ALTOONA, Pa. -- A lot of the athletes make more money in a year, through NIL, than you do at your job. Maybe even more money than your entire family makes.
The TV contracts are worth billions of dollars. The coaches make tens of millions. Fans pay thousands and thousands to attend games.
And now, based on news out of California on Thursday, we are getting closer and closer to no longer calling them student-athletes, but what they really are and have been for a very long time:
Employees.
That's where we'll start this edition of the Friday top 5.
1. Let's call college sports what they really are ... professional sports
Penn State football is a professional operation. No ifs, ands or buts about it. The football program is worth more than half a billion dollars, according to the Wall Street Journal (the latest study was from 2018, so you know it's gone up since then).
With a valuation of $518 million in that study, Penn State ranked 13th in the country. Texas was worth the most, at $1.1 billion, with Ohio State and Alabama also above the $1 billion mark.
Now we've got lots of players making lots of money through NIL, or at least they say they're making lots of money. We hear reports about this NIL deal or that NIL deal, such as Jordan Addison getting $3 million to go to USC for one season, but there's really no way to verify any of the figures. They all could be grossly exaggerated, for all we know.
Still, the money is out there. For everyone.
If you're making money doing something, then you are a professional employee. And being an employee comes with certain legal rights, one of which is the possibility of forming a union.
In a landmark ruling Thursday, the National Labor Relations Board found merit in a case claiming that USC athletes are really employees.
This is from Sportico:
The National Labor Relations Board’s Los Angeles region has found “merit” in an unfair labor practice charge seeking employee recognition for USC football and basketball players.
In a statement Thursday, NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo said the region’s findings were based on a determination that the private university, the Pac-12 and the NCAA have collectively “maintained unlawful rules and unlawfully misclassified scholarship basketball and football players as mere ‘student-athletes’ rather than employees entitled to protections under our law.”
There's still a lot of legal stuff that needs to be sifted out in that USC case, and it will take time. These things always take time.
USC and UCLA will be joining the Big Ten in 2024, a move that was just signed off on this week by regents from the University of California.
The point should be crystal clear by now that, of course, college athletes truly are employees of the universities and sports programs they play for. They are not student-athletes, as they've always been called, but more accurately they are athlete-students, as I vowed to call them a while back.
It's just a matter of time before these athletes do in fact receive employee designation, and then a whole other can of worms will be opened up. Such as:
Should they have to pay taxes on all the things they get, including scholarships worth hundreds of thousands of dollars?
And if they deserve to be fired, can they be fired, like with any other job?
When they're ultimately able to form unions and can collectively bargain their financial fate, it truly will be the end of the road with regards to the guise that college football and basketball participants, especially, are anything other than professional athletes.
Which we've all known for many years now, even though we continue to look at college sports with the same romantic, nostalgic feeling that these are still somehow just amateurs competing for the love of the game.
2. Sean Clifford is The Man ... of the Year?
Clifford has been named one of three finalists for the Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year, for leadership on and off the field. The other finalists are Pitt's Deslin Alexandre and Oregon's Alex Forsyth.
For all the grief we give Clifford for his inconsistent and sometimes maddening play on the field, this is the kind of award he very well could deserve to win.
Clifford epitomizes a lot of things we have always admired about college athletes, that being leadership, dedication and outstanding representation of his university. There's no doubt he has enjoyed a fine career at Penn State with regards to those and other off-the-field elements.
Now, it cannot go without saying -- especially since I just wrote what I did in No. 1 above -- that Clifford also represents EXACTLY what has changed about college sports and college athletes. He not only makes good money through NIL -- we don't know how much for sure, but it's gotta be a substantial amount -- and he's also the CEO of an NIL company that's out to make as much money as possible for other athlete-students.
So, in pretty much every way imaginable, of course Clifford is the Collegiate Man of the Year because he represents the old-school way of doing things AND the new-school way of maximizing financial gain.
From the Penn State release:
Clifford presented a $15,000 donation to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Centre County. That contribution included a $10,000 gift from Allstate, thanks to Clifford's placement on their Good Works Team. Another $5,000 came from Clifford's personal NIL-related proceeds. Since Clifford arrived at Penn State, he has been involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters. In addition, Clifford started Limitless NIL. His new agency focuses on helping college athletes venture into the NIL space. As CEO, Clifford hopes to make a difference in the lives of his fellow athletes and for the next wave of recruits coming into this new-look NCAA.
The Man of the Year winner will be announced Feb. 23.
3. Just how it's going to be all season
The following graphic isn't exactly great news for the Penn State basketball team. It's the latest bracketology from Joe Lunardi:
ESPN
It's still very early in the season, so focusing too much on bracketology at this point can seem like a waste of time.
But keep in mind, this version from Lunardi has come after the Lions went on the road Saturday and beat Illinois. You'd think a road win of that magnitude would have vaulted Penn State firmly into the field of 68, and the fact that it didn't shows just how challenging things could be for the Lions all season.
If they go 9-9 in the Big Ten, that should be enough. Because it would include a number of quality wins over strong programs. As of now, Penn State is No. 51 in the NCAA Net rankings, a solid number but, when coupled with Lunardi's projection, again shows that there's a lot of work to be done.
I keep saying that I believe Penn State is one of the 68 best teams in the country, and actually could make a Sweet 16 run if its does get into the field. But man, those close losses to Virginia Tech and Clemson in November could go a long way to determining how things play out for the Lions.
4. Hockey team having ups and downs
The Lions' hockey team is ranked No. 5 in the country and has two wins over teams that were No. 1 at the time they played. But Penn State also has had trouble in the second game of a series, something the team needs to figure out.
Aside from sweeping two games against Alaska Fairbanks, the Lions' last five series against marquee programs have all gone the same way -- a win in the opener, then a loss in the second game. That has come against Michigan, Minnesota, Michigan State, Ohio State and Notre Dame.
Penn State is now 15-5 and is off until it plays a two-game series against Rochester Institute of Technology on Dec. 30-31.
5. Dean honored by Big Ten
Max Dean was named Big Ten Wrestler of the Week on Tuesday, as the senior 197-pounder picked up a dominant win in the top-ranked Lions' 31-3 victory over Oregon State.
Dean took down No. 11 Tanner Harvey, 6-3, to help Penn State improve to 4-0 on the season.
Dean is the first Lion wrestler to win the Big Ten weekly award this season.
Penn State travels to New Orleans next week for the Collegiete Wrestling Duals. The Lions will take on Central Michigan and North Carolina on Monday, then Tuesday's opponents will be determined.