Right off the bat, I’ll acknowledge that I’m as giddy as a schoolgirl over the possibilities surrounding this topic in the comments section. $EC(heats) haters, start your engines!
That said, one enterprising fan has taken a unique approach to keeping athletes in school instead of leaving early for the professional ranks. According to ESPN.com, Shawn Fojtik is the founder of a crowdfunding website called FanAngel.com.
The premise of this portion of Fojtik’s site is simple and straight forward: fans can go to the website and donate money -- the amount is up to them -- that will be earmarked for a specific athlete after that player’s eligibility expires. FanAngel takes nine percent of the donations as its fee, with the remaining money that’s placed in escrow divvied up as follows: 80 percent to the athlete -- again, if he/she stays in school -- 10 percent to that athlete’s teammates and 10 percent to various charitable and scholarship funds.
If the athlete leaves eligibility on the table, any money donated in his/her name is returned to the donor.
Now, the question you’re certainly asking your self right now: how the hell can this happen with the NCAA bylaws currently in place? The answer is just as simple as the concept: FanAngel is not in any way, shape or form connected to either the NCAA or the athletes, other than serving as a conduit for the money of fans, and is thus not subject to Association rules and regulations.In November, the NCAA issued guidance to prospective crowdfunding sites saying that college athletes’ names could not be used to promote such sites and would compromise that athlete’s eligibility. The NCAA argued while defending its position in the Ed O’Bannon case that accepting money that is put in escrow still counts as accepting money at the time an athlete accepts it.
But Fojtik said his site steers clear of all NCAA guidelines.
“There’s no acceptance on the athlete’s part, and we aren’t specifically promoting any athletes,” he said. “We are using their name as anyone would as part of fair use.”
The NCAA, as you can imagine, is not pleased with the concept, but its hands are tied, at least at the moment. Fojtik said his group and the NCAA have a lot in common, namely “for kids to stay in school, to end the one-and-dones or the ‘two-and-throughs.’” Fojtik added, though, “we aren’t a constituent of theirs, so we’re not subject to their rules.”
According to Fojtik, fans can donate anonymously, although the amount of each donation will be made part of the public record. College football fans -- and boosters -- being allowed to donate anonymously to keep top talent in school an extra year? What could possibly go wrong?
What will be interesting to watch develop is, if this site takes off, how the NCAA reacts to the first batch of players who collect after their eligibility expires. Could the NCAA place sanctions on that player’s former program? I’d say it’s highly unlikely, although you can never put any asinine move past the NCAA.
