SBJ College: Athletes Give Feedback On Return To Play

Brown moves 11 varsity sports to club level; two club sports go to varsity. I’m guessing there won’t be a rush into the transfer portal.

Now, let’s see what’s cooking on campus.

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STUDENT ATHLETES OPINE ON RETURN TO CAMPUS, COST CUTTING

• The most noticeably absent voices in the debate over whether to play or not to play during COVID-19 belong to the college athletes. They’re the ones who are most at risk, but seldom have we heard from them. Athlete Viewpoint is one of the few sources with feedback from college athletes. Jennifer and Michael Cross’ business, which typically conducts anonymous surveys of student athletes to learn about their college experience, asked 3,677 respondents a series of questions about returning to play, with 48% responding from late April to early May. Here are some of the notable results:
  
  
  • Only 14% said they’re worried about coming back to campus without a vaccine.
  • Three-quarters of athletes do not want their competitive season shortened because it would equate to a wasted year of eligibility.
  • 68% think they should be allowed to return to compete, even if their school doesn’t have in-person classes this fall. Another 12% said they shouldn’t return until all students do.
  • Their greatest concern (84%) is getting back to campus this fall and then being forced to leave before the end of the semester.
  • 65% are optimistic or extremely optimistic about returning to campus in the fall.
  • 76% have some level of concern about their friends’ health; 64% expressed the same level of concern about their own health.
    
    
• Athlete Viewpoint also collects anonymous comments. Here are three that stood out:
  
  
  • On saving money: “Focus only on the essentials, like safety equipment. Stop buying unnecessary stuff. … No one needs five pairs of sneakers.”
  • To play or not to play: “I honestly do not think any sports should take place until quick testing (or a vaccine) is available before every event.”
  • Student athlete life: “Evaluate pre- and post-game meals and training table. There’s a lot of food.”
    
    
• Three recommendations that show athletes are paying closer attention than we think:
  
  
  • Reduce the number of coaches
  • No more pay increases
  • Cut back on excessive travel for recruiting.
    • One athlete wrote: “Our coach goes to Florida every year and we have yet to receive a recruit from that tournament.”

INCREASED USE OF DATA HELPS MARYLAND ATHLETICS TO MARKETING AWARD

• Maryland’s marketing team was named best in the country for the 2019-20 school year, just ahead of Texas and Washington. The award is given annually by the National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators, and this is the second time the Terrapins have won since it started in 2011.
  
  
• Revenue generation, brand management and fan development are some of the criteria used. Assistant AD/Marketing Strategy & Fan Experience Jordan Looby oversees the Terps’ marketing. He credited UM’s use of data analytics and its execution of fan events during ESPN’s “College GameDay” visit to College Park in February.
  
  
• The growth in using data to inform its marketing strategy and learn more about its fans was a major step forward for the department, which enabled UM’s marketers to be more efficient in their outreach. “We went into 2019-20 looking to overhaul our marketing strategy and revolutionize what we’ve been doing,” Looby said. “We were committed to using business insights and really leveraging our data and understanding our fan behavior.”
  
  
• Looby, in his seventh year at UM, said the improved fan profiles and more targeted communication helped drive ticket sales. The Terps led the nation in attendance in four different sports -- men’s and women’s lacrosse, men’s soccer and field hockey. Attendance for basketball also remained strong. UM worked with data consultant SSB to establish a data command center, and brought in data consultant Jim Hanauer, a former Ole Miss marketer who now works with athletic departments.

LEGAL EXPERTS DISCUSS COMPLEXITIES OF NAME, IMAGE, LIKENESS

• The NCAA’s ongoing name, image and likeness debate is full of questions about enforcement, structure and, ultimately, control. College athletes will be able to make money from endorsements, but they can’t wear school marks. They can benefit financially from an appearance at a booster’s business, but a booster cannot pay them to go to that school. Athletic departments can offer education on the NIL marketplace, but they cannot facilitate deals. It’s a complicated process that will continue to unfold. Legal experts familiar with NIL have submitted editorials exclusive to SBJ that address some of these complexities. Here are links to their work:
  
  
• Doug Allen & Stephen Ross, professors at Penn State:
  
  
  • At a time of fiscal crisis for universities and increased focus on promoting athlete welfare and ending exploitation, the NCAA working group’s proposal bars the most effective way for both athletes and universities to profit -- group licensing of player NIL rights in collaboration with universities. The working group is correct that group licensing is “complicated” by the lack of a players’ union. However, a variety of entities, including the universities themselves, NFL Players Inc., or intermediaries -- such as Learfield IMG College -- can fill that void. Given the working group’s emphasis on the need for federal legislation, it likely recognizes that its proposal violates current antitrust laws. Check out the full op-ed.
    
    
• Len Simon, attorney at Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP:
  
  
  • NIL presents one big challenge for the NCAA -- recruiting abuses -- and we can address that without creating large and expensive headaches for schools and athletes. We need very few NIL rules, applying to very few athletes. Most observers of college sports believe that for NIL deals to be policed, they must be disclosed. But applying this principle to every NIL deal for every athlete is overkill. If recruiting abuses are the only real problem, let’s create a disclosure rule that fits the issue. Check out the full op-ed.
    
    
• Scott Bernstein, attorney at KaiserDillon PLLC
  
  
  • The NCAA Board of Governors says it wants to make sure that boosters won’t be able to use an endorsement deal to entice a star athlete to come play for -- or remain at -- their favored team. Seems simple enough. First, not every “booster” is Phil Knight (Oregon) or Bobby Lowder (Auburn). A “booster” is any “representative of the institution’s athletic interests,” according to the NCAA. A season-ticket holder is a booster under this definition. Second, how is the NCAA going to determine whether a booster is paying a student athlete for their endorsement because it makes good business sense or because they’re trying recruit them? Check out the full op-ed.

SPEED READS

• Bad Boy Mowers has dropped its title sponsorship of the annual Gasparilla Bowl, per the Tampa Bay Times. The ESPN Events-run game has had a number of other memorable title sponsors over the year, including magicJack, Beef ‘O’ Brady’s and Bitcoin. But Bad Boy Mowers will be sticking around college basketball. The brand earlier this year renewed its title deal at the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas. That tournament is also backed by ESPN Events.
  
  
• Middle Tennessee State AD Chris Massaro tells the Murfreesboro Daily News Journal that his athletic department "nearly broke even despite the premature ending to the athletic year." Massaro: "It’s pretty close to being a wash because we ditched a lot of our travel expenses. We don’t make a lot of revenue in the spring on our sports. We won’t really know that revenue piece until July 1, but we’ve probably saved between $400,000-$500,000 in travel expenses this year from our spring sports as we had to shut down those sorts of expenses."
  
  
• Virginia Tech is moving forward with plans to improve the WiFi experience at Lane Stadium. Senior Associate AD/External Operations Brad Wurthman told the Roanoke Times: "It's the largest gathering place that we have in the southwest Virginia region for all intents and purposes. We do not have anywhere near the bandwidth necessary." An upgrade, which wouldn't be ready in time for the 2020 season, would require a $5 million investment to "achieve (the desired) results."

THROWBACK THURSDAY

• It was this week in 2014 that my colleague Terry Lefton and I traced the Allstate field goal nets program back to a trial run in the Pro Bowl and later a full-fledged advertising platform sold by Van Wagner in 2005. My favorite story about the nets is that before Allstate came along, Van Wagner pitched the idea to Target. Can you imagine a red bull’s eye on the nets? Target said no.

Allstate's logo has become a ubiquitous part of college football since the brand first struck a deal in 2005

NOMINATIONS OPEN FOR SBJ GAME CHANGERS!

• Online nominations for Game Changers have opened. We’ll be accepting nominations through midnight June 21. The Game Changers event will be Oct. 27-28, and a special section will run in SBJ in the Oct. 19 issue.

Enjoying this newsletter? We've got more! Check out SBJ Media with John Ourand and SBJ Esports with Adam Stern and Trent Murray. Also check out the SBJ Unpacks newsletterevery Monday-Friday night, as we look at how the sports industry is being impacted by COVID-19.

Something on the College beat catch your eye? Tell us about it. Reach out to either me (msmith@sportsbusinessjournal.com) or Austin Karp (akarp@sportsbusinessjournal.com) and we'll share the best of it. Also contributing to this newsletter is Thomas Leary (tleary@sportsbusinessdaily.com).