The Oklahoma State Cowboys have announced that their players will wear QR codes on their helmets this season, which will direct fans to a webpage where they can donate to the program’s NIL collective. Every student-athlete on the roster will have a unique code on the back of their helmet.
“NIL” is short for “Name, Image, Likeness” and is a way for college athletes to receive compensation for playing a sport. The NCAA officially made it legal for athletes to profit off of their NILs on July 1, 2021.
If the line between “amateur” (college) and professional football players was blurred before, it’s pretty much erased in this day and age. Although NIL became official in 2021, things have really ramped up since May of this year, when about 14,000 former college athletes enrolled between 2016 and 2020 sued the NCAA over lost opportunities and profits in the era before 2021. That case was settled in May, 2024, and will result in the NCAA promising to pay $2.75 billion out over the next 10 years to the plaintiffs, and will also result in the Power 4 schools each having to spend roughly $20 million a year paying student-athletes.
OSU’s code will link to the general NIL fund for the team, which benefits every player on the roster. This is believed to be the first program to use a QR code on its helmet (and certainly the first to use it for this purpose).
The helmet QR code was the idea of HC Mike “I’m a man, I’m 40” Gundy, who said, “This is a revolutionary step forward to help keep Oklahoma State football ahead of the game. It gives a chance for everyday fans across the world to have a real impact when it comes to supporting the NIL efforts for Cowboy football. I’m thrilled about this opportunity for our players.”
The QR codes will be applied to the back of each helmet via 1.5 square inch decals that feature each player’s name and number in the design. Obviously, on most TV shots and from the stands, the QR codes won’t be visible. So why have them? During close shots on TV broadcasts, as well as postgame photos posted to social media, the decals will likely be visible enough to capture the QR codes.
I’m not sure how well this will work — since TV viewers will likely have to pause the game in order to actually scan the codes. But not only will the football team have them on its helmets, each player will also have a QR code on their travel bag that is used for walking into the stadium. There will also be codes on the Oklahoma State football equipment truck, plus signage around the stadium for fans to be able to scan. So the helmet sticker is just one of several methods to get their fans involved in fundraising via the code.
In case you’re not familiar with QR codes — they are similar to bar codes — they stand for “Quick Response” and when scanned with a cell phone camera, will decode the pattern and translate it into human-readable information. In OSU’s case, should a viewer be able to scan a player’s QR code from the back of the helmet, it will link to the general team fund for every student-athlete on the roster. Once scanned, it will take the scanner here, where one can donate to Cowboy Football, and/or a specific athlete.
I’m not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, college athletes have been treated like chattel for decades, and I’m pleased to see that they are finally going to be receiving some recompense, since the NCAA and schools have been making buckets of money at their players’ expense. Some might argue that a full ride to a four-year university is enough compensation. But we’re in a whole new world now with bigger slices of the pie being divvied up amongst more players (by players, I mean athletes, administration, the NCAA, etc.). The recent settlement of the aforementioned lawsuit only ups the ante, as it were. It’s why we’ve been discussing the crazy possibilities (now realities) of colleges having uniform ads, and even the very real prospect of entire conferences selling naming rights to advertisers.
The QR code on the helmet is just the next step in this progression. If it brings in money for the kids playing the game, then I am for that. I know we’ll never return to the halcyon days of yore when college athletes were “amateurs,” but it does feel like a bit of true innocence has been lost the past couple years. And obviously, I’m not thrilled about the QR codes appearing anywhere on the uniform (it’s not quite an ad, but it is still additional clutter).
Okie State may be the first school with the QR codes on the uniform, but we can be pretty certain they won’t be the last.
Your thoughts?
The fact that you can specify the player really weirds me out. I guess I can tolerate the whole fund, but the fact you single out the player seems ripe for gambling shennanigans.
I don’t love being able to single a player out. But being able to donate to the general fund, I actually quite like.
My only real gripe is that it interrupts the helmet stripe, although there’s not much room elsewhere on the back of the helmet ig
Scumbag material
No, I don’t watch much college football and I have other things to do with my money.
LOL. Is this why Gundy told them to stop asking for money.
I guess it’s better than an ad… but do I really think there won’t also be an ad? No.
I have to disagree with Phil – the whole NIL thing is disgusting. A college degree is the compensation – the chance to showcase your talent in order to move up to the next level is the compensation. Becoming a better man is the compensation. Moving to the next school when you didn’t make the cut has 100% ruined what teaching a kid about teamwork and the whole nature of team sports.
I have to laugh – all the money the schools are obligated to pay now… careful what you ask for!
Does this encourage fans to jump past security and storm the field?
“I was just trying the scan the QR code on my favorite player’s helmet, I swear!”
This whole NIL scheme stinks to high heaven. For years, people complained that the schools were making too much money off of the player’s labor and that they should have to share all of that $$$ with the players. Now, the schools are just begging the fans for more money, implying that they won’t be competitive without it…
I don’t get it. Where did all of the money the schools were making go?
Signs of the apocalypse.
So just make them professionals, stop pretending they’re college students.
When I took my son to college at a D1 school (he wasn’t an athlete) he was enrolled in a Philosophy class that was a general degree requirement. There was a stack of near 200 books for the class in the bookstore. I did the Rodney Dangerfield thing and told him “Look for the books with a used tag that aren’t highlighted. You don’t know if an idiot had the book before you.” The clerk said “I can guarantee you getting a used book that hasn’t been opened. Look for the books that are stamped ‘Athletic Department’ and you’ll be guaranteed they’ve not been used at all.”
Start writing up contracts, let the players have agents, pay the full time, stop the student pretensions and stop this QR stuff. What about other sports, will basketball players wear it on their jersey right under the uniform maker mark or the conference logo? Before we know it the entire uniform will be covered in QR codes for advertisers. Jerseys will look like they are covered in square sores.
Maybe this is already happening to a certain extent, but there will be all-out bidding wars for high school recruits. The schools with the most money will get the best blue-chippers. Then people will start clamoring for some sort of salary cap to keep the competitive balance. It will get crazy before long.