By TAP co-founder Travis Richmond for VolleyballMag.com
Faculty sports activities modified ceaselessly on June 21, 2021, when the Supreme Court docket unanimously dominated the NCAA couldn’t prohibit student-athletes from receiving non-educational advantages. Since then, gamers have been allowed to earn compensation for the usage of their title, picture, and likeness (NIL).
In different phrases, school athletes can now be paid whereas taking part in their given sport — however not for taking part in their sport.
With the three-year anniversary of this landmark ruling quick approaching, the world of NIL stays complicated for a lot of who oversee, take part in, and watch school sports activities. For many athletes, the NIL period has but to ship any noticeable advantages. However there’s a higher method to financially assist school athletes:
It’s referred to as Tip a Participant, or TAP.
TAP connects followers with gamers and groups they love, and the corporate’s slogan is straightforward:
“Ship cash. They’ve earned it.”
Guests to tipaplayer.com can seek for any Division 1 participant on any staff at any college. After discovering a participant or staff, supporters merely determine how a lot they need to ship and add tricks to their cart like on any e-commerce web site. TAP does the remainder.
The TAP platform at present options greater than 123,000 gamers representing 24 sports activities at 360 colleges. This contains 6,745 Division 1 volleyball gamers from a complete of 433 groups throughout ladies’s, males’s, and seaside volleyball.
TAP compensates gamers who execute a regular, non-exclusive endorsement contract with the corporate and fulfill an endorsement obligation every month. That obligation is minimal — a quick video endorsement of the corporate in change for donations acquired in a participant’s title the earlier month, plus a proportional share of donations made within the title of their staff.
TAP helps all gamers earn NIL cash
The early years of NIL have seen a handful of star gamers at main colleges earn important endorsement earnings. However for each Heisman-winning quarterback there are literally thousands of lesser-known athletes who’re equally deserving of appreciation.
Every of the athletes on TAP has a singular web page on the web site. Having their very own direct hyperlink permits these gamers to construct a model and promote themselves like every other digital content material creator, and faucet instantly into their present networks of buddies, household, and followers for assist.
Likewise, TAP encourages athletes to assist one another off the courtroom as strongly as they do throughout a match. That’s why when cash is given within the title of any member of a staff, all members of the staff profit. Suggestions are divided between a person participant (90%) and their staff (10%), with the staff allotment divided equally every month amongst all members of the staff who’ve activated their TAP web page.
Fanbases compete, everyone wins
Few bonds are as sturdy because the one between school sports activities followers and their alma matter. Volleyball followers are a few of the most devoted within the nation, and their ardour is on show in gyms and sand pits from coast to coast.
But there was no straightforward means for common followers to take part in NIL. Till now.
Along with supporting particular person gamers, TAP customers can reward a whole staff by sending a Staff TAP for $5. Recipients of Staff TAPs are highlighted on the TAP web site on the TAPBOARD, a leaderboard that displays what number of Staff TAPs a staff has acquired that month. On the finish of every month, the worth of that month’s Staff TAPs is added to the staff allotment and divided equally amongst members of the staff with energetic TAP pages.
The TAPBOARD makes it attainable for followers to convey consideration to their staff by buying further Staff TAPs with the data that monetary assist goes on to the members of the staff, to not an undefined account which will pay for stadium enhancements or contract buyouts.
Go to www.tipaplayer.com right now to do your half to assist your favourite school athletes and groups. Ship cash. They’ve earned it.
