Alabama is not the first athletics program to announce its name, image and likeness program. Far from it, actually. But the latest arms race in college athletics is not a race to be first, it's a race to get it right -- and when's the last time the Crimson Tide lost an arms race?
Alabama has unveiled The Advantage, "a comprehensive program that will provide Crimson Tide student-athletes with the education and tools necessary to build and elevate their personal brands."
This program will do what all the others will do, helping their athletes maximize their social media followings through account consulting and content distribution, while also providing assistance with the hiring of agents and marketing representatives, trademarking, business and non-profit formation, as well as traditional career development assistance like interview training and financial literacy courses.
So there's not a ton different here than what you'd find at other schools. Alabama can't sell its proximity to Hollywood like USC can. But they don't need to, not necessarily. This isn't a program looking to use its NIL program to bridge the gap with its competitors. Alabama is already on the other side of that gap.
https://twitter.com/alabamaftbl/status/1389624085487964165?s=21
Every NFL GM already plans his spring travel schedule around Alabama's pro day. Already, "Alabama" is synonymous with "college football" in the typical fan's mind the way people use the Yankees as the default MLB team and the Lakers as the default NBA franchise.
Alabama doesn't need The Advantage to change the game. To do its job, The Advantage just needs to marshal all the, uh, advantages Alabama already enjoys in a slightly different direction.
"Alabama has ranked in the top two in royalties generated among the Collegiate Licensing Company's partner institutions each of the last 11 years and was No. 1 in five of the last six seasons," the program's announcement said. "Over the last five years, officially licensed Alabama product was sold in over 9,000 unique retailers, and during the last decade, over 60.3 million units of officially licensed Alabama merchandise has been sold by licensees. Most recently, the Crimson Tide set the 48-hour post-national championship win record for NCAA merchandise sales across all sports."
Remember, this is the program that was used as a boogeyman to argue against any changes to the status quo. Just you wait, now every car dealer in Alabama is going to have all 85 players on the payroll. That dystopian future is now here.
Alabama governor Kay Ivey signed her state's NIL bill into law late last month, with an effective date of July 1. So less than 60 days from today, The Advantage will be beamed onto a car dealer billboard and/or a social media feed near you.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.