Until last year, no college athlete could legally or officially accept compensation for playing a sport at his or her college. That changed with a Supreme Court ruling that now allows college athletes to be compensated for the use of their Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL).
On this episode, I talk to Darren Rovell, a sports reporter who spent 18 years on the air with CNBC and ESPN and is now a senior executive producer at the Action Network. I also talk to John Staton, the Director of Operations at Classic City Collective, an organization of donors and alumni dedicated to helping athletes at the University of Georgia, which John used to be.
We discuss:
How the transfer portal effectively makes every college player a free agent
The number and scale of NIL deals, who they're happening for, and how big they're getting
How collectives interface with athletic departments
Whether money might poison relationships in the locker room within teams
What this world might look like five years down the road, considering how much it has already changed college sports in just a year and a half
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