Leonard Fournette’s charity jersey auctioned for $101,000, proving college athletes have value

Star LSU running back Leonard Fournette announced last month that he would be auctioning off his game-used jersey against South Carolina for flood victims in the state. The auction ended Monday, and the jersey sold for a whopping $101,000.

That’s really awesome, and it remains a really cool gesture by Fournette.

The NCAA has long claimed that athletes have no value, and that people pay to watch schools, not individual players. During the Ed O’Bannon trial, the NCAA claimed networks pay to broadcast empty stadiums, no matter who runs in front of the cameras. That’s partly why jerseys are sold with no names on them. Other teams auction off jerseys, but they auction off the jerseys from entire teams.

In this case, it is clear Leonard Fournette has value to LSU — a lot of value. While the price of the jersey is likely a bit inflated because of the cause, there’s a reason LSU auctioned off a “Fournette” jersey, rather than a random jersey without a name on it.

LSU is getting this value from Fournette every week, and it’s ridiculous that Fournette should only be able to prove his value when he gives that value away. As the NCAA continues to fight athletes in court, it’s not going to be a question of whether athletes are worth anything to schools, it’s going to be a question of why the benefits going back and forth in the school-athlete relationship are so one-sided.