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As a Tulsa restaurateur is ready to participate and Spencer Rattler capitalizes, the potential of NIL is stunning"

Bill Haisten

During the June 17-18 ChampU BBQ event hosted by the OU football program, some amazing eye candy was parked in Memorial Stadium’s south end zone: a silver Rolls-Royce Dawn, a green Ferrari Italia 458, a red Lamborghini Gallardo, a white Corvette C8 and a white Bentley Continental GT.

Tulsa restaurateur Travis Davidson doesn’t own the cars, but, as a friend of the OU program, he was responsible for persuading some of his restaurant patrons to provide their elite vehicles as ChampU BBQ photo props.

If you were on Twitter around that time, you probably saw high school recruits attired in OU uniforms and posing with some of Tulsa’s most prestigious cars. You also probably saw that former Sooner stars like Billy Sims, Kyler Murray, CeeDee Lamb, Sam Bradford and Adrian Peterson returned to Norman for the ChampU festival.

Brilliant food was served to official-visit recruits, along with their family members and guests. Davidson catered that food. There were 40 2½-pound Wagyu tomahawk ribeye steaks. A tomahawk ribeye is a beautiful, special-occasion cut of meat. It’s the type of steak you photograph before you put a knife on it.

During the Champ BBQ weekend, tomahawk ribeyes were smoked on Lincoln Riley’s driveway. Before the event, Davidson used a Dremel device to carve #OUDNA into the extended bone of each steak.

The 32-year-old Davidson very obviously is an OU booster. Soon, his involvement will extend to name-image-likeness relationships with Sooner football athletes. Now approved by the NCAA, Davidson has the ability to pay college athletes to represent his restaurants: Treys Bar & Grill in Bixby and Cardinal Club.

While Davidson might be the first Tulsa-area business figure to hold up his hand and say, “Yeah, I’m doing this,” he won’t be the only one.

“There is a lot of money in Tulsa,” Davidson said. “We’re two hours from Norman and an hour-and-a-half from Stillwater. Who’s to say the top University of Tulsa athletes can’t capitalize? You want me to believe Zaven Collins wouldn’t have garnered a lot of money last year?

“Oklahoma State alumni really support their athletes. There will be a strong market, I believe, for the Oklahoma State athletes.”

Davidson says he “definitely” intends to have an NIL arrangement with at least two Sooner football athletes. He is focused on two specific Sooners, but doesn’t want to publicly mention names until the OU compliance office approves the contracts that would allow the athletes to be paid for endorsing or making appearances in Davidson’s establishments.

Bob Stoops and Marcus Dupree have been dinner guests at Cardinal Club. Former Sooners J.D. Runnels and Dom Franks were spotted while having lunch at Treys. So was OU offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh, and so was Baker Mayfield.

When Mayfield was at Treys during the summer of 2017 – a few months before he would win the Heisman Trophy – he wasn’t there to promote the restaurant or himself. He was just there to eat. It wasn’t an “appearance,” per se. Mayfield certainly was noticed, though.

Within a matter of days, at one or both of the Davidson restaurants, there could be advertised appearances by current members of the OU football team.

“Before any money can be exchanged,” Davidson explained, “we’re being told that everything has to be done at fair-market value, that there has to be a contract, and that the details of the contract must be presented to the university. After that the (university) compliance office has to approve of the contract.”

For an NIL participant like Davidson, there is the desire to become immediately involved and established as an attractive option for well-known athletes whose presence or association can provide a measurably beneficial impact.

At the same time, it’s wise to study the national big picture – to monitor the name-image-likeness market and see pricing become more defined.

“On all sides of this situation, everyone is learning as they go,” Davidson said. “Some of the young athletes will overestimate their (initial value) and say, ‘I want $5,000 for this or $10,000 for that.’ And then they’ll learn that their brand is worth a lot less money than they’re hoping for, so there will be some bruised egos in the beginning.

“The market will correct itself and the athletes will get a better understanding of what their value really is.”

With a message directed both at college athletes and recruits, OSU basketball coach Mike Boynton shared some wisdom on Twitter: “The NIL policies across the country COULD really be a game changer (for) you, but do yourselves a favor . . . READ THE FINE PRINT. (A) new lane has been created for you all to be misled and lied to about things that aren’t real.”

Among current college athletes, OU’s Spencer Rattler may command the most NIL money. His agents are Leigh Steinberg (who represented Troy Aikman and 11 additional Pro Football Hall of Fame members) and Chris Cabott (who represents Patrick Mahomes and was the primary negotiator of the 10-year Mahomes contract that ultimately could be worth $503 million).

From the Cameo website, personalized video messages may be purchased from a great variety of entertainment and sports personalities. The NCAA’s name-image-likeness legislation now allows college athletes to cash in on their notoriety.

For $50, you can order a video message from Iowa State running back Breece Hall or Texas QB Casey Thompson.

For a Rattler video, the price is $125.

Among other interesting names on the Cameo menu: Stoops ($250 per message), Boynton ($100), Tyreek Hill ($1,000), Urban Meyer ($345), Brian Bosworth ($150), Aikman ($750) and Steve Largent ($150).

Opendorse is a Lincoln, Nebraska-based company that, according to its website, “provides technology to the athlete endorsement industry.” A year ago, as Rattler’s social-media reach is defined by 377,000 Instagram followers and 63,500 Twitter followers, Opendorse estimated that the OU quarterback could command more than $750,000 in name-image-likeness income.

Rattler tweeted this on Wednesday: “I will donate a part of any earnings I receive to help underserved people and underserved communities.”

The advent of NIL may have sneaked up on many people who either were oblivious or simply not fully informed about the impact.

It didn’t sneak up on Davidson or marketable athletes like Rattler. For months, college athletes have created personal logos and partnered with agencies that can help them maximize their income potential while still in college.

It is fairly stunning, however, to see the potential — that some of the more prominent college athletes could end up making more money in a year than the staff members who work as their position coaches.


Tulsa Restauranteur Travis Davis

the beginning of the end to college sports.....

These are inalienable rights. Full stop.
(clic Pic)


Quarterback Spencer Rattler walks towards the locker room before the 2021 Oklahoma Spring Game at Gaylord Memorial Stadium in April. Rattler, like the vast of majority of college athletes, will be allowed to monetize his name, likeness and image beginning Thursday. - Ian Maule, Tulsa World file

Guerin Emig - Tulsa World

As of Thursday, college athletes are finally able to generate income off their name, image and likeness. And before we go any further on the topic, and see the ripples from Sooners, Cowboys, Golden Hurricane and Golden Eagles cutting deals for autographs, billboards and their social media channels, we have to agree on something.

These are inalienable rights. Full stop.

Big 12 Conference commissioner Bob Bowlsby described athletes’ NIL rights as “inalienable” on the Horns247 podcast “The Flagship” last week. He got that part absolutely correct, same as he did when he predicted college sports will be just fine despite the short-term adjustment to NIL’s complications.

Later in the podcast, after host Chip Brown made the point that granting athletes NIL rights might deflect attention from the fact that they go unpaid while their coaches bank millions, Bowlsby said: “This is not intended to be a profession. It’s not intended to be an employee-employer relationship.”

“It’s easy to make that comparison,” Bowlsby continued. “‘The coaches are making lots of money and the poor student-athletes not getting anything.’ Well, a full scholarship with all of the benefits at the University of Texas is higher than the median income in the state of Texas.

“To say that student-athletes don’t have a pretty good lot in life... Most students on campus would trade places with them in a heartbeat. This is just another step towards permissibility.”

I want to use Bowlsby’s statement as caution. If you are wrapping your head around the notion of Sooners or Cowboys suddenly being paid to sign autographs or run camps, please don’t get hung up on these players’ “pretty good lot in life.”

To do that is to miss the point of NIL entirely, and to risk coming down on the players when we should be applauding them for the long-overdue arrival of rights we have already agreed are inalienable.

The players do have a pretty good lot. The food, apparel and scholarship perks are plentiful. So is the exposure. The fame, especially in a college town where one sport towers above the others, can be intoxicating. We all know this.

But that is no reason to wonder whether Sooners quarterback Spencer Rattler should be able to monetize his social media channel as an OU music student might monetize hers by releasing a song on her Instagram. Rattler, like Oklahoma State wrestling champion A.J. Ferrari, Oral Roberts basketball standout Kevin Obanor and Tulsa AAC Offensive Soccer Player of the Year Alex Meinhard, should be able to have it both ways.

As for the monetizing, it’s OK to wonder how these athletes will go about that. It’s fine to wonder how much they prove to be worth, and how much strain this causes their schools’ compliance departments.

It’s OK to wonder how much NIL freedoms really do change the NCAA landscape in the coming days/weeks/months, though I advise that Bowlsby is right. Everyone will adapt and we’ll eventually proceed calmly.

It is not OK to wonder if we should be going here in the first place.

It most definitely isn’t OK to strike a condescending tone, as Bowlsby ran a great risk of doing toward the end of the podcast with his “poor student-athletes” reference. It isn’t OK to come off as defensive toward athletes’ newfound freedoms.

The right way to go about this is to certify those freedoms, as Bowlsby did earlier on “The Flagship” when he pulled out the word “inalienable,” and to stay on that track. Don’t fall off just because someone suggests that NIL could be seen as tipping the scales a little more toward players when rocks have capsized those scales in favor of coaches for a century.

NIL does tip the scales. That is a positive development.

But it would be a positive development regardless of coaches’ salaries, the employee-employer dynamic and other sidebars to this arguably exploitative system.

This is a complicated development, no doubt. We’ll hopefully learn a lot more about NIL as we advance toward the 2021-22 college sports calendar. Right now we’re lucky to get one answer for every 10 questions.

I suggest we start with something basic: However murky the path forward, we are absolutely right to be on it. Athletes’ rights to their name, likeness and image are as obvious as their pretty good lot in life.

Are the 5 star cant miss high schoolers eligible?

Eighth graders do get offers.......

Now they can get their tatts for free.

Hunting, hiking, skiing, fishing, biking, atving, camping outdoors on a beautiful weekend


sitting home and watching sports that constantly promote the destruction of America and freedom and glorify and worship violent criminals


thats a tough one

How many actually graduated HS or could score above SAT min?

Student athletes my ass.

Do I still have to pay for their scholarships to my state school?

This is going to ruin college athletic. What are they going to do for girl swimmers? They will sue if they don’t get money too. This is messed up.

Is that kid an albino?

Tatts prove them boys iz tuff!

Most of those players who receive the NIL money will blow it on "mainline goodies" quicker than a cat can lick his azz.

L.W.

yep title IX

A fuggin Japanese steak, somebody else's poser cars, and maybe a BJ from a boosters hot wife later.....sounds like a Stanley Kubrick movie.

I've no problem with it.

The schools aren't buying players (anymore than before, anyway).
An individual's name, image, and likeness is wholly their own.
Was ridiculous for the ncaa to take that from them.

When do they go to China?

Every person on this forum, and every person in America, has the right to sell their name, image, and likeness. Prior to these rulings, college athletes were required to forfeit those rights. That will no longer be the case.

"How many actually graduated HS or could score above SAT min?"

Thank you hookeye. College football has been quite corrupt for many years and this is the final nail in the coffin lid. How many of these guys are actually students who could pass a real course of study. You listen to interviews with these players on the sidelines, about half of them are really stupid.
This new rule will be the destruction of "college" athletics.
I mean, it is a lot of athletics but not so much of college.

And there will be trouble from the Feds. According to Title 9, the female athlete must get every perk that the male athlete gets. Well, Nike will pay $5 million to the junior QB who just won the national championship as a sophomore.
But how much will Nike pay to a chubby female college softball pitcher? Zero! Gonna be a big problem.

Didn't the players get a full scholarship? As a non-resident of Pennsylvania, it cost me $200K for 5 years of my daughters education to Penn State. I sure would hate to pay for their scholarship and have them cash in!

IMO, let them go straight to the pros.

I guess we’ll wait and see how this ends up. They’re getting money under the table from boosters via parents, etc as it is. Maybe that will dry up the illicit money, or not….

Roll Tide