The NCAA is a sham and the entire system at the High to Mid Major level is slavery. I didn’t play D-1 High Major basketball. I played JUCO basketball. I will always explain that I was a head basketball coach and as a recruiter and camp coordinator I sent players to schools at every level including the High Major level. I had a subscriber list for my Center Court Basketball website of over 200 coaches at one point and page views in the millions for my recruitment website. I say this to establish that I know the game of basketball and I’ve explained over and over to anyone that pay to play takes place at the high school level, so what makes anyone think it doesn’t happen at their college alma mater?
That’s my point. Everyone knows it happens. None of this information is a surprise and it definitely isn’t a black eye for the sports brands. Pay to Play doesn’t shape Nike or adidas in any way when it comes to the selling of footwear and apparel, and will actually be a positive as it will open the door even wider to the room where paying athletes is a more serious discussion.
I’ve written countless articles on amatuerism.Here are a few links:
Could Nike Be Looking To Rival the NCAA Soon? | The PK80 Basketball Tourney
Should America Start Paying The Elite Amateur Athletes Like In Europe?
‘Amateur’ Gives A Glimpse Into Where Sports In The U.S. Could Go | The Backstory is a Master Class
adidas Breaks Barriers by Creating a Streaming Platform for Women’s Sports
In each one I’ve stated over and over that Nike is the one company that can force the NCAA’s hand. I was wrong. adidas is starting a network to air women’s sports. adidas did what I thought Nike would do first so now I say both adidas and Nike realize the power of the digital media. Actually I left out Under Armour who streamed their high school basketball summer travel season championship game on Facebook (that’s on this site somewhere, hit the search). If Nike begins to create more Breaking2s in more non-traditional sports you’re talking about the disruption of the last bastion of ads and commercials, live sports on television.
That’s what all of this is about. The NCAA wants all of the money. College Coaches want all of the money. The watching of sports is a billion dollar industry and just because a lawyer is bringing attention to pay to play, that doesn’t mean it’s going to stop. Right now AAU season is starting. High level players are being flown to different cities to compete with different basketball teams. Who is paying for the flights? Who knows… The money simply won’t have a paper trail this time so no one has to lose their jobs over giving kids money to attend a college; and let’s be honest who exactly is getting hurt if an athlete gets to campus wearing a Rolex and driving a LandRover (or a Hummer like LeBron did in high school)? No one. Will the coach have to manage egos on a team? Yep and he damn sure needs to considering at the worst a D-1 Coach is getting 300,000 dollars a year to coach a game.
Those people who expect some great change from the Pay to Play issue in college because of the lawyer Michael Avenatti, are probably not athletes and never participated in sports because everyone knows what happens and the world keeps spinning. The only thing that will happen now is the brands have the ability, much like the power conferences in college sports, to broker their own deals for dollars which will inevitably lead to the payment of players. If the power conferences don’t figure this aspect out soon, the brands will. If the brands begin to develop more Breaking2 styled events with Twitter, Facebook, IG and other social streams those brands will hit the NCAA where it hurts and Pay to Play will become about how much athletes should earn, which will be an amazing thing.
If you didn’t see Breaking2 below is a video of me watching the event. Since this event, it’s common place to see Live sports on Twitter and while it hasn’t disrupted live sports on television there is a reason NBA’s TNT crew had an Overtime show on Facebook and video clips are showing up on YouTube as the event is being played. The world understands digital chunks. Sporting events are now being broken down into digital chunks and the company that figures this out stands to build an incredible marketing system for their products.
