Drayton Carlberg threw another Twitter yard sale on Friday. The former University of Oregon defensive tackle posted a photograph of a game-used No. 90 jersey.
Asking price: $300 or best offer.
It wasn’t the first equipment sale by the former academic All-American. He sold a line of team-issued Nike cleats and sneakers in August and blew out the UO jackets and windbreakers in July. Most of the other game-used jerseys went in June in a matter of hours.
“You have any Duck backpacks you wanna to sell?” asked one follower on Friday.
The whole enterprising thing dates back to January 2020 when Carlberg rolled out of Oregon’s Rose Bowl victory over Wisconsin by announcing 10 days later on social media, “I am looking to sell some pairs of my Oregon Jordan’s size 15 and other Oregon gear, DM me if interested.”
People were very interested, turns out.
Good for him.
Here’s a twist, too: Oregon requires players to buy their own jerseys from the university at $50 a pop. Carlberg told me on Saturday, “but you make a ton more.” So he’s apparently in the business of college football, too, now.
For years, UO has held its own athletic department equipment sale, blowing out piles of old football and basketball gear in the offseason. Meanwhile, the NCAA locked athletes themselves down, prohibiting them from selling their own team-issued equipment until they were out of eligibility. In fact, in 2013 two Ducks’ basketball players became the subject of an investigation after team-issued Air Jordan sneakers found their way onto eBay.
Sales price: $1,800 a pair.
UO self reported the violation of NCAA rule 16.11.2.1, which prohibits student-athletes from receiving extra benefits. The incident caused Oregon’s compliance department to change protocols and require athletes to check out — then check back in — their team-issued gear.
It’s sort of silly, isn’t it?
Justin Herbert and Troy Dye, for example, showed up at Pac-12 Media Day in the summer of 2019 wearing Air Jordan Tinker 3 sneakers. Herbert walked around with the tags still on his shoes and told me he was just borrowing them… from himself. After flying back from a day spent answering questions and filming promotional materials for the conference’s football brand, he’d have to turn them back in to Oregon’s equipment room.
“I guess they’re afraid some guys would sell them,” Herbert said.
Earlier on the same day, Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott told a room filled with reporters, “We are very clearly opposed to any type of pay-for-play system.”
College Football knows it’s in trouble. Four states have already passed laws aimed at helping athletes share in the profits. College athletes will soon be able to sell autographs, endorse products and get paid for providing training and instruction sessions for younger players. In November, the NCAA itself announced proposed rule changes that would allow athletes to sell their endorsement, effective Aug. 1 of this year.
With one catch, of course.
The universities want to have the discretion to prevent said athletes from cutting agreements that would cannibalize any of their own sponsorship deals. Basically, the NCAA is good with athletes making money as long as it’s not hurting their own multi-billion dollar bottom line. The NCAA Division I Council is expected to vote on that proposal this month.
Carlberg isn’t a pioneer here. He’s playing a game refined by his predecessors. Former athletes at colleges around the country have figured out that the public will pay for game-used jerseys. Also, apparently unused back-packs, sneakers, cleats, hats and polo shirts. These are collectibles in some cases. In others, fans of the programs love the idea of having a piece of unique, team-issued gear.
I smiled when I saw the series of yard sales. But laughed out loud when star Ducks’ defensive back Jevon Holland tweeted at Carlberg in August: “Everything must GO!”
One month later Holland opted out of his final college season and started preparing for the NFL Draft.
Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens told me last month that he’s facing a $65 million shortfall because of the pandemic. Washington AD Jennifer Cohen said she’s looking at a $30 million net loss. Scott Barnes at Oregon State said his department is somewhere in the middle of those two figures like most of the Pac-12.
There’s reckoning happening across college athletics. There’s growing pressure to allow athletes to organize and, eventually, explore more forms of revenue sharing. The universities know they have to fight legislation to survive in their present form. The new laws have to be terrifying for them.
Also, worth noting, major college football is losing the interest of western part of the United States because the College Football Playoff has left it out. The ratings for the Alabama-Ohio State playoff title game were the lowest in the history of the event. Maybe some of that resulted because it was a blowout victory in a pandemic-plagued season. But also, it was a tired and predictable match-up, born from a four-team invitational tournament that leaves large swaths of the country feeling alienated.
I half expected we might see a drawback in salary reflected in this year’s round of hires and contract extensions for college football coaches. But we really didn’t. Oregon gave Mario Cristobal six years and $27.3 million. Auburn bought out Gus Malzahn for $21.4 million and hired Boise State’s Bryan Harsin for even more. Texas gave new hire Steve Sarkisian a reported $34.2 million over six seasons and then hired the country’s first-ever $1 million-a-year special teams’ coach.
Meanwhile, Carlberg would like $300 for that jersey of his.
He should be asking for more.
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Email: John@JohnCanzano.com
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