The Date is July 1st and….

The date is July 1st and student athletes are being paid for their image and likeness. Now forewarned is fair warned, I have done a laughable amount of research into the details of this so anything that is said from here on out should be taken with a grain of salt but I’m going to tell you why this is great.

First off, you aren’t a fan of a college football team if you can’t be happy for the players in this moment. If you believe that this is a degradation to college sports it’s because all you care about is your school’s representation in the sports world and care little about the athletes who have earned the representation (aka you are the problem). We can argue about if the price of a college education being enough payment for a student athlete (excuse me laughing in your face), we can argue about the impact it will have in recruiting (fair, but I will at least snicker more than likely chuckle), and hell we can argue about the impact it will have on the student body as a whole (I imagine very little) but the fact of the matter is, from here on out these kids are getting paid. The clock struck midnight and athletes had already launched on multiple platforms that bring in revenue to their own pockets. For many athletes, they will not see a more opportune time to cash in on their name than right now. Rather than universities holding exclusive rights to that and using it for “academic growth” (aka a new school of study that an administrator whose title had grown stale and was in need of a refreshing upgrade and decent pay raise, meet the dean vice provost of post civil war – pre industrial revolution studies here at state university) these athletes who give all their time to athletics and whatever is left over to academics can now get their due. Maybe I am short sighted and the consequences of this are monumental and will topple college athletics as we know it but in the interim, this will do the most good for the people who really ever only mattered in this situation and that is the athletes. Point is, sit back, watch this unfold, participate if you want to and boycott CFB if you hate it but the time where athletes are getting a portion of their share is now. The sports you love won’t change, the universities are going to be fine and the product that has made college sports as big as they are will be the same as years past. Only difference now is that you won’t be surprised when Czechs Over Stripes gets a plug in a Heisman speech.