John Calipari: College players should make money off their likeness

per CBS:

Calipari also called for a shift in mindset as it relates to accepting money or loans -- the latter of which was the center of a report Friday from Yahoo! Sports that drew quite a bit of attention and scrutiny for those involved.

"It's their name and likeness. It's not ours, it's theirs," Calipari said. "They should be able to make money. Maybe the school manages it, maybe the money goes to their parents for travel. And maybe there's a limit on what they can do, and the rest they get when they leave here. It's all stuff that can be done easily."

https://www.cbssports.com/college-b...players-should-make-money-off-their-likeness/

Go Gophers!!

This is actually a really good idea

Completely agree - how does it make any sense that Nike is able to put out a Jelly Fam shoe and Isaiah get's none of the proceeds. There would be no product without his likeness/brand. The rules around amateurism are arbitrary and created to insulate NCAA profits.

He's totally right.

Paying the players as university employees is super complex and fraught with complication. But each player should be able to cash in on their own likeness for sure.

It sounds good, but doesn’t that also just open the door for me to pay 50 grand for a recruit’s autograph if he chooses to come to my school?

There’s also the fact the schools themselves are the main reason anyone would buy players’ merchandise. Couldn’t players go straight to the G league out of high school and get paid and sell merchandise? But then no one would want their merch because no one watches or cares about the G league. The players’ likenesses mostly only have as much value as they do because of the schools they play for, schools which have a built in fan base who will cheer for the team regardless of who plays for them.

Isaiah Washington seems like kind of a special case in that he built up his own sort of brand before joining the Gophers, and has following of people who would probably watch him and buy his merchandise regardless of what college or high school he played for, and it does suck that he can’t make money off of his own personal brand.

Allowing college players to make money off of sponsorships sounds like a great way to reward top end athletes without having to pay everyone, and keeping small schools from having to put more money into their programs which may already be running in the red as is, but it also just seems like you’re allowing fans to pay for recruits.