Mario McKinney has 135,000 Instagram followers. He was a three-star recruit who hasn’t played a single college game yet.
135,000 followers on Instagram can be monetized. Per the info in this story, 135,000 followers can be monetized at a rate of $1,350 per sponsored post.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2019/02/12/instagram-youtube-influencer-rates-fyre-festival-fashion-week-money-rich-branding-ads-girls/2787560002/
So McKinney, on a free market where endorsements are allowed, could make an easy five figures *per month* if he really wanted to.
Josh Christopher has closer to 500,000 followers, and he’s still in high school.
Those followings are based entirely on what those athletes have done outside of college sports.
And even if your point were true, it really shouldn’t matter because the SEC Network is similarly not profitable without those athletes. We don’t see billions of dollars thrown around for TV rights if the players aren’t the best in their field. College sports are beneficial to both sides in terms of creating a marketable product, but both sides aren’t able to profit from the arrangement.
If we still lived in a world where coaches got paid modest salaries and most games were only available on the radio, I’d agree with you. But it’s a billion-dollar industry where the most essential component is prevented from direct participation in the financial windfall.
Edited by zodiac6 at 19:01:28 on 09/18/19