South Carolina basketball: Frank Martin navigating through NIL changes

The South Carolina basketball coach discussed his NIL opinions.

Frank Martin has been a fan of letting student athletes benefit from their name, image, and likeness for some time. He’s coached some of the biggest stars in our era, including first round selection Michael Beasley, Gamecock great Sindarius Thornwell, and a handful of other NBA draftees, and he knows the impact that these players can have on a university and community.

Now, the NCAA has announced that it will allow players to profit from their likeness, which has recently resulted student athletes endorsing new products and forming relationships with local businesses to promote their services. We’ve already seen it take place on the South Carolina campus, with a number of football players teaming up with PSD Underwear, a boxer brief company owned by NBA superstars. Palmetto State native Ja Morant and Jimmy Butler are heavily involved.

With the new avenues for earnings, coach Martin touched on his views of the recent changes in the college sports landscape, discussing both the positives and negatives of the name, image, and likeness ruling.

"“I’ve been trying to convince decision makers that we needed to be proactive and generate ideas on how to make this happen, because it wasn’t right. With me it all started at Kansas State with Jacob Pullen and ‘Fear the Beard.’ People were making t-shirts and selling like hot cakes. That’s when I said this is wrong. Everyone should deserve the opportunity to profit from this moment.”"

We’ve seen cases like Pullen’s throughout college sports. Take Jadeveon Clowney’s famous “hit” in the 2012 Outback Bowl. The play was on a constant replay loop for the entire offseason, and retail companies began creating play-specific merchandise to sell to the public. Clowney, however, couldn’t benefit from those sales due to NCAA restrictions.

This was also the case for things like jersey sales, autographs, and video games, where companies profited heavily on NCAA players without having to dish out any of the revenues.

While the new ruling does give student athletes a new platform to promote themselves, coach Martin also sees the negative side of these partnerships. Those negatives affect both recruiting and the cohesion of his current roster.

"“This is crazy right now. There is a high school kid right now that has a seven-figure offer on the table if he goes to a certain school. It’s a free for all right now.”"

What Martin doesn’t want this to become is a bidding war for the country’s top players. The University of Miami has already come across this, with a local MMA gym offering more than $500,000 to pay each Hurricane football player a monthly stipend to make appearances on site and promote the organization. The deal is essentially saying, “come play football at Miami and have a locked in revenue stream or go elsewhere and lose out.” To think things like this won’t have an impact on recruiting is silly.

Martin also hints on issues it could create in a team’s locker room.

"“You know what I have to manage? That guy that’s sitting in the locker room that has a deal for free socks and has been in school for two years busting his butt, but all of a sudden there is this sexy, new freshman that has never done anything yet someone in town decides to give him a car and five grand a month.”"

It’s a valid concern, but the South Carolina athletic department is doing its best to be proactive about the NIL ruling. The Gamecocks have teamed up with Altius Sports to navigate through this new environment. Others have joined in, too, including SEC comrades LSU, Tennessee, and Georgia. The company helps guide schools and administrations through NIL in regards to compliance, recruiting, fundraising, and more.

It will be interesting to see what effect this all has on college sports as we currently know them. One thing is for certain, though, and that’s the fact that these recent changes will have a major impact on the future of athletics. How the NCAA handles these impacts will ultimately tell us whether it is a success or failure.