Iowa WR Tyrone Tracy: NIL “is so huge”

IOWA CITY — Iowa wide receiver Tyrone Tracy Jr., knows he’s been deprived of his rights as a U.S. citizen. He has nine allies in the U.S. Supreme Court.

"Nowhere else in America can businesses get away with agreeing not to pay their workers a fair market rate on the theory that their product is defined by not paying their workers a fair market rate," Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote last week in the Court’s unanimous opinion in antitrust case NCAA v. Alston. "And under ordinary principles of antitrust law, it is not evident why college sports should be any different.

“The NCAA is not above the law.

“The NCAA’s business model would be flatly illegal in almost any other industry in America.”

Kavanaugh added the current NCAA model is "suppressing the pay of student athletes who collectively generate billions of dollars in revenues for colleges every year."

It’s not if, it’s when, and the when is very soon. Rights for college athletes to make money off their names, images and likenesses are coming fast. For some, it’s July 1. It may come as soon as that even in Iowa, despite our state legislature letting an NIL bill die this spring.

Wrong side of history, Iowa politicos.

Tracy is a junior who would do well for himself if he had NIL rights this year. He’s a dynamic player who said in no uncertain terms Tuesday that he wanted to be the Big Ten’s top receiver and Iowa’s first 1,000-yard receiver in the last 10 years.

He also knows the chance to make some money off his own name may be his before his college career is over.

“The reason I’m on board is I feel in college, a lot of people’s names are bigger than when they’re out of college,” Tracy said. “So I feel like if you can make money right now, you should be able to because your next step when you get out of college, you don’t know what’s going to happen.”

For those who think Iowa could lose allure with recruits if NIL opportunities were a factor in their college choices, you may want to think again.

“In Iowa we’re basically the pro team,” Tracy said. “So if we throw a camp or something, there’s basically going to be a lot of people there. I feel like with them taking that away from us, that is something that’s not good.”

With the ability to get paid for holding a football camp or an autograph session, Tracy said, “it will be a positive impact overall.”

“(If) you can get some type of income from it, that’s why this is so huge. Because for so long there’s been so many good names to come from Iowa, come from Oklahoma or Alabama, everywhere. I feel like every year there are people that lose out on opportunities.

“This is literally a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a lot of people that don’t come from a lot of money back home. This money can help their families back home. Some people don’t understand that.”

Nobody goes to a play to watch a stage manager, no one goes to a concert to watch people run the lights and sound, no one goes to a game to watch coaches coach and administrators administrate.

The players are the show. This isn’t about them getting paid by the university. This is about being able to cash in on their own, even if it’s sometimes in dribs and drabs. It’s about being able to join the rest of the nation in free enterprise.

Athletic departments and coaching staffs have already begun to accept it and deal with it.

“I think most of us will be learning as we go,” said Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz. “It also appears most of us are going to be partnering up with experts. Some smart people on the outside have seen this coming and maybe capitalized on an opportunity.

“I know in my case and probably our coaching staff’s case, we’re really leaning on people who do understand the ins and outs of this.”

A company called Opendorse has deals with many universities, including several from the Big Ten, to help college athletes capitalize on their own names, images and likenesses. Every athletics department will be on board, whether happily or not, and Iowa took the plunge Friday.

Oh, here’s something warm to close this on for Hawkeye fans:

“Right now we’re just focused on football,” Tracy said. “I don’t want to lose sight of the big picture.”

Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com