Rippee Writes: NIL thoughts, golf and a snake on the loose
What to make of name, image, likeness, Rory has club stolen, python terrorizes a mall
A happy Friday to you all. We have a new podcast out with Collin Brister previewing the MLB Draft and how it will affect the Ole Miss roster in 2022. Check that out here or anywhere you get podcasts. We had some technical issues with recording the Mailbag Friday pod, but will have that out tomorrow morning, and then back to a normal programming schedule next week.
Some name, image, likeness thoughts
This has been a major story in college sports for the last two weeks, and really the last two years, but particularly since the legislation officially went into effect on July 1. You saw guys announce deals immediately, like literally, immediately. Auburn quarterback Bo Nix announced a Milo’s Sweat Tea endorsement at 12:01 a.m. Hundreds more followed.
I haven’t written much about this, mostly because the process of getting to this point was hard to understand and didn’t particularly interest me (kudos to the people who covered the story for over two years). But now that it is upon is, it will be a fascinating change to an outdated system that will alter the landscape of college sports, or at least I think it will. I’ll probably get into this more in the coming days and weeks, but here are some thoughts.
This was long overdue. I always generally understood both sides of the ‘NCAA is the devil, these kids are exploited, pay them now vs these kids have it pretty good and a scholarship has value” debate, and usually fell somewhere near the middle of the two sides. But the idea of college kids, who play in front of thousands and millions of fans each year, not being able to make money off their own name was silly, archaic and wrong. The 19-year-old YouTuber who is a regular student can rake in whatever he wants making content in a dorm room, but the football players at that school can’t? It never added up to me.
I’ve spent a week or so reading, listening and watching stuff to try to gain a better handle on how this is going to work, and the only conclusion I came up with is this: absolutely no one knows. Fourteen states currently have NIL legislation in effect. At least 11 more have legislation that will be signed into law within the next three years. Nothing is uniform. Each state has different, and often vague, guidelines to follow. NCAA President Mark Emmert spent the last couple of months pleading with congress to put together some sort of federal legislation to regulate this. Oh, and he also wanted an antitrust exemption for the NCAA, but whatever. It didn’t work. In fact, one legislator even called the organization Emmert oversees a “cartel,” in case you were wondering if Emmert and the NCAA were getting sympathy from congress. The commissioners from each power 5 conference drafted a letter supporting a national, uniform mandate too, presumably to avoid the headache and potential nightmare of having to do it themselves. COVID-19 was a prelude to this. Similar to what the federal government is doing now, the NCAA balked on the idea of setting COVID guidelines, leaving the conferences to decide for themselves. As a result, you had some seasons start in August, some in November and others in the spring. It was a bit of a disjointed mess.
I guess my point is this: it is going to be the wild west, at least in the short term, until this is ultimately more tightly regulated. The vagueness of this initial wave of legislation made sure of that and it’s going to be interesting to see how much money these student athletes are able to make.
On top of this being unregulated, there’s no governing entity to enforce the loose rules currently in place. How is the NCAA going to do it? Laws are different in each state. Are states going to spend time monitoring how much some kid gets in a deal with a local restaurant and how the deal came to be? I seriously doubt it. Everyone involved seems to be sort of flying blind, offering a collective shrug when a question arises and going forward with it anyway. None of this is bad, per se, by the way, I just find it fascinating.
Just like any other instance of there being a major change within an ecosystem, there will be unintended consequences. I have no idea what those are and they will become clearer in time, but I am eager to find out. Some schools and programs are going to figure out how to do this better than others and create a competitive advantage. It’s going to change the way schools conduct business. How, exactly? I guess we will soon find out.
How many of these deals signed today will look silly in a year or two? There’s no market standard for any of this. Do we know the true value of Matt Corral endorsing your brand? I guess social media followers offer some sort of rough barometer, but you have to believe there will eventually be some sort of correction the further we get into this. A market standard will eventually set in and some arrangements will end up looking better than others. I’ll probably do something on Monday on the various deals signed so and the monetary figure attached to them. That part of it is interesting to me because we don’t really know yet what is good value and what isn’t.
Those are all the thoughts I have on it, for now. I am far from an expert on NIL and you shouldn’t view me as one. These were just some questions and thoughts I had on the subject from watching everything unfold for a week. There will be more clarity and reaction soon.
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Fan steals McIlroy’s Club
Remember a few years ago when Bubba Watson, who was probably at the peak of his unlikable stage (Bubba has grown on me since, and many others, too, I think), complained about unruly fans on the European Tour? In 2011, Watson missed the cut at the French Open and voiced his displeasure with the gallery.
"It's not a normal tournament," Watson said. "There's cameras, there's phones, there's everything. There's no security. I don't know which holes to walk through. There's no ropes."
He got crushed for this at the time, but he might have had a point.
Rory McIlroy and John Rahm stood on the 10th tee at The Renaissance Club in North Berwick where the Scottish Open (the de facto tune up tournament to next week’s Open Championship) is being played when a fan wandered onto the tee and decided to snag a souvenir. The guy snagged an iron and a head cover and walked over to the corner of the tee to get a few swings in. McIlroy’s caddie called security, because apparently there was none nearby, to handle the situation.
This really is a hilariously amazing sequence to watch unfold. The casual nature in which the fan strolls up to the players, followed by the utter shock and reaction from McIlroy and his caddie. There’s no way you could pull this off at a PGA Tour event. Hell, they tackled that U.S. Open streaker in the middle of a fairway faster than this guy was apprehended. Neither player seemed bothered by the interaction. In fact, it appeared they were amused by it. Definitely something you don’t see every day.
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Johnson gives Swann exemption into LPGA event
I mentioned in Wednesday’s golf update that Ole Miss golfer Kennedy Swann was teeing it up in an LPGA Tour event this week. What I didn’t know is how she got the exemption.
It was gifted to her by a teammate.
Julia Johnson placed fifth in the individual stroke play at the NCAA Championships and the winning team got one exemption slot into the LPGA Event this week in Ohio. Head Coach Kory Thompson Henkes decided the exemption would go Johnson for a team best finish in stroke play. Johnson immediately rescinded the invite and gave it to Swann, citing that it would mean more to her teammate.
This was captured on video in the moment, and maybe I just missed it at the time, but I thought it was a pretty cool thing -- turning down a chance to compete at the sport’s highest level and instead giving the opportunity to a teammate and friend. What a special team the 2021 Rebels were.
Python escapes Louisiana Mall Zoo(?)
A 12-foot python escaped a zoo located inside a Louisiana mall this week and was on the loose for two days before being captured.
I have so many questions about this. Who the hell puts a zoo inside a mall? How does something that large get out and into the open without being noticed? One employee described this deadly beast as “sweet,” and was worried for the snake’s well being. If this isn’t wild enough for you, the mall remained open while the search for this predator ensued. Imagine trying to take your kid into Old Navy for a fresh pair of jorts and assuming the risk of being eaten by a python. Maybe I am just not a snake guy, but shutting the mall down with a 12-footer on the run seems like a prudent move to me.
Louisiana, man.
On the horizon:
Back to regular programming next week with vacation out of the way and a normal schedule
Football preview content kickoff
Couple of out-of-the-box podcast guests.
That’s all from me today. Check out Mailbag Saturday pod tomorrow. Enjoy your weekend.