Mississippi State Athletic Director John Cohen came to Columbia this week to talk about the success the Bulldogs have had in multiple sports.
That includes Southeastern Conference championships in women’s basketball and men’s tennis in the past year, along with many other team and individual accolades.
But Cohen, who became MSU’s AD in 2016 after serving as head baseball coach since 2008, also touched near the end of his talk Tuesday to the Columbia Rotary Club about a hot-button issue throughout the world of college athletics: California Senate Bill 206.
The state law, which passed in late September and is scheduled to take effect in 2023, would allow student-athletes to sign endorsement deals and prevent the NCAA from banning those students if they did so. College athletes could hire agents and profit from the use of their name and likeness, but the law would not allow schools to pay athletes directly.
“It could end up ending amateur athletics at the college level,” Cohen warned. “It is one of the most dangerous things, in my opinion, that we are discussing right now because we have a bunch of people sitting in cubicles who think this is a great idea who haven’t thought it out very well.”
Cohen said students could go to a car dealership and barter to have a car given them to drive in exchange for using their name and likeness in promotions.
“Sounds good, right? It’s great until a football coach in the SEC goes and gets 85 name-and-likeness car deals to all 85 of his players. Then we got an issue. This hasn’t been discussed in the media,” Cohen said. “Trust me when I tell you: I’ve been a part of the Southeastern Conference since I was 19 years old. That will happen if this becomes the law of the land, and this is why the NCAA is fighting this act.”
Cohen said the problem is not with student/athletes who want to be industrious and earn their own money but from the adults.
When asked from the crowd about capping it at just juniors and seniors being eligible for endorsement deals, Cohen resonded, “That’s a great idea, and I love it, and you just excited every lawyer in the room because what they just realized is they have a class-action lawsuit for every freshman and sophomore. You can’t do that for them and not for us.”
“The toothpaste can never go back in the tube once it goes out. It’s a very dangerous set of circumstances,” Cohen said. “Again, it’s really easy for somebody to sit in a cubicle in Washington D.C. or New York and say, ‘Man, they’re taking advantage of these kids!’ Really? Come to take a look. Walk in their footsteps. Go to their personal massage they have twice a week. Go to them with their tutoring. Go see who’s looking over their shoulder to make sure they have the best possible opportunity.”
He said he’s heard someone say it would actually be cheaper for universities if they paid athletes. Wake Forest’s athletic director said a student is given over $300,000 by the time they graduate; Cohen estimated it’s about $250,000 over four years at Mississippi State.
“These kids are treated very, very well,” he said. “It’s a very complicated issue.”
