David Briggs: UT football star Tycen Anderson becomes latest Rocket to cash in on good works

Dec. 8—University of Toledo football star Tycen Anderson is getting the word out on a locally developed financial literacy program. Offensive lineman Tyler Long is the newest pitchman for Tony Packo's Cafe. Quarterback Dequan Finn — known as DQ — just landed a 500-Blizzard-per-month deal with Dairy Queen.

OK, that last one isn't true.

But it should be.

And, you never know, maybe it will be.

Welcome to the free-market new world of college athletics.

More and more, student-athletes are benefiting from their prominence in their communities, free now to sign endorsement deals and otherwise cash in on their name, image, and likeness (NIL).

And, more and more, all we can say is more power to 'em.

Despite the fears of some college leaders who worried there would no longer be enough money to go around — how will schools afford the $100 million to hire a new football coach if a local car dealer is paying an athlete $5,000 that should be going toward the $50 million buyout of the old coach? — the enterprise has managed to survive.

That's true at Ohio State and Michigan, but also Toledo and Bowling Green.

At UT, for instance, at least a half dozen football players have signed NIL deals, including standout running back Bryant Koback (Habitec Security in Holland), punter Bailey Flint (Jupmode), and Thomas Cluckey and Thomas Zsiros with Tommy Bahama (OK, again, that last one is made up, but with the Rockets headed to the Bahamas Bowl, what are we waiting for?)

Anderson is the latest to join the party, signing an exclusive three-year deal with RightTrak, an online financial education program for students and young adults developed by TDC Companies in Maumee.

Why did TDC want Anderson? Easy.

For one, the St. John's Jesuit grad is proof that nice guys can finish first. Anderson is the perfect ambassador, an all-MAC honoree in the classroom and on the field, where he's one of the top safeties in the country. He'll play in the Senior Bowl in February.

For another, he interned last summer at TDC — the group of wealth and risk management firms chaired by Cleves Delp, a major UT donor and philanthropist — and had first-hand experience with its new program. He completed RightTrak, an interactive curriculum designed to highlight the importance of saving and investing at a young age.

"I took so many notes on it, and the lessons are things I'm going to keep around in my life forever," Anderson said. "It really is a great program."

And now he's ready to tell the world.

In addition to the financial component of the deal — the terms of which were not disclosed — Anderson will appear in commercials and at events promoting RightTrak.

"After Tycen interned with us and did an amazing job, I said to him as he was leaving, 'I think we'd be interested in buying your NIL,'" Delp said. "My motivation was, one, I wanted to do something good for Tycen. Two, I think it's good for UT from a recruiting standpoint that they can talk about their players enjoying this benefit. And, three, Tycen is the right spokesman for RightTrak. He's a student-athlete, he may play pro football, he's interned with us, he's taken the program ... so it all fits together."

Now, will all NIL deals be this tidy? Of course not. And will there be high-profile cases in which big-time programs mobilize boosters — sometimes illegally — to rain obscene amounts of money on to recruits? Of course. (Counter: What else is new?)

But, if allowing athletes to profit off their fame is not what's best for college football, it is what's right.

And, for his part, Toledo coach Jason Candle is all aboard, seeing these deals as testimonies to what is possible for players like Anderson and Koback who represent the best of college athletics.

"Toledo has a unique opportunity with the resources that are available to us with the city," Candle said. "We have great relationships in our community here. This is a good thing for me, because you consistently message to the team about doing the right thing and how that's going to reward you the 353 days of the year when there's not a football game.

"Everybody kind of says, 'yeah, that's coach talk, that's what everybody says.' To see the guys that ... have really high GPAs, that are really high-character guys, that are really accountable, to see them be rewarded for what they've done in something other than football, that's awesome. Every young man that has earned that opportunity should be able to cash in."

Indeed, the beginning of the NIL era is the end of the college athletics world as we know it.

And that's perfectly fine.

First Published December 7, 2021, 6:30pm