The college athlete pay debate is hitting Capitol Hill.
NCAA basketball players and social media influencers Haley and Hanna Cavinder recently attended Sen. Ted Cruz's round-table in defense of athletes' rights to profit off of ther name, image, and likeness.
Haley Cavinder argued that they have benefited "tremendously" from social media, which has earned them nearly $2M from NIL and brand deals.
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"Hanna and I benefited tremendously from social media. Name, image and likeness helped us in that way. But also, if you're a big-time football player at a big-time school, you can benefit from name, image, likeness from that as well. So I think it just depends, and depends on the player and what school you're at," Haley said during an appearance on "The Big Money Show."
The Cavinder sisters have stuck together throughout their college basketball careers, but due to their unprecedented fiscal success, Hanna Cavinder has decided to focus on their business, while Haley has elected to play her fifth and final season at Texas Christian University.
"Name, image and likeness throughout college, just taught us so much about how to invest our money. We got with the right team, a great attorney. My dad always would tell us, it's not a four-year plan, it's a 40-year plan. So, we kind of came from a business side of things," Hanna said. "And then just always to remember to invest, long-term wise. We wanted to create a brand and a successful business, and honestly, that's all due to NIL and the connections and relationships that we built."
Hanna and Haley share an account on TikTok under the account name "@cavindertwins," and currently have 4.5 million followers with over 150 million likes on their profile.
Pew Research Center indicates 56% of all American adults 18-34 use TikTok, providing a massive space for student-athletes to profit off of their name, image, and likeness.
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Despite the widespread support from players, former Alabama football coach Nick Saban expressed his distaste for NIL during Cruz's round-table at Capitol Hill, arguing that "all the things" he has believed in "no longer exists" in college athletics.
"All the things that I believed in for all these years – 50 years of coaching – no longer exist in college athletics," Saban said Tuesday at Capitol Hill. "We have collectives that, in some places, are raising huge amounts of money and going to compete against people who cannot, do not, have the same resources to raise… those kind of funds to pay players."
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Hanna weighed in, saying that the goal of the round-table was to come to an agreement and establish a "more seamless system" for NIL.
"I think everybody has a different opinion on it," she said earlier this week. "Listening to that conversation today, we're all just trying to come to an agreement and understand each other. And I think it is all for student athletes and college athletes just trying to find a more seamless system. But yeah, I agree. I think that name, image, likeness, as long as you earn your way, it should always be for the student athlete."
