University of Wisconsin Athletics
Under new rules that allow college athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness, Badgers quarterback Graham Mertz opened his own online apparel store.
Earlier this summer, University of Wisconsin quarterback Graham Mertz debuted an online store selling various garments sporting a logo fashioned out of his initials. The insignia looks a bit like a fox or a notebook doodle drawn during high school algebra class.
At grahammertzshop.com, you can buy T-shirts with the logo, onesies with a caricature of Mertz’s smiling mug or a hoodie with, simply, “Mertz” emblazoned across the front.
Meanwhile, Mertz’s teammates on the offensive line signed on to promote Mission BBQ, a national chain with a location near East Towne Mall. Other Badgers are hyping grocery delivery services. Redshirt freshman Hayden Rucci, whose statistics are limited to one tackle against Northwestern, will record a message for you on the Cameo app for $24.
These moves, and dozens more around the country, come via one of the biggest rule changes in college sports history. As of July 1, college athletes can profit from their name, image and likeness. Like Mertz, they can now sell T-shirts and other swag. And, like the offensive line, they can endorse businesses and commercial products for money.
Football coach Paul Chryst may soon be joined by his players in monotonically pitching pickup trucks on TV and radio spots.
They can also put their names on clinics and camps, an attractive prospect for athletes who don’t compete in the big-time sports — men’s basketball or football — but might be celebrities in their local swimming, soccer or volleyball communities.
The NIL rule change comes as the argument for paying college athletes has intensified. “Athletic students,” a term coined by former Wisconsin men’s basketball star Nigel Hayes to spoof the official “student athletes” moniker, have been pushing back for years on an economic structure that rewards coaches and administrators with handsome salaries while players are expected to be satisfied with their scholarships and little else.
When ESPN brought its popular football pregame show to Bascom Hill in 2016, complete with Home Depot branding, Hayes showed up with a sign asking fans to send money to his Venmo account. It was later revealed that he and his teammates nearly boycotted a nationally televised game against Syracuse to protest lack of pay for athletes.
In the five years since, revenue generated by college athletics has only increased — 2020-21 and the pandemic notwithstanding — and it’s harder than ever to deny the arguments they make, especially after learning that retired UW athletic director Barry Alvarez collected a lump-sum payment of $1.18 million on his way out the door this summer. Over $300,000 of that came in payment for 31 weeks of unused leave.
In the 2018-19 academic year, the last full year of operations before the COVID-19 pandemic, the UW athletic department pulled in nearly $158 million in revenue, up from $92 million in 2008-09. Of the 2018-19 number, $56 million came from the sale of media rights. The business of big-time college sports relies heavily on selling games, highlights and pre-game shows to media companies, especially since the Big Ten partnered with Fox to establish the Big Ten Network in 2006.
No players, no games, no highlights, no inventory.
Still, no one has yet devised a feasible plan for athletic departments to pay student athletes directly. Allowing them to profit individually via these deals makes more sense.
The changes wrought by the NIL rule change come during maybe the most tumultuous year in college athletics. In the wake of all the inconvenience created by COVID-19, the NCAA in April rewrote its transfer rules, which date to the 1960s. Athletes can now transfer freely, without having to sit out a season, at least once during their college careers.
Outside the purview of the NCAA, big-time college administrators are working on a proposal to expand the College Football Playoff from four teams to 12. The proposal includes first-round games played on college campuses. Imagine a heavyweight SEC program like Georgia or Florida playing the Badgers in Camp Randall in December. It would almost be like having a bowl game on Monroe Street.
And the SEC, the premier college athletic conference in the country, is looking to swipe Texas and Oklahoma from the Big 12. That addition of two prestigious programs will mean a more attractive product to peddle to TV networks when it’s time to renegotiate contracts.
Taken together, these developments reverse or eliminate many college sports traditions that have been around for decades, leaving some to bemoan the over-commercialization of college games.
But that irreversible trend started long ago with the sale of naming rights to every conceivable aspect of the viewing experience, both inside stadiums and on TV.
And now the players will be able to get in on some of that action
