We’ve now officially crossed into the land of willful stupidity.
Seriously, what are we doing here?
It’s one thing to do right by players and allow them to earn off their name image and likeness. It’s another to take it one step further by giving them free player movement.
Sharing media rights revenue? Absolutely, no problem with it.
But I’m drawing the line at tax-free shelters. And everyone involved in collegiate sports should, too — including the pandering pom-pom wavers in state governments who have decided that players shouldn’t be taxed on NIL income.
The state of Georgia has proposed a bill to eliminate a 5.49% state income tax on NIL income. And because Georgia did it, it should come as no surprise that the state Alabama followed suit.
And you better believe a majority of the SEC states will, too.
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But this line in the sand that now must be drawn has nothing to do with millions in would-be taxes generated on NIL deals, or that those millions could support critical infrastructure (physical and mental) in our cities and states. Good, important things.
This is something much deeper. It’s not about what we’re giving young people for playing a sport.
It’s about what we’re taking away.
What message are we sending to 18-year-old young men, who have been glad-handed all of their sports playing lives? Who have been told, over and over since elementary school, their talent and ability will take them places their parents could only dream of?
Life is their oyster, and they’re the perpetual perfect pearl inside.
Until they’re not.
Until they eventually become part of the 98.4% of college football players who don’t make it to the NFL. Until those years of avoiding hard life truths, of making the road easier (tax-free NIL), and making excuses for failure (free player movement) suddenly come to a screeching halt.
Then somebody has to get a job. Then somebody has to function within a society that doesn’t care who or what you were, just what you can do.
And if you can’t do it, we’ll move on to the next who can.
No free passes, no special treatment. No bending over backward to do everything we can to make sure life works in conjunction with your schedule. The utter absurdity of it all.
Frankly, it’s not only willful stupidity by the adults in the room — parents, high school coaches, college coaches, university presidents, the NCAA — who have haphazardly crafted this wildly inaccurate idea of life for college athletes, it’s reckless abandonment.
And for what, a football game?
Grown men and women in the Georgia and Alabama state legislatures trying to pass a bill to hand out tax-free candy like it’s a four-year Halloween bender. And guess who’s standing there, bag wide open, accepting another freebie – another avoidance of responsibility – because it’s all they’ve ever known?
When athletes receive endorsement deals (the original idea of an NIL deal) as professionals, they’re taxed on the money. This is how life works.
Yet these pom-pom wavers in state governments, these fans dreaming of another championship, want to eliminate all sense of the grind away from the field for young men ― by building a bulletproof bubble that won’t last for all but 2% of them.
When an 18-year-old football player enters college, this is what he walks into (this is NOT a complete list):
— A fully-funded scholarship, including room and board, and tuition and books.
— Health insurance, dental insurance, disability insurance (in case of a career-ending injury).
— Elite training and development from the top coaches and sports nutritionists.
— Full-time, on-demand academic tutoring.
— A competitive salary, beginning July 1 with the advent of pay for play.
— Guaranteed NIL deals.
— Free movement from school to school.
And now the state legislatures of Georgia and Alabama have decided, let’s give them more. Only they’re taking away.
They’re taking away accountability and responsibility, and four or five years down the road when a huge majority of players are looking for life’s answers, what do they have to fall back on?
Years of pandering and protection.
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times, a college education isn’t so much about book smarts – or in this case, playing football – as it is young people proving they can do life on their own. And survive and thrive.
Pay rent, pay bills, have a budget. Prepare food, launder clothes. Get up every morning with a plan and a purpose, and meet deadlines.
And now these dopes in the states of Georgia and Alabama, with their pom-poms wildly waving, want to do more damage.
Seriously, what are we doing here? We’re sending young men into a world that’s brutally hard with the idea that it’s effortlessly easy.
And for what, a football game?
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.
