NC State
Wood: "When I turned professional it turned into how much money I can make.. slowly the drive to love the game kind of went away"
Former NCSU MBB star Scott Wood talks to Chris Lea about the impacts NIL can have on college athletes, the good and the bad.
As far as NIL like. Well, first off, what are your initial thoughts of it? Are you 40 against it? How you how you feeling about what's available to players right now? You know, I wouldn't say I'm for it or against it, you know, I think there's a lot of positives and a lot of negatives that can come from it, you know, I'm excited for the athletes that they get this opportunity, but I also kind of understand that, you know, uh you know, money can can do a lot of things to some some young people. So, you know, actually, the funny part is I actually talked with Ben Broussard and I told him he's the head of the look back Club. I asked him, I said, is there any, like, you know, training on finances and and kind of how to, you know, use money that you get, because, you know, a lot of these kids may not have a whole lot of money, and now they're going to kind of walk into some money. And he said that there's a six week training program that these kids get, which, you know, kind of, you know, maybe a little bit more excited for it, because it is something that, you know, especially I look back on, on me, if I was there, I have been spending on shoes and everything else, instead of, you know, maybe some investments and saving some money and using the money the right way to to build a future for me uh is something that I'm, you know, kind of thinking back uh that if I had this opportunity, I probably would've been wasting money. So I hope that these guys get some education on how to save a little bit of money. I was just reading on um N. C. State's New Alpha Initiative, Is that part of the Alpha Initiative? What you just mentioned the six week training, you know, I don't know if it is or not, I heard about this a while back and I know a guy that was going to be involved in it. Uh I think that's also something that, you know, kind of like a little mentoring program that can kind of help these kids learn from someone that, you know, has been in some type of business or in the professional world. So, you know, the key for it all is just just make sure that these kids get it and and right decisions. You know, a lot of people are going to want to try and use these kids and and ways just to make money off of them, so they need to have somebody in their corner that has their best interests at the same time, allowing them to be able to make a dime off, you know, something that they, they've done and built up, you know, their name and their brand to make a little bit of money. Social media is a very different since you've been out of school, but just imagine if you were in school, if they're in Ohio laws or rules, I should say that allowed you to profit off of things. And if folks said, hey, scott, can I just pay you a few dollars to put this on your social media or, you know, uh, wear this shirt or whatever? Um, you know, how, how would have that benefited you when you're in college, if you can put yourself in their shoes right now, you know, it's big. I look back on it, you know, um, my, my two parents were both school teachers by no means, you know, did I feel like I, you know didn't have the funds to be taken care of. But at the same time there I had a lot of teammates that you know didn't have a lot of funds and it was you know really difficult for them to get you know money transferred over with their parents maybe in Georgia. Uh So you know it's gonna be a good opportunity for these kids to be able to use the name that they've built up. They've worked very hard to to you know get some type of notoriety to be able to make a little bit of money. And that's the main thing is that now these kids can be compensated for you know the things that they've worked hard on throughout their life. Um As far as you know when you're playing basketball on this level on the A. C. C. Level everybody wants to make it to the N. B. A. Um whether you make it or not. Um Do you think this also kind of helps uh guys who you may not make it to the NBA but you can end up you know uh making yourself a brand in some other way and leading off into another way a way of life that could be very lucrative almost like the NBA. Just because of the high level of basketball you played in. Yeah and I think that's one of the things to that popped in my mind is you know we'll just keep guys for maybe leaving a little bit early. Not necessarily the guys that are really good. I mean you got those ions and guys like that that you know we're gonna go pro, they're gonna be they're gonna be fine regardless. There's a lot of guys you know they got people in their ear telling them, GoPro, there's money out there, GoPro, GoPro, but now they have the opportunity to, you know, get some money here to be well off enough that, you know, they don't have to jump to the NBA too early and then they make the mistake and they never developed and it hurts them in the long run. So that's that's one of the ways I look at it. And then another way, you know, like you mentioned, it gives the opportunity to to make sure that they're well off because, you know, not everybody is going to go into professional basketball, so, and that kind of turns into the finance side of it, the investment side of it. Uh just just building a bank accounts where when they're done, they have money whether it's, you know, starting a business or or something like that, they have now built a brand and they have a little bit of finances to help them you know take the next step after they graduate college. Actually I want I want to hover what you just said before because I don't think I've heard that perspective. There's a lot of people that think that um this will completely ruin college basketball and I've seen some people I'm not gonna watch college basketball anymore. But you just mentioned um this could be a fix for the issue of certain guys leaving early that probably shouldn't have left early. Or or maybe like an N. C. State's case. Um You know maybe guys who commit and then decide to go pro before you even go to N. C. State. Uh Maybe they can you know go and make a little bit of money there. They can still get that college experience and maybe you still have those big time with proof that still end up coming. Uh can you expand on a little bit about that a little bit more than what uh on the athletes mindset on how that could help you, you know, want to stay in school and not uh being such a rush to leave. Yeah. And uh you know, anybody be lying to you. I mean, as soon as I got to school, you know, I wanted to make the NBA that's that's every kid's dream. But at the same time a lot of kids will rush their decision because they know if they leave early, you know, uh you know, maybe their first round, they were lucky enough to get that guaranteed contract. A lot of people be a second round pick and they're not me for roster, if they would have stayed one more year now that puts them in the first round back bracket and they get guaranteed money. So now that they know, you know, I can make 2030, whatever it may be, they have that opportunity to have the finances to feel like, you know, they're not struggling, you know, they can kind of take care of their families if that's something they want to do. And I understand that, you know, they can come back another year, get better and then really make the leap to the NBA. That's, that's a very interesting perspective. I'm glad you brought that up. Um, and uh, just in general, you mentioned there are some positive, but there are some also some negatives. Um, it looks like NC state and duke and Carolina as well. I'm gonna do the best they can to help mitigate the negatives. But I spoke to a lawyer yesterday who, uh, his perspective was, you know, as soon as middle school parents need to start, you know, setting things up for their kids, whether it's, you know, um, copyrights, you know, getting, um, you know, certain domain names registered and all these other different things that you should do to go ahead and start preparing for things now. Um, how far back do you think things need to go to start preparing kids for N. I. O. Because clearly you just can't just walk into college and just, you know, be fresh with it. You have to have some type of education from here on out. How far back do you think that education should go? You know, that's that's a good question. I mean, the main thing is for me is, you know, we're given guys, uh, money that have never had money. It's like you look at a lot of guys that have been in the NBA they get big deals and now, you know, they're bankrupt, that would be my concern is getting this money and making sure that they're they're being able to be taking care of them. And one of the things too is, you know, I talked with the guy uh the other day, you know what happens if a uh say somebody comes to you, I want you to do this for me and I'm going to give you, You know, five of this, They sign a contract and that's a terrible contract. These kids don't know any better to to walk into this. They see money and they're like, oh this is perfect, but really they should be getting, you know, 40, of it. So you've got a lot of people out there on this probably falls more on the negative side that can take advantage of these kids that don't fully understand. They see money and they're like yeah money but at the same time you gotta make good deals for you and that will benefit you the most. So um again, you know obviously see a lot of the positive sides and that's one thing that we talked about there, but there is you know, a lot of negatives to it that I'm a little bit worried and I know the N. C. Double A. Hasn't come out with the full rulebook yet. Uh So I know that that's going to be you know, they're probably gonna be a little bit strict on a lot of things but there's a lot of questions and things that are lingering that we need to answer so that you know that uh these kids don't fall into a lot of mistakes. This will be my, my final question for you. But, um, we already know like for basketball, football players, the revenue sports, um, that this could be very lucrative. You mentioned maybe 20 $30,000 for some guys, maybe upwards to, you know, a million dollars for other guys. But when it comes down to the non revenue sports or Division two or Division three, Um, you know, now that these guys can go back to their hometown and let's say, put on a clinic and charge $10 a head. How do you think this impacts those people who aren't, uh, and, you know, the popular sports, maybe like, you know, wrestling or maybe they're playing division to a division three, they can take advantage of this as well. Yeah. And I don't be interesting to see, see how it all shakes out. I mean, there's gonna be a lot of things that I think, you know, after the first year, they're going to have to make a lot of changes. I mean, that's just how it is. They're going to have to learn with, you know, a lot of mistakes that will be made. You know, for example, my wife played softball. Uh, you know, it would have been interesting to see how, you know, the softball players would have used it. Maybe not the biggest names out there, but maybe it is, you know, training kids on the side and it gives them that opportunity to make money as well. So it's just one of those things, man that it's going to be very interesting to see how it progresses. Uh, it's gonna be interesting in the recruitment trail. I know that they said that you've got to get fair money for what you're doing, but everybody knows that, you know, yes, if this school is giving out a lot more money and these guys are making a lot more money, I'd rather go to that school than this school. So there's just so many questions about it and I, my main kind of take away is, you know, when I turned professional and it turned into, you know, how much money can I make it turned into money, money money. And slowly the drive to love the game uh kind of went away a little bit and I just don't want that to happen for these kids. And I think that's why when I look on it, you know, I'd almost rather it be, you know, maybe 40% of the money they can they can access, but then maybe 60% of it goes to some type of bank account or savings account to where that that money can grow and they can learn a little bit. So when they do graduate, they have access to money still. So there's just a lot of what ifs and in ways that this can be very, very good for the student athletes. But uh I just hope that every student athlete has somebody in their corner a voice to help them, because I think that will be a big, big thing for uh, you know, these these students and athletes moving forward.