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Amplifying The Student-Athlete Voice With Athletes.org’s Brandon Copeland

Guest Brandon Copeland, Athletes.org
32:52 min watch

Summary

Athletes.org co-Founder and CEO Brandon Copeland sits down with ADU’s Tai M. Brown at the 2024 NIL Summit to discuss the development of a players association for college athletes and the specific ways in which Athletes.org seeks to amplify the student-athlete voice in today’s athletic landscape. Copeland shares insight into the structure of the association, including the ways in which negotiations between student-athletes and their institution or organizations such as a conference office, NCAA or College Football Playoff could be facilitated. Copeland and Brown also discuss Copeland’s financial education program and the importance of empowering college and high school students with tools to create the life of their dreams.

The conversation is indexed below for efficient viewing (click the time stamp to jump to a specific question/topic).

  • - You played 10 years in the NFL; before that you were a student-athlete. While playing in the NFL, you created a financial education program - for athletes or for people in general?
  • - What was missing from your internships, from the classes you took at Penn?
  • - The college course is 16 weeks - is the high school course similar?
  • - Athletes.org was created to give athletes a seat at the table in order to negotiate their value. Tell me more.
  • - You asked, "Is SAAC equipped to negotiate on behalf of all student-athletes?" Is there an organization that is?
  • - In players organizations on the professional sports side, all players are essentially the same level of player; when you talk about college athletes, not all players are on the same level - there are so many subgroups (Divisions, FBS versus FCS, etc). Tell me about that aspect because the analogy of a professional league doesn't really fit into college sports.
  • - When you say "conference representation," are you talking about all conferences?
  • - So then you'll have a player on campus who's a rep?
  • - So if I'm a student-athlete at North Carolina in whatever sport, the Athletes.org representatives have to get together with all the other sports and facilitate and decide what's best for us as an institution for the student-athletes at North Carolina?
  • - So then the voice from UNC goes back to Athletes.org? Is it just one voice for the entire institution or the soccer voice for UNC goes to the soccer sub-group within Athletes.org?
  • - So negotiations would be "per category"?
  • - Is Athletes.org equipped to fight individual battles like that?
  • - This is similar to a Players Association stepping up when a player is in a challenging situation with a team in a professional league?
  • - Who would you be negotiating with on behalf of student-athletes?
  • - Would the College Football Playoff be sitting at the table as well?

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