Shane Beamer wants more NIL collective support for South Carolina football team
One day after Kentucky coach Mark Stoops’ controversial name, image, likeness comment on his weekly radio show, South Carolina football coach Shane Beamer urged Gamecock fans to donate to USC’s NIL cause.
“I’m grateful for our fans and every amount of money that they give to this university, this football program, paying money to come to games at Williams-Brice Stadium,” Beamer said Tuesday. “But for those that have the ability to give, we need ya, for sure.”
Stoops delivered a pointed response to fan criticism Monday after his Wildcat fell to 51-13 to the No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs over the weekend. UGA has won back-to-back national championships.
“You’ve got to own it, you’ve got to solve it and then you’ve got to go do it,” Stoops said. “The other side of that is, if you want to do that, complain, deny or make excuses. And we’re not going to do that. It is what it is.”
“Fans have that right. I give it to them. I just encourage them to donate more, because that’s what those dudes are doing. I can promise you Georgia, they bought some pretty good players. You’re allowed to these days. We could use some help. I encourage anybody that’s disgruntled to pony up some more.”
When asked for his thoughts on Stoops’ plea, Beamer said he could understand where his fellow SEC head coach was coming from. NIL is a major factor of student athletes’ decision making process across all of college athletics, he said, especially for those in the transfer portal. This is something Beamer wants to be very proactive about.
“I want what’s best for our players,” Beamer said. “I’ll make every phone call, speak to every group I possibly can when it comes to raising money for our guys from an NIL standpoint.”
Beamer also said name, image and likeness is a crucial part of building a elite program in any sports, football included, in the modern era of college athletics.
“That is the name of the game,” he said. “Whether you agree with NIL, don’t agree with NIL, if you want to win at the highest level and you want to win championships like we do here at Carolina, we’re gonna have to be very active from an NIL standpoint, a collective standpoint.”
He mentioned the Garnet Trust, which South Carolina named its official NIL partner in July. After both of USC’s wins this season, Beamer said he has filmed a video for the collective to post on social media encouraging fans to donate.
“We’ve got some people that have done some great things for our student-athletes, and (we’re) thankful for them,” Beamer said. “Frankly, we need more of them.”
