Team 2: Story 1: The Everchanging Landscape of College Athletics

The world of college athletics is in a different place than ever before.Student-athletes are now able to profit from the use of their name, image and likeness. The transfer portal is used as a betting ground: is half-a-million dollars enough to land the star quarterback who was only making a few thousand elsewhere? Would this huge investment in a single student-athlete help the football program potentially reach a championship? In 2024, it’s evident that student athletes now hold more power than they have ever held.

This new era began in June 2021 in the Supreme Court case National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Alston. According to Foster Swift Collins & Smith PC, the Court sided with a lower court’s previous ruling that the NCAA was not exempt from antitrust laws; just like other large corporations, the organization had to allow for fair competition and could not operate as a giant monopoly. Legislation relating to the case became law beginning on July 1, 2021.

That does not mean that anything goes when it comes to paying student-athletes. As Romano Law explains, each state has its own NIL laws and certain regulations. Many states have adopted some of the following ideas: athletes cannot sign a deal that could interfere with their institutions’ own regulations, they have the right to receive legal help when navigating contracts and they must not receive deals relating to alcohol, drugs or gambling. Some of Mississippi’s specific NIL provisions state that institutions can limit the times during which an athlete can partake in NIL-related activities, prospects and recruits cannot receive any endorsements until they have signed with an institution and all athletes must inform their institutions of new endorsements within three days of signing the deal or up to three days before their next sporting event.

In the past, sports were primarily for men only, but times are changing there as well – and that has made a significant impact on the world of NIL. Women’s sports and their popularity are on a rapid rise across the United States, especially at the collegiate level. Think of athletes like Hailey Van Lith, Jordy Bahl and Brylie St. Clair: they are garnering national attention at an extremely fast rate, and rightfully so. The play and product these athletes have provided to millions of sports fans have grown their individual brands exponentially. This newfound equality between men and women has translated into NIL and the use of the transfer portal to receive certain benefits.

Perhaps the biggest differences between men and women are the methods by which they are earning money. According to the On3 NIL 100, the top-earning male athlete across all sports is Bronny James, a first-year basketball player at the University of Southern California and the son of all-time NBA-great LeBron James. Bronny James’ current NIL value as a 19-year-old freshman in college? 5.8-million dollars. James has received deals from the likes of Nike and Beats by Dre, all for averaging 5.7 points per game and being the eldest son of one of the most well-known athletes in the world.

On the other hand, the top earning female athlete is Livvy Dunne, an LSU gymnast from New Jersey. Dunne does well enough when she competes, but she is not the star athlete of her sport by any means. Yet, she is worth roughly 3.5-million dollars and has partnered with 17 brands over the last three years … how is that? She has marketed herself as a beautiful and fun college girl and has built a social media following of 12.4-million loyal fans who follow her every move.

There are seven male athletes and three female athletes in the top 10 of all NIL earners. Aside from James, the other six males all play college football. On the women’s side, basketball stars Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese are worth a few million dollars each. The pair are each incredible athletes in their sport, but part of what makes them stand out are their strong presences on TikTok, Instagram and Twitter/X. The three women combine to have roughly 19.4 million followers across all platforms, and the seven men total just under 21 million followers... James carries much of the weight with 13.4 million followers.

The overall Top 100 NIL earners fluctuate across many sports and athletic capabilities, regardless of gender. Football, track and field, men’s and women’s basketball and gymnastics are all represented on the list. There are benchwarmers who have deals simply because of status and following, and star quarterbacks who have significantly less marketability but earn just as much because they are just that good. The system is largely based on who you know and how popular you are in society, with athletic ability seeming to matter far less than it should.

Like many other universities across the nation, Mississippi State is playing the NIL game. The Bulldog Initiative, a third-party organization, has been instrumental in Mississippi State’s transition into the NIL era of college athletics. Through the Bulldog Initiative, local businesses as well as fans of the university can support Mississippi State’s student athletes by sending monetary donations. From time to time, the organization makes big strides through donors who pledge to match the amount of money raised through a certain period of time. These donations have already found the pockets of a wide range of student athletes on campus: so far, the Bulldog Initiative supports members of the football, baseball, soccer, softball, men’s basketball and women’s basketball teams.

Charlie Winfield, a local attorney and the founder of the Bulldog Initiative, has been leading the charge. Winfield was willing to sit down for an interview and talk with us on all things NIL and transfer portal related.

Winfield explained the benefits of NIL, and there certainly are many. "I think there are a lot of really good things that have come out of NIL that most people wouldn’t think of- for one we’re keeping students in school longer,” he said. Winfield also made a point that often goes unnoticed -- paying student athletes encourages those that ordinarily might go to professional leagues to stay in school.

Winfield stated, “If you think about college baseball the tradition was players would come, they would play for three years, and whether they were drafted in the first round or the nineteenth, they would typically leave after three years because of it was a position of leverage and there was a real financial reality that they were better off financially by leaving. Well now what you have is through NIL, you can help make it more financially attractive for a player to stay in school.”

Mississippi State and the Bulldog Initiative provide plenty of opportunities to both male and female student-athletes, from inking specific deals with standout athletes to hosting autograph sessions across multiple sports so that more players are able to have at least a small stipend.

Not everyone in the business thinks that paying student-athletes for their on-the-field abilities or overall notoriety is an innovative idea. During an interview with Take 30 News about his return to campus for a special weekend event, former Mississippi State head coach Sylvester Croom shared a deep distaste for the ways that the sport has changed. Croom coached the Bulldogs from 2004 to 2008 – a time when student-athletes played their respective sports to compete for championships and reach the next level while expecting no compensation in return.

Coaches who have dealt with NIL more directly than Croom also have differing opinions. Former Alabama head coach Nick Saban, who retired in January after 17 seasons and six championships with the Crimson Tide, recently spoke out against NIL despite many of his players receiving hefty deals during his time there. During a roundtable discussion in Washington, D.C., Saban expressed his frustration about the number of players who have put much of their focus on making as much money as possible.

“All the things that I believed in, for all these years, 50 years of coaching, no longer exist in college athletics,” Saban said. “It was always about developing players, it was always about helping people be more successful in life.”

On the other hand, some coaches are supportive of players earning as much NIL as possible and even believe that they should use the transfer portal for financial gain. University of Alabama at Birmingham football coach Trent Dilfer spoke favorably of paying players at an NIL meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, in the summer of 2023. According to On3, the coach explained what his mindset would be if one of his most talented players entered the transfer portal to earn significantly more money at a larger program.

“If you develop a player, and he’s good enough to make that type of money at a program that would be perceived up from us – economically, for sure – well, as a player-centric coach, isn’t it my job to encourage him to take that money if he doesn't hurt his chances of making generational wealth at the next level?” Dilfer asked, rhetorically.

Few Mississippi State coaches have spoken openly about NIL, but newly hired football coach Jeff Lebby summed up his view during a conversation on Andy Staples On3. “Obviously, the guys that lead with the NIL piece and are trying to dig in on that part of it are not our kind of guys, and that’s the reality of it,” Lebby said. “I understand that’s a huge part of where we’re at from a college football scene, but for us, we want guys that are about the right thing.”

There are just as many people who want to be Bulldogs because of the opportunities that playing on a competitive SEC team presents. Standout women’s basketball guard Lauren Park-Lane joined the team as a graduate transfer after a historic career at Seton Hall. This caught the attention of UConn head coach Geno Auriemma, who called her out unprovoked while discussing the NIL and transfer portal during a press conference after his team’s victory over St. John’s in late January.

“It’s unfortunate because at a school like St. John’s, maybe, in women’s basketball where some of the teams in our league, you know, you’ve got a player that’s really, really, really, really good that you coached the hell out of and you just made them who they are,” Auriemma said. “It happened to Seton Hall last year, and that kid goes, ‘Yeah, well I think I can make more money somewhere.’"

Park-Lane rejected these claims shortly after they were made, and head coach Sam Purcell backed her up.

With all this being said, it is obvious that NIL and the transfer portal are wide-reaching within the Starkville community. It starts in the locker rooms, when student-athletes ink certain deals or receive additional funding from the Bulldog Initiative to encourage them to stay on campus longer. The athlete who receives that financial boost could technically use it for just about anything, from expenses that come with staying in school longer to pursue an additional degree to a brand-new car. What happens when their teammates find out that they are receiving significantly less? Do some stifle jealousies, while others approach their coaches to demand a “raise” of their own or else they will hit the transfer portal as soon as possible? Although this has not seemed to be a prevalent issue so far, it likely does happen sometimes.

What about the other players in the transfer portal? While some – especially in sports that are less profitable or popular – are genuinely looking for better playing opportunities, others are participating in the NIL game. Ole Miss running back Quinshon Judkins, who was the 2022 SEC Freshman of the Year and a two-time All-SEC selection, entered the transfer portal just days after the team’s Peach Bowl victory over Penn State. The sophomore committed to Ohio State weeks later, despite the fact that he could see significantly less playing time due to the Buckeyes’ depth at that position. Although Judkins never gave a specific reason for leaving, many fans speculated that it was either because he was hoping to coax a bigger check out of Ole Miss or because he thought that a larger athletic program would be able to pay him more. Neither seems to have happened: according to On3, his NIL value dropped by roughly half-a-million dollars after the signing.

On the other hand, student-athletes who enter the transfer portal for the purpose of finding better playing opportunities elsewhere might be overshadowed by the big-time stars that are using the portal to see which schools will throw the most money at them. What happens to those student-athletes that get stuck in a sort of “transfer portal limbo?”

Essentially, small businesses and fans as individuals are having to pay for potential success from their own pockets. In a way, it is a huge gamble: a part of somebody’s paycheck is split among young athletes, and there is nothing to guarantee that these athletes will form a cohesive group that can win a championship. There is a great chance that at least one of them will receive the money and still choose to enter the transfer portal in the offseason. As for small businesses, the seemingly insignificant percentages of each sale that go to a particular university’s collective add up over time.

Every day, average college students attend the same classes and are expected to do the same things academically as student-athletes who earn thousands of dollars on NIL deals. However, many students might not even realize it. We took to the campus of Mississippi State to ask students if they could recognize some of the most well-known faces in college athletics and a few of the biggest names who have utilized the transfer portal.

Both male and female student-athletes have seen the benefits and drawbacks of NIL and the use of the transfer portal. At this point, there has not been gender discrimination regarding who can receive deals – the amount of money allotted depends on the popularity of each sport, but individuals can sign contracts with different companies based on their talent, appearance, family name or a wide range of other possibilities.

These two parts of college athletics are steadily evolving, but the future remains unknown. There is a chance that they will lead to improvements for everybody involved, but at the same time, college sports could eventually become nothing more than a business with little to no competition.

Email the team at ew1159@msstate.edu with any questions

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