What-If Wednesday: Doug Edert and March Madness in the NIL Era
Saint Peter’s guard Doug Edert perfectly encapsulates the positive value of new Name Image & Likeness rules in college sports.
Full transparency, I am not in favor of designating college athletes as employees of the university. I see it as a well-meaning (in some cases) yet poorly conceived solution that would create more problems than it solves — specifically, eliminating opportunities for non-revenue sport-playing athletes and those from schools with small budgets.
Small-budget schools like Saint Peter’s.
There’s something of a paradox when it comes to the NCAA Tournament. The event generates billions of dollars in revenue that end up in the accounts of just about anyone involved except the players themselves. However, the professionalization of college sports across the board would almost assuredly doom those programs like UMBC and Saint Peter’s that are the lifeblood of March Madness.
The solution I have long advocated that provides access to athletes across all sports is NIL; remove the burden of distributing salaries from universities largely ill-equipped to do so, and let the players cash in directly from the same sort of financiers backing the product.
Doug Edert is one such player, on Wednesday revealing a deal brokered with one of the NCAA Tournament’s primary advertising partners, Buffalo Wild Wings.
Edert’s NIL deal is similar to that of Kansas walk-on fullback Jared Casey, who leveraged his heroics in the Jayhawks’ win over Texas into a spot for Applebee’s. After the inundation of that horrible ad featuring the song “Fancy Like,” the Casey sponsorship was the least a top college football advertiser could do to extend an olive branch to its audience.
Athletes have deserved a larger share of the pie for years, essentially since the moment that college sports became big-time business. Opinions may vary as to when exactly that was, but I consider NCAA v. Board of Regents of University of Oklahoma in 1984 as the most pivotal moment. A year later, the NCAA Tournament expanded from 48 to 64 teams, transforming the event into the spectacle we see today.
So, using 1985 as a logical jumping-off point, I have envisioned March Madness legends with access to NIL deals during their own runs.
1986 LSU Tigers
The 1986 LSU Tigers stood alone as the lowest seed ever to reach the Final Four for 20 years until George Mason replicated the feat in 2006. There have been another of 11 seeds to make the Final Four in the 15 years since Mason — Syracuse in 2016 and Loyola in 2018 — but Dale Brown’s will always be the first.
As such, the Tigers had what would be described in pro wrestling terms as nuclear heat. I invoke wrestling terminology not for self-indulgent shtick, but rather as a segue to note that Brown appeared in an interview on Jim Crockett Promotion’s World Championship Wrestling program ahead of the ‘86 Final Four alongside main-event talent Dusty Rhodes and Ric Flair. And the interview was conducted by one Craig Sager!
With the love LSU was getting from the American Dream Dusty Rhodes, it would have been natural for a Tigers NIL deal with Mello Yello, the soda Dusty pitched in the same era.
Bonus points for the can matching LSU’s home uniforms.
DAVID ROBINSON
Let’s stay in 1986, one of the most wild Tournaments of the ‘80s. Service academies have never seen a player like David Robinson before or since his tenure at Navy in the mid-to-late ‘80s. Of course, it’s rare for recruits to spring up about half-a-foot during their college years.
By the time the 1986 NCAA Tournament arrived, Robinson had sprouted to about 7-feet and was the best player in the nation.
Robinson’s ahead-of-its-time style of play, affable personality and unlikely background in the Armed Forces made him a hit once he debuted with the San Antonio Spurs, pitching such sponsors as Nike and Pizza Hut.
Had he been able to profit off his NIL in 1986 after leading the Midshipmen to an Elite Eight, his good looks and All-American young man appeal would have translated well to the screen. Name Image & Likeness isn’t just about pushing products, after all, and the Naval Academy basketball star could have made a cameo after his 1986 Tournament run in the 1987 film Rocky IV.
Imagine Robinson as a sparring partner for Rocky Balboa to work against an opponent with considerable reach advantage. The Admiral could score a measure of revenge over the Soviet Union for Arvydas Sabonis’ play against the Americans in the ‘80s, contributing to the fall of the communist regime.
And after this moment, the United States and Russia were never at odds again.
*clears throat*
Anyway, Robinson was the perfect college athlete for NIL opportunities in every way, including his great nickname. However, with a minor adjustment, perhaps he could have been The General and beaten NBA contemporary Shaquille O’Neal to the punch on those cringey insurance ads.
SHAQUILLE O’NEAL
Now, to be fair, Shaq was already living large on the national stage before his remarkable three games in the 1992 NCAA Tournament. His 26-point, 13-rebound, 11-block(!!!) triple-double against BYU and 36-point, 12-rebound double-double against Indiana1 only served to cement his legacy before heading off to the NBA and immediately becoming one of its most marketable stars.
NIL would have simple pushed the timeline forward. However, it’s fun to imagine a college basketball star promoting his hip-hop album, a line of signature toys and a video game during March Madness.
What’s more, if the atrocious Shaq Fu had hit video game consoles earlier and flamed out before O’Neal got to the NBA, it might have spared us the licensing deal that resulted in Shaq not appearing in home-console versions of NBA Jam.
STEPH CURRY
Long before the goofy ABC golfing game show, Subway or Ayesha’s cooking empire, Steph Curry first captured the nation’s imagination as the undersized dynamo who damn near shot Davidson into the Final Four.
Some dummies2 believed the barrage of 3-pointers Curry unleashed on Gonzaga, Georgetown, Wisconsin and in the eventual Elite Eight loss to Kansas would mark his basketball peak. Had that been the case, the opportunity to cash in on his instant fame would have been a bonanza.
His Tournament run occurred in 2008, a he same time that wrestling legend Christopher Daniels portrayed the character Curry Man in TNA Wrestling.
TNA loved showcasing stars from the sports world in this era, putting former Tennessee Titan Frank Wychek in a match before its ill-fated attempt to bring in a freshly suspended Adam “Pac-Man” Jones.
After the Pac-Man debacle, Steph Curry would have provided much-needed positive press. Introducing the Davidson star as a special manager to Curry Man for a pay-per-view in the spring of 2008? Money in the bank.
BRETT BLIZZARD
Haven’t had enough NIL opportunities based on corny name puns? Good! Because the Brett Blizzard-led upset of USC in the 2002 NCAA Tournament could have given us the UNC Wilmington sharp-shooter doing this in a Dairy Queen campaign:
Shaq’s stat line against Indiana included a perfect 12-of-12 from the free-throw line.
It’s me. I’m the dummy. In my defense, the NBA had not yet transitioned to being the perimeter-oriented game it is today. After having seen the Hawks organization squander Salim Stoudamire’s potential, I didn’t have much faith in organizations making use of under-sized shooters.