A-State Red Wolves have a collective, the ImPACKt Club, and I think it’s absolutely terrific. It’s run by very capable and smart Red Wolves fans and they’ve done a great job with it. I donate a very modest amount every month because I recognize that if I want to see Arkansas State field competitive teams in football, basketball and so-forth, we all gotta fork over some loot. I encourage everyone who loves Arkansas State Athletics to visit the site and pledge some bucks.

And it burns me to say it.

When the specter of NIL reared its troublesome head, the intent was to compensate student athletes for use of their “name, image and likeness.” EA Sports was raking in billions of bucks selling EA Sports NCAA Football and Basketball every year, along with member schools and the NCAA itself. In 2014, EA Sports reached a $40M settlement with a suit brought by former NCAA athletes that would payout about $4,000 to every athlete who appeared in the game. Fair enough.

But it wasn’t enough. In 2021, it was revealed that former Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel had profited while a NCAA athlete by selling autographs. As the Defenders of Amateurism clutched their pearls, many wondered why Manziel shouldn’t be allowed to sell something he owned. Wasn’t this supposed to be the United States? This column isn’t about to explore that argument, thank God, but I only mention it because the original intent of NIL was to 1) prevent the NCAA and universities from reaping tons of endorsement money generated by athletes, and 2) allow athletes to make a modest amount of cash by leveraging their own celebrity. Big deal.

Another way to look at it was that everybody who was making money off of college athletes – universities, video game makers, apparel companies, beverage makers, and broadcasters – were finally being asked to share a sliver of the pie.

Little did we know that these powerful entities (combined generating a net worth well over a trillion dollars) would deftly shift that responsibility to the one group of people who have been exploited nearly as much as the athletes – the fans.

It’s a genius masterstroke from the corporate community; they receive access to thousands of marketable talents, and we foot the bill! The fans who are expected to pay for bloated cable/streaming packages, pricey team merchandise, and costly season and single game tickets are being counted on to fund NIL coffers. Yes, it’s not just individual fans. Local businesses are expected to chip in, too. If we don’t want to see our entire defensive line end up at Baylor, we’d better do it.

It’s all well and good, sort of. Fans are part of this damaged ecosystem and we’ll do what we can to be team players. But you know who isn’t being asked to ante up? Nike. ESPN. Fox Sports. Powerade. The University of Michigan. Adidas. Under Armor. CBS Sports. Dr. Pepper. Or any of the dozens of other grossly monied entities hauling in obnoxious piles of cash from college athletics.

Once again, college athletics has screwed itself up, and people who pay $90 a month in streaming packages are supposed to knuckle down and bail them out. The solution is simple: if your company profits from college sports, it should be obligated to pitch in money to every college program’s collective. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM.

This isn’t an appeal to withhold your hard earned dollar from NIL collectives. We need to get behind the ImPACKt Club and others like it more than ever, lest we want to realize Kirk Herbstreit’s dystopian dream of a wealthy 20-member college athletics community. But it doesn’t mean we have to like it.

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