Jeff Sims, Arizona State Football News: Draft Scout Player News

10/01/20 - RB Jeff Sims, rSr/2025, Arizona State

In the midst of the debate about how college athletes should be compensated for use of their name, image and likeness, Baratunde Cola has a distinctly qualified voice to speak into the matter. One, the Georgia Tech mechanical-engineering professor is the institute's faculty athletics representative, charged with providing oversight to the athletic department and looking out for the well-being of its athletes. Two, he is a former college football player, having played fullback for Vanderbilt. Three, as it pertains to his proposal, he has significant experience with establishing a business and also a non-profit organization. "I'm always thinking about the student-athlete and ways that change can be enabling to the mission, and that's where I came from with this," Cola told the AJC.

His idea for the NCAA as it considers how athletes can be compensated for their name, image and likeness (NIL) is this: Athletes can create non-profit organizations that endorsement money goes into, and then they can pay themselves a portion of revenue and use the remaining funds for charity or to enhance their educations. "The message I'm trying to get across is this is something that I think the student-athletes will love," Cola said. "Frankly, I think it's something they will embrace if it's articulated to them well." A quick background on NIL: In April, the NCAA voted to support changes for athletes to be compensated by third parties (i.e., not the schools themselves) for endorsements, appearances, camps and other like opportunities. Expected to go into effect at the start of the 2021-22 academic year, it followed decades of such benefits being impermissible by NCAA rule. - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

rSr/2025