PITTSBURGH (93.7 the Fan) – The NCAA’s top governing body said Wednesday that it supports a proposal to allow college athletes to sign endorsement deals and receive payments for other work.
In the proposal, the NCAA and schools would regulate what kind of contracts athletes sign and for how much money. The United States Congress would be asked to create a federal standard to try to keep it fair.
West Virginia head coach Neal Brown said it’s something they started preparing for about six months ago. They have an educational plan and have a partnership they will announce in the next week or so.
Brown says he wants to make sure student-athletes know how to take advantage of someone using their likeness. How to create a brand and what that brand looks like.
“There are some potential benefits here in West Virginia just because we have no professional sport competition and we’re the only power five team,” Brown said. “I do think there are some things we can use. I do think our players are marketable.”
The second year West Virginia coach doesn’t think this will be a windfall for everyone on their roster and is now sure the effect on recruiting.
“I understand why we went down this path,” Brown added. “I do get it. I think it can be beneficial to some extent. I just don’t know how you manage it.”
That’s the big question, if players have outside representation helping them make money. How can the schools and NCAA police that?
“How do you monitor that,” Brown wondered. “Who is in charge of monitoring? Is that going to be part of the head coach’s responsibility? How am I going to monitor if he has an agent? I have a lot more questions than answers.”