Jimmer Fredette is making a movie

I'm of the opinion that college athletes should be paid. The details of how that can be accomplished in a fair and equal manner is another post for another day, but yes, I believe that the stars of college basketball and college football should receive some kind of monetary compensation beyond a scholarship.

That said, the most convincing argument that I have heard against paying players is the amount of attention and free publicity that these kids get during their collegiate days. Its probably fair to say that few prospects would be signing seven figure endorsement deals without the exposure they get from playing in college.*

*(I'd respond with "why not allow them to sign those deals in college and get paid their market value?", but again -- different post, different day.)


Jimmer Fredette has been doing just that. The former BYU standout became a national sensation this season, and now that his collegiate career is finished, he's starting to cash in on that fame. It started with selling posters, but The Jimmer is taking it a step further: he's signed a deal with a production company to chronicle his transition from a student-athlete to NBA player.

From SportsBusinessDaily:

Fredette committed to allow Tupelo-Honey to shoot more than 100 hours of footage over 30 days. The New York-based production company plans to sell online and mobile vignettes and packaged 30-minute TV shows.

No programming has been sold yet, but Tupelo-Honey President Cary Glotzer said he’s already been having discussions and plans to sell footage to several outlets.

Glotzer plans to produce daily two- to four-minute webisodes, a daily video blog and weekly recap features. After the 30 days, Tupelo-Honey will produce a long-form documentary for a TV channel or theatrical release.

He also plans to sell sponsorship around the video content, and said some brands already are showing interest.

Obviously, there would be no interest (ahem, money) in making a documentary about Fredette if he didn't play college hoops this past season.

But couldn't he have made more money if he had been able to market himself during the season, when his face was on Sportscenter every morning? He was a topic of discussion around every water cooler and sports bar in the country during the winter. Now its the spring, and The Jimmer is back to being Jimmer Fredette, the cult hero of the college basketball blogosphere.