FORT WORTH, Texas — Social media is the four-letter word that has changed just about everything in our world, up to and including the purity and sanctity of college football.
Before Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitch, LinkedIn, Twitter and the rest, college football was as pure as Lake Geneva, and as innocent as your local preschool.
That’s not true, but we love to convince ourselves that the world was always better when were younger.
The birth and expansion of social media just hit the accelerator to where big-time college athletics currently resides, which is basically a for-pay model trying to co-exist with higher education and the mirage of amateurism.
They all now sit at the same dinner table, but they don’t really get along.
In June of 2021, when the NCAA finally agreed to let student athletes accept money, the design was the volleyball player could make some cash through jersey sales, autographs, public appearances, and specifically via their social media accounts.
That’s where the majority of the money was supposed to come from; the softball player’s Instagram account and their ability to use that to appeal to companies who want product endorsement.
What NIL has morphed into is a giant pot of money, usually called “collectives,” which are crowd-sourced, to be liberally sprayed at student-athletes in return for minimal “work” outside of playing the sport.
There is considerable debate among Division I coaches and administrators whether the NCAA will try to regulate this new era of spending, and specifically try to implement some type of salary cap.
There is little debate any more among these same people about whether a student athletes’ involvement in the world of social media is harmful.
Social media, and the interest in the various platforms, changes so quickly that there is a small percentage of student athletes who really cash in that world.
What the majority of student athlete use social media now for is as a de facto resume, a way to enhance their own “brand.”
All schools, and their respective athletic departments, have learned that by 2022 all student athletes “get” social media.
The college freshman to the senior have all grown up with social media, and learned, usually the hard way, its potential day-ruining, to life-altering, spots.
There is a reason why you see fewer examples of student athletes putting out potentially embarrassing, or career-ruining, messages on their social media pages.
They either don’t do it, or they have created a “Fake Insta,” an account they use but are savvy enough not to put their real name behind.
Athletic departments still make it a point to introduce social media policies for its student athletes. Often times a coach will bring an expert in the field to talk to their team.
Last season, Jackson State University football coach Deion Sanders brought in Instagram model Brittany Renner to speak to his team on the realities of social media life, and its dangers.
“It’s my responsibility as a Coach to prepare my young men for any and everything on the field and off,” Deion Sanders wrote on Instagram page. “I brought in @bundleofbrittany to educate them on how the game is played between man & woman at their age & stage. The message may not be for everybody but trust me it’s for somebody.”
It’s genuine, positive reinforcement to an audience that needs to hear it, but who likely already knows it.
Deion may be on to social media, but at 55 years of age he’s not going to have the command of the language the way his sophomore defensive lineman does.
Where student athletes are making money is not necessarily in the world of social media, or their TikTok account.
For instance, with 127,000 followers on Instagram, you’d think Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers would be in demand as “an influencer.” On his account, he has 13 posts, none of which includes a product.
Heisman Trophy candidate Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud, has 129,000 Instagram followers. He has 26 posts, none of which are product endorsements.
In 2021, Ewers reportedly signed a $1.4 million contract with a company to sign autographs.
Stroud signed a six-figure deal with a local car dealership in Columbus, Ohio.
Texas running back Bijan Robinson has reportedly signed NIL deals with six different companies, one of which is a Lamborghini car dealer in Austin. Robinson has 133,000 followers on Instagram, and one picture of him sitting in an actual Lamborghini.
Then there are the student athletes who are basically paid on commission; they use their social media account to hawk product X, and if a consumer uses a certain code to purchase that item the player receives a commission.
When the NCAA passed NIL last year no one knew how it all was going to.
This is where it’s at, and social media has not been the big driver of revenue for players as much as big wads of cash from boosters.
The only difference is now it’s out in the open, not in an envelope.
