Team 3: Story 1: The Social Media Aspet With Gender, NIL, and The Transfer Portal                  

History

 Nearly one billion dollars was generated in the world of college sports in 2023 and still, people will argue that NIL is bad for sports. Until 2021, numbers similar to those generated in 2023 were common occurrences, but players would not get publicly known compensation for their play on the field. Now players will get paid for their play on the field, their online influence, and some just for their looks.

 For decades, the NCAA has had strict rules when it comes to student-athletes when it comes to being paid for autographs, endorsements, and other sold memorabilia. An infamous case that is mentioned every year is when the NCAA stripped former NFL and USC star running back Reggie Bush of his Heisman Trophy after discovering that he and family members had accepted cash and other items from different agencies.

To this day he has not received his trophy back even with NIL being fully in effect in today’s game, the committee has still not budged on their decision which upsets many of the members of the Heisman circle. Bush was found doing something that is publicly being marketed now and some states have taken the jump on NIL. 

 Like with many things new and inventive, California was the first state to get things rolling with NIL, On Sept. 9, 2019, they were the first state to pass a law to allow student-athletes to get compensation for the use of their name, image, and likenesses. Soon after Florida followed and eventually there was a mock-up policy in place for other states to follow along.

On July 1, 2021, Mississippi was one of 13 states that joined in one of the “interim” NCAA policies for the start of NIL. Soon after, it was passed by the NCAA and now is in full effect in college sports. Many may ask what is NIL? Name, image, and likeness was the idea that student-athletes, who generate millions for their respective schools, would be compensated for their work on and off the field. This is for both men and women, but there is a stark difference in how each respective gender is paid.

The biggest NIL earners come from the most popular sport in college, football. Arch Manning, Shedeur Sanders, and Travis Hunter are all top NIL earners for men, but you also have to consider how much money is generated from college football. Some of this comes from name value as Arch and Shedeur family is football royalty with each having members of their family in the pro football hall of fame. Travis is from his skills on and the field as he was the number one rated talent coming out of high school when he decided to go to Jackson State to be with Shedeur and his father Deion Sanders.

Even with name value, other athletes get paid top dollar without having the same interest on their names. This can be seen with schools that might not generate as much buzz as other schools. This also plays a massive role in the transfer portal. For example, compare the Mississippi State Athletic program to the Ohio State athletic program.

Sports-wise, it is a mix of what school is better at each sport. Football can be given to OSU while basketball or baseball will be a nod in favor of MSU. Now with the transfer portal and NIL, schools that generate more money for a particular program will have a chance to get better players. If a standout student from MSU plays well in football, you can expect Ohio State or any other big school to lure the student-athlete with more money opportunities.

Caleb Downs from Alabama and Quinshon Judkins from Ole Miss were both Southeastern Conference players with major roles on their particular teams, but now, they are set to play for Ohio State this upcoming fall. Schools now have the extra incentive to poach talent with the amount of money that is offered. That has turned many people away from the sports and is causing a lot of figureheads in the NCAA to worry about how much damage NIL can do to college athletics. Currently, there is not a set plan to regulate NIL, but many have expressed their worries about what is to come.

Bart Gregory is one of the Assistant Athletic Directors at Mississippi State who works primarily with the Bulldog Club. He deals with student-athlete scholarships but also has a hand in guiding some athletes to the Bulldog Initiative for the NIL. He knows that the landscape of college athletics is changing because of the new rules involving NIL and even some of the lawsuits that are coming out from the other side of it.

The Social Media Impact on Players with NIL and Transfer Portal

The numbers that are generated from college athletics also can be attributed to its popularity on social media, however, if you look at the numbers with social media, women student-athletes will have a bigger following compared to some of the top earners in other sports. 

Brylie St. Clair is a fifth-year softball player at Mississippi State University, with a career average of .256 at-bat and one of the most popular student-athletes on campus. This is not because of her play on the field, it comes from her social media presence. The outfielder from Sand Rock, Alabama has had a decent career playing for the Bulldogs but her popularity skyrocketed after catching the attention of people from an Instagram post that amounted to 1.7 million views. As of now, she has 154,000 followers on the app amounting to nearly 231,000 on TikTok. 

St. Clair's Instagram

According to on3sports.com, St. Clair has a valuation close to $113,000 from different sponsorships that she gathered from her influence on social media. In 2021 she was announced as one of Barstool Sports' newest athletes that they had signed with NIL and to become one of her sponsors. Articles about her appearance are more common than her play on the field with some deeming her the “World’s Sexist Softball Star”, but it is like that with most women athletes. 

The money she is seeing is just a small amount of what other college athletes generate for their respective schools and sports. If you look further and separate the earnings by gender and the type of sport that is being played, it becomes even more of a disparagement. In previous years, players would not publicly have information about the money they are making as student-athletes, however, in the current age of college sports, name, image, and likeness have turned college sports into a monopoly.  

Riley Hull is another student-athlete on the softball team at MSU with NIL. The junior first basemen talked about how hard it is to get deals without having a big social media presence like teammate St. Clair, but still have some benefits even with smaller companies. There are multiple apps for athletes and for Hull, it is like applying for a job when opportunities come up.  

Compared to St. Clair, Hull only has around 3,000 followers on Instagram; on TikTok, she has 32.4 thousand followers. 

When it comes to women’s sports, the topic of popularity gets brought into conversation. Many won’t realize that with social media, many more women are getting the attention that they have been fighting for, for years. This is in the form of looks, play, and the school that you play for. 

Jessie Blaine is another member of the Mississippi State softball team but the difference between her, compared to Hull and St. Clair, is that she transferred into the program just this season. Blaine navigated her transition from the portal fairly easily. She does know that there are gender differences when looking at the portal. College sports have a semblance of free agency with NIL and like in the pros, it is a major reason why many players are entering into the portal. Hers was based on the cultures each team provided.  

 The junior catcher also thinks that the idea of social media, TV rights, and better funding also helps with the growth of the sport.

Popularity and Growth in College Women’s Sports

 Now with the transfer portal an option for many of these players, there is a chance for growth to be seen when watching women’s sports. What draws a person to watch sports can be the sport itself or the storylines that start to develop and grow throughout the years. That is one of the many differences between women's athletics and men’s. Men have had multiple generations to build rivals that are rooted within a fan base.

Mississippi State vs. Ole Miss, Ohio State vs. Michigan, Alabama vs. Auburn. These are all rivals that are embedded into the memories of football fans because that is what matters most to these schools and what draws the most money. Football is predominantly a male sport, and when there is a notable change like women deciding to take a chance at the sport, it draws numbers good or bad.

College Basketball is the best way to view these changes. Now more than ever, women’s college basketball has dominated the rating compared to college and even the professional league for men. According to CNBC, women athletes have the chance to generate close to 1 billion dollars in 2024 which will be around a 300-percent increase from 2021’s evaluation. That could be down to the rise of the phenomenon Caitlin Clark, but other factors play an important role as well. Dawn Staley’s South Carolina finished its season undefeated and LSU’s women’s team won the national championship last season with the strong personalities of Angel Reese and head coach Kim Mulkey. 

Each team can draw massive numbers for ESPN and other broadcasting stations that have them on. Oklahoma softball team was close to being undefeated for two years in a row before losing to the Baylor Bears in an early season tournament. That was a massive draw in rating and when more eyes are on the product of women's sports, the potential of growth for the game is exceptional.  

Gender in sports will always be a tricky topic to cover because of how many people will view them. The addition of the transfer portal and NIL only adds fuel to the fire when you start to compare the numbers around what sports get the most attention and money for their program and school. What also does not help is the lack of regulations that surround NIL and the transfer portal but there are ways to look at who gets benefits from it.

 Social media is a major contributing factor for women athletes when it comes to exposure and deals they can get from their online presence. It could be for looks or their play on the field, but the exposure will lead to more eyes on the athletes and the product of the sport they are playing.

 

Email the team at jcs1275@msstate.edu with any questions

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