College football is evolving and schools need to buy in or fall behind.
On Thursday, Twitter and Opendorse, a private endorsement company co-founded by former Nebraska football player Blake Lawrence, announced a partnership designed to market athletes and allow them to profit off content they create.
The NCAA is expected to rule in the near future on how it will regulate the ways college athletes can profit off their name, image and likeness. Lawrence noted that Opendorse has a state-by-state policy depending on the state’s current name, image and likeness standing.
Texas is one of a dozen notable schools to have agreed to a deal with Opendorse along with Ohio State, LSU and Nebraska.
Athletes will be able to produce a video on their own time that is not affiliated with the school or a broadcast company. For example, Texas running back Bijan Robinson could essentially tweet a video after a game and give his thoughts on how it went. He would then be able to profit off the engagement he receives from that video and will be able to profit off the number of followers he possesses.
“This fall when a college sports fan is scrolling through Twitter, they’re going to see a video from their favorite student-athlete and that video could be that athlete providing a postgame recap. Their thoughts on the game they just played,” Lawrence said. “The fan hits play on that video and they will see a 5- to 15- to 30-second advertisement before the video plays.”
This will be used as a major recruiting tool throughout college football and schools that are unable to sell players enough on how much they can help elevate their personnel brand will simply swing and miss on big names.