In Baton Rouge, inside the club level of LSU’s colossal football stadium, coach Ed Orgeron delivered a message in late July to hundreds of influential businesspeople gathered to hear him discuss the 2021 Tigers.
His message was something no coach would have uttered publicly six months ago. “We’re paying players now: name, image and likeness,” he said. “So if you guys wanna start paying our players, you can go ahead!”
A week earlier in San Antonio, speaking at the state’s annual high school coaches convention, Alabama coach Nick Saban told a crowd of thousands that his sophomore quarterback, Bryce Young, who hasn’t yet started a single game, was approaching $1 million worth of endorsements.