Ohio State’s Gene Smith is Going to Inadvertently Do MAC Women’s Basketball a Solid

Big news hit this week, as Gene Smith will co-chair a committee that is going to study the issue of allowing college athletes to profit off their own likeness. At a place like Ohio State, where Gene Smith is athletic director, or Notre Dame, where he played, that is huge news. These football factories will certainly benefit from the ability of third parties paying players. How that affects MAC football is a bit of a grey area that will certainly be touched upon by me and fellow Hustle Belt writers.

However, this particular post is how it is going to affect MAC women’s basketball. Potentially, it will be for the better.

Using Ohio State as the example, Kelsey Mitchell was a dominating player for the Buckeyes. Her coach was bad, and she sadly got knocked out of the NCAA tournament her senior year by our beloved Central Michigan Chippewas. The thing is she is the second all time leading scorer in NCAA women’s basketball history with 3402 points and she is probably less well known in Columbus than Presley Hudson is in Mount Pleasant.

This is an opportunity.

Anyone that has been following MAC women’s basketball knows that it is on the precipice of doing something really special. Sure the conference has won 5 NCAA tournament games in 2 years. That is not counting the damage a really good Ohio team that should have been in the big dance this season.

In MACville, the 100k question is, should the car dealership throw a few stacks over to the sophomore wider receiver that will immediately enter into the transfer portal where there will be a more lucrative deal, or invest in the talented point guard that can win an NCAA tournament game and potentially stay in the town after her pro career? As a small business owner, I know where I would throw my money.

Something to think about.