southeastern Conference's SEC call letters could stand for 'Spend (our) Entire Collective' meaning every single dollar in the door in any given fiscal year is doled out to their athletes.
The Atlantic Coast Conference, heretofore known as the ACC, could stand for the All-Cash Conference.
They would lure top recruits away from the SEC with promises of cold hard currency versus things like rent-free condos or lifetime car leases.
To steer talent away from those conferences, the Big 12 could offer lucrative incentive packages to their top 12 athletes in their major sports while choosing to hand out lesser amounts to lesser accomplished tier performers.
These days the recruiting mindset for the elite 5-star athlete is now strictly "show me the money" and the pursuit of higher education a secondary afterthought.
It is what the current market and court system will bear - untold riches for the select few and frankly I'm all for it because a college athlete's career (and their earnings potential) can end on one play.
This most recent NIL noise simply reminds us of the current cost of doing business.
Contz was a starting offensive tackle on Penn State's first national championship team in 1982 and played six NFL seasons with New Orleans and Cleveland. He published a book in 2017, "When the Lions Roared: Joe Paterno and One of College Football's Greatest Teams." He resides in Pittsburgh.