With March Madness Here, FanAngel Rolls the Dice On Funding Athletes

By Joe Favorito @JoeFav

 Pay for play has been a popular theme in the debate over college athletics, but pay for stay?

Another of those seem like a good idea platforms has arisen in the past few weeks to somehow try and solve the issue of keeping elite athletes in school. It is a crowdfunding site called FanAngel which will allow fans to anonymously contribute to pay college athletes to stay in school through donations that are given to the athlete when his or her eligibility expires.

According to an ESPN.com story, founder Sean Fojtik said that when a fan commits a pledge to an athlete, that money is immediately taken out of the account. Eighty percent of the money will be held for that athlete if that athlete does choose to stay in school, 10 percent will be given to that athlete’s teammates, and 10 percent will be earmarked for charity and scholarship funds. The money is given to the athlete when that athlete’s eligibility expires. FanAngel’s revenue source would be to take a fee, as much as nine percent, from the donation to help facilitate the fund.

While the site says it will steer clear of NCAA rules with regard to mentioning names, many have argued that the site would create an unfair advantage for big schools and marquee names, easily creating an unfair advantage. And although the site is anonymous with regard to where the funds could go, corruption could easily ensue. The story also says that there is no way for athletes to contact the  company or crowdfund on their own through his site, although we are talking enterprising young people and deep pocketed donors, which can be a lethal mix in many cases.

Is the idea a low risk, high reward play for the creators, a legitimate solution to help solve the one and done rule, or a symbol of much that is wrong with college athletes, where big schools find big donors with big ways to circumvent the rules? For one thing it is creative, but as we have seen in the free market, the only way for it to work is to pull big dollars from anonymous sources, while the NCAA watches very closely.

Fan Angel gets high marks for buzz and creativity. Whether it translates into a legit business solution is anyone’s guess and some people’s gamble.