Competing as a student-athlete often means making sacrifices like less time to study or strict nutritional expectations. Or in the case of football players at West Virginia University, not being allowed to participate in TikTok dances.
It’s a very specific rule, but WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez said on Monday that student-athletes who play for him cannot dance on TikTok.
According to Front Office Sports, Rodriguez said that players are still allowed to use the app. “It’s like, look, we try to have a hard edge or whatever, and you’re in there in your tights dancing on TikTok ain’t quite the image of our program that I want,” Rodriguez said.
In the era of NIL, Rodirguez’s TikTok ban may face backlash. Many student-athletes earn their NIL deals through social media posting and engagement, and platforms like TikTok can be large streams of revenue for these student-athletes.
Other universities have rules about what can and cannot be posted online as a student-athlete representing the school, but Rodriguez is the first coach widely known to ban dancing on TikTok.
Rodriguez said, “I can have rules. Twenty years from now, if they want to be sitting in their pajamas in the basement eating Cheetos and watching TikTok or whatever the hell, they can go at it, smoking cannabis, whatever. Knock yourself out.”
While Rodriguez is confident in his rules, some NIL and employment lawyers told Front Office Sports that banning the Mountaineers from TikTok could be a bridge too far. Universities and coaches can only display so much control over student-athletes while they aren’t considered employees – something the NCAA and its member schools have been fighting against.
“We are in an era where athlete personal branding has tremendous value, and restricting certain social media activities could negatively impact players’ marketability and earnings. I believe this goes beyond the establishment of reasonable team rules and further assists those claiming that there is so much control over athletes, assisting their efforts to label them as employees,” said Darren Heitner, NIL attorney.
