What Does The Pac-12's Embrace Of eSports Mean For Amateurism?

Everyone wants a piece of the booming business of eSports, and now that includes college athletics. The Pac-12 Conference announced that it will be the first college conference to sponsor eSports in some capacity, hosting tournaments and likely broadcasting events.

This is a natural fit for the Pac-12, which has schools located throughout the West Coast's tech corridor. Pac-12 teams have dominated the loosely-structured collegiate structure currently in place, with UCLA and Arizona State winning back-to-back Heroes of the Dorm titles and Cal taking this year's Collegiate StarLeague StarCraft II title.

But under the Pac-12's watch, collegiate eSports could have to face an interesting question: Do teams get involved if they have to live under the financial restraints of amateurism?

All other athletes in the Pac-12-sponsored sports are not allowed to be paid, due to National Collegiate Athletic Association rules. But that could potentially be different for eSports, Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott told VICE Sports. Scott said that the conference is "still evaluating options" on regulating payment.

"It's clearly not an NCAA sport, so it's not going to be governed by NCAA rules," he said.

Prize pools are a big part of eSports. The industry is expected to bring in $463 million in 2016 and top $1 billion in the next few years. While collegiate tournaments are less focused on those pools, players are still given perks they would be barred from receiving under the NCAA structure. For instance, the Heroes of the Dorm tournament winners received scholarships, but also got prizes that included game consoles.

Other schools currently offer eSports scholarships and welcome free dinners from sponsors and free gear—a big no-no in college sports. "I was actually having this conversation with my family the other day," Robert Morris eSports scholarship player Michael Chapman told VICE Sports in 2015. "My cousins are NCAA athletes and they were frustrated with me because [RMU provides] me with money for winning, but they can't get anything."

Is there room for amateurism in collegiate eSports? It all depends what the Pac-12 wants out of it.

"It would be nice to set some precedent generally to not have things like prize pools in these events anyways," said Duran Parsi, the founder of the Collegiate StarLeague and a former eSports player at UC-San Diego. "In one context, if the Pac-12 or the Big Ten or anyone else wants to set that tone, I don't necessarily think that's bad, but at the same time, I also think that having things like prize money is part of the league."

The CSL currently offers prize money. Not every league does—it depends on the quality of competition—so the Pac-12 wouldn't necessarily have to. But by the typical rules of amateurism, a team that accepts any prize money would be disqualified from future Pac-12 events.

"If (teams) put (games) up on YouTube, they can get donations," said Arizona State eSports president Michael Carlton. "I'm not sure how they're going to directly regulate it because I'm pretty sure there are teams in the CSL that are already playing in amateur circuits and making money."

There are two ways the Pac-12 can look at this opportunity. The conference could simply provide a more structured league for its vibrant eSports communities—something, if done right, they would welcome. There is certainly a demand for that type of a league.

"A lot of people who compete in CSL compete because they can't go pro, either they can't because they aren't good enough or they don't aspire to," Parsi said. "Generally speaking, people have a lot of time and people who want to compete, they want to have a lot of different ways to compete. So there's not really (a demand) issue, I don't think."

But this is a college sports conference we're talking about. It's a corporation focused on maximizing revenue. And corporations don't venture into such vast unfamiliar horizons without the goal of turning a profit.

Right now, according to Carlton, not many collegiate teams are scouting players. Teams are primarily made up of players who joined their teams after they got to school. But if the Pac-12 schools want to put even a little bit of money behind their eSports teams, they can build rosters that could win significant prize money.

Of course, that would require paying the talent to get them there.

This is a brand new dilemma for the Pac-12. When college sports were first established, those sports were the only option for young, aspiring players. Eventually, college sports cornered the market, meaning the best young talent would still go to college, even though they begrudgingly couldn't be paid. Players use college to build their brand before they can go to the NBA.

But eSports players don't need college sports, or amateurism, because other leagues exist. If a player wants to leave professional options open and still play for a club team at school, they can just play in the CSL. eSports doesn't have college football's popularity, but eSports players hold more leverage against the Pac-12 than the conference's football superstars.

Further adding to the Pac-12's dilemma is the series of lawsuits regarding amateurism that the conference (along with the NCAA) is currently fighting. Allowing eSports players to be paid would discredit the NCAA's oft-used theory that athletes cannot be regular students if they accept money, and it would lend credence to the plaintiffs' point that the definition of amateurism changes whenever schools see fit.

The Pac-12's setup is nowhere close to complete, and it will undoubtedly change over time. But the league faces a fundamental decision that could dramatically impact its identity and function within the world of eSports: to let the players get paid or not.