Show Notes
What happens when an industry built on competition, performance, and money begins to reshape itself overnight? In the modern sports economy, name, image, and likeness have become massive assets, and the transfer portal has completely rewritten the rules of loyalty.
College athletes are suddenly being asked to make massive, adult business decisions before they have even reached adult maturity. The question is no longer whether sports shape our culture, but what kind of people the system forms in the process.
In this episode of Nuance, host Case Thorp welcomes Ben Godwin, Vice President of Licensing at Catapult, to explore faith, work, and moral presence in the modern sports economy. Ben pulls back the curtain on the rapid professionalization of college athletes and shares how faith and work shape his approach to leading with integrity in a high-speed system where incentives often point elsewhere. From sports data analytics to corporate clearances, Ben explains how to bring order and truth to a tumultuous landscape.
Through their discussion, Ben helps listeners see how a mature, Christian worldview can withstand the intense pressures of a “win-now” culture.
📚 Episode Resources:
Catapult Sports Website: https://www.catapult.com
Nuance is a podcast of The Collaborative where we wrestle together about living our Christian faith in the public square. Nuance invites Christians to pursue the cultural and economic renewal by living out faith through work every facet of public life, including work, political engagement, the arts, philanthropy, and more.
Each episode, Dr. Case Thorp hosts conversations with Christian thinkers and leaders at the forefront of some of today’s most pressing issues around living a public faith.
Visit wecolabor.com for resources, events, and more.
Episode Transcript
Case Thorp
What happens when an industry built on competition, performance and money begins to reshape itself overnight? In the world of sports today, names, images, likeness have become assets for collegiate athletes. The transfer portal has rewritten loyalty. Marketing has become decisive as metrics and young athletes are being asked to make adult decisions before they have adult formation. So the question is no longer whether sports shape culture. The question I think is what kind of people does it form in the process? So today we’re talking about faith, work and moral presence in the modern sports economy, how to lead with integrity, a system moving at full speed, and what it means to be faithful when the incentives at times point elsewhere. Well, welcome to Nuance, where we seek to be faithful in the public square. I’m Case Thorp, and I am honored today to be joined by my friend, Ben Godwin. Ben, welcome.
Ben Godwin
Case, good morning. It’s great to be with you and a good time for the conversation with the College Football National Championship just wrapping up Monday night.
Case Thorp
Yes. Well, we’re recording this a bit before you actually hear it, but yes, that was this week and I was rooting for Indiana and they did it. Well, Cinderella stories are always wonderful.
Ben Godwin
They did it. What a team. What a game and what a team.
Case Thorp
How’s that new baby?
Ben Godwin
We got about five hours consecutive last night, so I’m perked up and ready to go. Yeah, she’s eight weeks old today. So we have chaos at home, but it’s a blessing and wonderful.
Case Thorp
Wow. Well, friends, the Godwins have five children under eight. Five children under eight. Good night, dude. You people need a TV. Well, listeners and viewers, let me tell you a bit about Ben. He works at the intersection of sports performance, marketing, and institutional leadership. Through his work with a company called Catapult, he’s had a front row seat to some of the most significant changes in the sports world, including NIL, the transfer portal, athlete branding, and the increasing professionalization of college athletes. He attended the University of Alabama for his undergraduate degree in accounting and earned an MBA there. So as I said, his wonderful wife and he have five children. Let me encourage you, share this episode on your social media, leave us a comment. It really helps us to reach even further with this content. So Ben, let’s start with a little bit about your company, Catapult. It’s based out of Australia, correct?
Ben Godwin
Correct. Our home office financially is Melbourne, Australia. That’s where the company was founded about 20 years ago, but through growth, acquisition, we’re publicly listed on the AUX, the Australian Stock Exchange, but through growth and acquisition of other companies and the growth in sports, it’s grown across the globe. And now our leadership headquarters is here in America and in North America in Boston. And then we have an office in Orlando.
Case Thorp
So tell us, what all does Catapult do and then what are your particular responsibilities?
Ben Godwin
Yeah, Catapult globally focuses on sports data, sports technology, bringing in data points off coaching points, off wearables that players wear, heart rates, motion detectors, footage that comes in, imagery that comes in, aggregating and then using that content to help coaches, help strength coaches, trainers, athletes evolve, media develop, distribute content. So basically aggregating data, imagery, video, creating insights, creating value from that both live and then post live after games or meets happen. And we have about 5,000 customers around the globe, all sports, soccer, hockey, American football. So yeah, we’re living and breathing it 12 months a year.
Case Thorp
Now you mentioned the wearables. Do y’all do the design and the production of the equipment?
Ben Godwin
Yeah, yep. It’s the day, but yes, but the secret sauce is the software that pulls the data off of the wearable devices and then it could be up to 800 data points a second that you’re pulling. But coaches need that boiled down to all right, tell me the five things this player is tired. He’s not back from his injury. Hey, you know, after five plays, he needs a break. You hear the word load management a lot in sports today, helping players get the right amount of rest and balance. Well, that’s not just a coach judging that it’s data telling data scientists and they’re telling the coaches, hey, here’s how we need to manage to optimally perform.
Case Thorp
So y’all do both professional sports, collegiate. Are you into high school yet?
Ben Godwin
Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, there are high schools doing this and signing up every day and it’s really driven by high school football. There’s 15,000 high school football teams in the country and eventually it will become standard with player health and safety and the focus on taking care of the young athletes, especially in the game of American football.
Case Thorp
Don’t I understand that you also at your company stand at that intersection between the athlete, NIL, perhaps contracts with Nike and others?
Ben Godwin
Yeah, we do. We have three divisions, right? I mentioned bringing in footage and data and imagery from the venue, from the stadium. So part of that is used to help coaches. How do we make better game plans? You know, the NFL team’s preparing for the playoffs and their coaching staff, it’s for trainers and strength coaches. How do we prepare in the off season? How do we better train our athletes? And then the third division is driven by media. Okay, so we have all this content. How do we help schools, athletes, teams create value beyond just the live game that you just watched? What about all that content that we’ve captured? Now how do we go create greater distribution or monetization with the content?
Case Thorp
And so your particular role, and then what drew you to this?
Ben Godwin
Well, I started out, as you mentioned, heading on a track to be an accountant and I needed something a little more broad that was a little too specific for me. While I was at Alabama, I was fortunate to work in their athletic department and their football office and I was around this helping their coaches with video and data and building game plans.
Case Thorp
A little more exciting.
Ben Godwin
That’s right.
Case Thorp
You were not alignment, I guess. You were not alignment.
Ben Godwin
So I had to find another role. And after that, I kind of launched into a track of some sports business. I took an internship at the SEC, the Southeastern Conference in Birmingham and stayed on their staff for a few years. Went from there to Major League Baseball and began to get into media there. I worked in their television group. And then this company recruited me from there and…
We really, so to your point, I work in our division, our division here in Orlando really focuses on the media and specifically here in the US in the NCAA space. Our focus is content from the major conferences and the major schools and the major media members that broadcast NCAA sports and create content here in the US.
Case Thorp
And you run the, is it the Florida office or the US do y’all cover?
Ben Godwin
Yeah, it’s our licensing and media division here and it’s based in Orlando.
Case Thorp
Yeah, well I am glad for that. Not only do Ben and I share the same church, but we share the same woman that cuts our hair.
Ben Godwin
That’s true. Yeah, that’s true.
Case Thorp
Yeah, well I have to do a whole episode on Becky. Becky’s a character, I love Becky. Oh my.
Ben Godwin
She could be a character. That’s right. Every two weeks I check to see if Case has been there before me.
Case Thorp
Well, I should go, I should do a whole episode on Becky. She would really give us a new look on life.
Ben Godwin
Okay, she would have a lot to say about my crew. We have to take a four o’clock appointment on Saturdays, because I normally come in with three or four children in tow to get there. So we have to make sure there’s no crowd and like that it’s kind of cleared out.
Case Thorp
Good night. Yes. Well, and I love Becky. She’s not cheap, so you’re spending a house payment on those haircuts. What do you love about working for Catapult?
Ben Godwin
I grew up in a sports family. My father was a coach, my sister’s a college coach, my brother’s a college coach. So I’ve grown up around it, but I didn’t play in college, but I wanted to be around sports and I was drawn to business. It’s the mix of your touching sports, your touching competition and the games that you see. One of our major clients is the College Football Playoff, like I mentioned that finished prior to us taping this. There’s our clients and we’re helping, but it’s a competitive part of our culture here in the US.
Case Thorp
Were you in Miami?
Ben Godwin
I was not, but we sent some customers down. We were able to help out some customers. Unfortunately, they were all Miami fans. But they were happy to be there.
Case Thorp
I should have called you. Yeah, well, Josh Hammonds, who leads worship at our church, he’s a hardcore Indiana fan, and he actually went to the Peach Bowl in Atlanta with his son, and we were talking about, hey, let’s figure out how we get into the game in Miami and take the train down there. But he looked in like the nosebleed seats for something like $2,000, which was beyond our budget.
Ben Godwin
I saw somewhere where they said this game is beating Taylor Swift concerts in price per ticket. So that’s saying something.
Case Thorp
Oh, good night. Wow. Well, next time there’s a big tournament, I don’t know who to call. So, clearly, collegiate sports has radically changed in a very short period of time. Before we get into how it’s impacted things, just explain to folks that may not fully understand what is an IL and what is the portal?
Ben Godwin
Yeah, that’s right. Yeah, well there’s always been name image likeness, right? It’s a player’s image as it’s shown in a photo or footage or an association of their name on a jersey or a t-shirt or in merchandise. What changed was about five years ago, the NCAA, overnight due to litigation and an onslaught of lawsuits and pressure from the first state, California and Gavin Newsom was the first governor to begin to put in state legislation and then several states, Florida followed pressure from states on the NCAA, they did a complete 180. For years and years and years for the history of NCAA, former student athletes could, their images could be used, but while they were a current student, they could not commercialize their image and likeness. But that all changed one summer five years ago in July when overnight it became completely legal. Without a lot of guardrails, without a lot of guidance, without a grace period, it kind of, why it became wide open and all of a sudden one day athletes are promoting tennis shoes, sweet tea, car dealerships and it kind of opened Pandora’s box. And then to your second question, in parallel the NCAA, also because of pressure on creating a more favorable landscape for athletes, opened up the transfer portal. It used to be athletes could transfer one time or athletes could transfer and they had to sit out a year before they could be eligible at their next school. But when the portal came into play, it basically became free agency overnight. You can transfer as many times as you want basically if you meet certain criteria you can go in the portal and it’s basically like a free market of players and you could shop around and so that just for this period that just closed last Friday for this year so for the football season, the football players that just played the portal was just open for two weeks and so you saw American College Football Division 1, almost 4,000 students went into the portal this time that just closed. It’s very active and you’re seeing teams like we mentioned, Indiana, who just rebuilt their roster very quickly using the portal.
Case Thorp
Yeah. Well, and my mind’s blanking on the Miami quarterback. Yes, I mean, he’s, wasn’t he at FSU in Georgia?
Ben Godwin
He was, Georgia and Miami and Mendoza at Indiana was Cal and then California and Berkeley and then Indiana.
Case Thorp
In Miami. Okay.
Yeah. What, from your seat in all of this, do you think most outsiders misunderstand or don’t get?
Ben Godwin
Yeah, I think overall it’s a positive for athletes. You look back on the ‘80s and the ‘90s when they would be selling jerseys in a bookstore and it would have the quarterbacks number in the school and the bookstore and others are monetizing, but they’re insinuating, hey, this player’s jersey, but the athlete’s not getting any of that money. So I think, but because of how it was implemented, it also is without proper guidelines and a proper overriding structure. It does create some of a feeding frenzy. It kind of promotes some greed amongst boosters and teams and there’s a negative side to it. I think the net positive is athletes should have some of these opportunities. They should have some more freedom to move around if their coach leaves or If they get a better opportunity, right? That’s capitalism in America. It’s just, normally other leagues, other business ventures, there’s
guardrails or their structures where it’s not as wide open as it currently is today and it will get fixed over time. It’s just, the public is witnessing and fan bases are witnessing the growing pains and especially in American college sports how it’s evolving year over year.
Case Thorp
And as I understand it, it can get abused when alumni will say, hey, here’s a big chunk of change to throw in an NIL account and use that as leverage to attract that athlete.
Ben Godwin
Yeah, and there’s a lot of gray area there. Fortunately for my group, we kind of touch mainstream in my NIL. We don’t get involved in some of those backhaul deals. That’s, but that clearly seems to be happening. And I think, it leads a bad taste with a lot of fan bases and schools and it just brings out some of the ugly side. Thankfully our group is normally, because we’re working with content, a player’s video highlight, a player’s photograph, a player’s data, it may be it’s actually true in IL. So the parts where we touch in IL, it’s a portion of our business, but the parts that we touch are always actually very legitimate and what it should be. So you asked my opinion, overall is favorable because we’re normally touching positive sides of it and not involved in the some of the backhaul stuff. We’re normally operating on Main Street with it.
Case Thorp
And does it get as granular as at the national football competition? Everybody on that field got a little bit of the TV money? Because their jersey and they’re…
Ben Godwin
Yeah, it is set up now. That’s a new part of the dimension. It’s continuing to evolve, right? Like there used to be multiple transfer windows. Now there’s just one. There used to be the schools could not share money. Now they can share a portion of their money with the athletes. That’s new this year. And so to your point, every athlete that played in the college ball playoff is getting a portion of that school’s TV money. So it is evolving for the better. To your point, there are some negative sides, like one of the negative sides, right? When you think about the college model versus the NFL, well, the NFL, there’s 32 teams and there’s 53 men on the team. So it’s pretty limited, the rosters in the total universe. Well, in FBS alone, there’s over 130 teams with 100 plus players on each. it’s a, and not all those schools and teams are equal. So it’s a wider variance of volume and variance of the haves and the have nots. And then also in the NFL, you have to be a certified agent to represent a player. have to go through a certain certification. You have to be approved by the NFL. In college, in case you could put it on your Instagram that you’re an agent and you could start representing players this afternoon. And that creates a little bit of, you know, are all the players getting proper advice? Are they getting sound advice? Are they getting sound financial structure?
I don’t know, we don’t get too deep in that, but it is a difference between the NCAA landscape and some of the factors they’re dealing with today versus maybe the professional leagues.
Case Thorp
Well, Ben, you’ve hit on some of the good and the bad, the ugly, the positive ways, the negative ways. I’m interested in how your particular Christian faith, how has it been a filter of sorts for how you interpret this and how you lead in your particular company?
Ben Godwin
Yeah, as it relates to these NIL deals and the commercialization that we’ve been talking about, we’ve tried to build a reputation of this group, if they call, they’re doing things the right way. This is a legitimate opportunity. Our athlete is going to be treated fairly. They’re going to be paid the exact amount. It’s going to be paid on time. This is a net positive for the team and the brand and the athlete. We were just involved in some marketing clearances around the national championship and the playoff. Some of the players we mentioned earlier, we just did deals with those guys on behalf of some brands activating. And we want those agents to know, hey, when Catapult calls, they’re doing things the right way. And it’s honest and it’s above board and we’re gonna be a solid light in all the chaos and the noise.
Case Thorp
That you are, you lead with truth and appropriate transparency. I would imagine you bring order to what could be a very tumultuous, confusing environment, especially for an athlete that doesn’t understand how it works.
Ben Godwin
Yeah, in case you see that with, I mentioned the two quarterbacks from Monday night. Clearly they have solid representation, right? They’re going on to bigger careers in the NFL and those guys are good. Where you see it sometimes is some of the lower level players that maybe they’re the second team cornerback or they’re the backup or the lower school. Like you may have an NIL opportunity with them, but they don’t have representation. They don’t have maybe the financial structures, they don’t have an LLC set up. They’re hoping you’re not pulling their leg. They’re hoping you’re being honest. They are somewhat leaning on you and trusting you. So a lot of times my staff, and when we’re involved in IL deals, we have to help kids. Hey, look, here’s what we’re gonna do. Here’s what we need you to do to help us take care of you. And so you have to see some kids that…hey, these kids are in the wild right now. This is no longer your 19, 20 year old just at school worried about their lunchroom cart, is their cafeteria cart gonna work? Like they’re trying to like, it’s a little bit big boy football or big boy basketball now where, hey, we’re doing business and it’s not necessarily millions of dollars, but like, hey, this is a transaction and we’re a corporation and you know…
Case Thorp
Yeah. Can you tell us a story of a specific example where it got hard or difficult and resolved?
Ben Godwin
I tell you what, it’s always hard with international students, right? Because their rights are different based on how are they here and what does their visa allow them to be paid for. So we always have to do a lot of handholding there and we’re not really experts in all the different countries they come from. So that’s a challenge that we get to, you know, there’s times where athletes, they’re afraid of being like taken advantage of and you have to get on and actually talk to them and say, hey, no this is legitimate and we’re not looking to take advantage of you, so you have to kind of build some trust and talk to them. Yeah, thankfully we haven’t had a lot of negative experiences related to an IL with an athlete or a brand. Now, one thing we’re constantly working under is brands when they’re activating commercially, they normally don’t give you a lot of time. They don’t budget enough time for the athlete interactions and the clearances and the checks and balances that you have to run. There’s a lot of processes in place where you have to notify the school. If you’re talking to one of their athletes, obviously you want to get all the right paperwork with the athlete and their payments structured and everything set up. A lot of time brands want it done like by tomorrow. And so that’s always a challenge, is like managing major brands or their agencies and their expectations that, hey, no, you can’t run this tomorrow in the football games you just gave us a green light to do this project today. So that’s a constant challenge.
Case Thorp
Right. Well, we’re big into formation here at The Collaborative and particularly emphasize spiritual formation, the way in which our prayer lives and practices help to shape us, but all things form us and shape us. And I could imagine, I mean, especially if you’re a young athlete, you’re especially vulnerable or open for leaning your behavior in a certain way, getting informed towards what is rewarded, what’s quietly tolerated. How do you think about formation in the collegiate athletic environment?
Ben Godwin
Yeah, I think you’re right. I think this is an inflection point for American collegiate sports that, hey, we want to take advantage of NIL opportunities and movement opportunities from the portal. But like, how do the leadership and the schools and the teams, and the boosters, drive it to the worst of our culture where this is just gonna become greed on top of greed. We’re not super involved in that aspect of it, but it is an inflection point in this environment. Me personally, it’s more control what you can control. And like I try to do that with my office here in Orlando, right? I have 25 team members here who are heavily involved in different touch points of, like I said, me and schools and right, I just try to set the example and consistently lead with, here’s how we’re gonna operate with honesty and clear communication and we’re trying to care for each other and have a good and unique environment here in Orlando in our office and let that show outwardly. They’re like, hey, they have something special that group and how they operate and then whether it’s player agents or media members or big companies buying content from us, show it with how we consistently act and carry ourselves in the market.
Case Thorp
Well, I can imagine that’s a comforting thing for an athlete, but it’s wonderful that they are presented with a process that is on the up and up and intentional, structured, and that hopefully forms them to do the same in their own behavior as well as in future life.
I know that some of the values that I feel have been sacrificed with some of these changes, like a commitment to a team. When you can hop in the portal and jump around too much, like, where’s the loyalty? I think that’s what bugged me about Beck because I’m a Georgia Bulldog at heart, and sure, I hate to lose him, but I don’t know. It just feels like you’re running to the next opportunity in order to win that championship and get bigger and larger and is it always for the best reasons?
Ben Godwin
Yeah, that’s true. Unfortunately, there’s thousands of these data points happening. Like I said, right now, almost 4,000 football players just went into the portal. And what you’re not hearing about is, I think when the portal closed, there were still 2,000 kids in the portal. So where are those kids going to land? They’re not always landing at a better spot. Some of them, their days playing college football are over. They’re not going to find a home. Or they’re going to go backwards from the place where they left, as far as like culture, program, quality, etc. So there’s those negative stories of the portal you’re not reading about and they’re not always out there. Clearly there’s instances where a coach changes or a family matter or even a better financial opportunity. Okay, it’s good for the kid to have the opportunity to leave, but there’s negative stories out there and negative circumstances that you’re not really hearing a lot about. Hey, what about the kids that lost their opportunity or went backwards?
Case Thorp
Right. Well, I would imagine a coach knows, doesn’t he, when you put yourself in the portal?
Ben Godwin
Yeah, there’s a lot of times coaches are encouraging, right? Like, it sometimes can be a tool for a coach that, hey, we’d like you to go in the portal because we want to free up your spot. So it’s working both ways that coaches can use it to turn across, turn their rosters faster. You’re not seeing the, this is going to be a three or four year rebuild. Not necessarily anymore, right? There’s coaches going in and some high profile coaches. Hey, we need you to kind of, maybe it’s best if you jump in the portal. We need your spot.
Case Thorp
Yeah. So I’m thinking of this question from two directions. If a coach puts you in or encourages you to go into the portal, like that value of mentoring and a coach being more concerned about character than the win, a lot of that seems sacrificed. Even on your end, you’re so focused understandably on numbers and metrics and colleagues.
Where’s the emphasis on humanity in all this? The care for the person more so than just the prize?
Ben Godwin
I’ve heard it described like the microwave society, right? Where we all want it now. We want our team to win now. We want to get paid now. We want to play now. I want to hit my numbers and I want my group to be successful now. So it’s a little bit indicative of our larger society, right? You think about media and consumption and are young people today sitting down and watching a full three and a half hour game? No, they’re watching the highlights on YouTube the next morning and they’re consuming the entire game in five and a half minutes.
Case Thorp
Right. Well, I noticed on YouTube TV when you go to a game, you can hit a button to get all the highlights up to this moment.
Ben Godwin
Well, and there’s algorithms, right? Learning that, hey, you watch those Florida Gator highlights. Well, tomorrow morning, guess what? I’m going to be feeding you a string out of video after video of, and it’s just, I think it’s indicative, like college sports is, or the environment where we work, and I think is indicative of our society that fans, consumers want it now. They don’t want to wait, right? You want your paper towels and orange juice delivered in the next hour, not, hey, be patient and go wait in line and go to the grocery store and go get it, right? So it’s the same, that’s right. It’s the same thing happening in the sports world and the consumption of media, the demands of athletes, the demands of coaches, right? To your point though, are we subtracted? Is there some value loss there in the being patient, overcoming obstacles? I would think you would have some great leaders and coaches out there saying, yeah, that could be lost in what’s going on right now.
Case Thorp
A dear, dear friend of the family, I would say even practically cousins, just finished a career at UNC on the football team. And captain of the team, did great in school, I believe an All-American. And I have watched his journey and have talked to his parents a great deal about the pressures on him, but also the ways in which he could shine. He never left UNC through the days and in this last year got to taste Bill Belichick.
Ben Godwin
Yeah, hey, unique senior year.
Case Thorp
Well, for sure. And I’m just so grateful that he was such a strong young man of faith going into college football that I felt it guided him. It was an anchor of sorts as he grew as an athlete, as he grew as a team leader, for sure. What are some ways that you try to bring even more so a Christian perspective or those common good values? Do you ever have to have a talk with an athlete of, let’s reset our priorities and see that this is a win-win?
Ben Godwin
Less to athletes, it’s more on, again, managing my team here. Typically, but I’ve had a lot of young people, because we’re in sports, because we’re in sports media, I lose a lot of team members to Major League Baseball. I’ve got two or three folks that have gone on to work for NFL teams. I lost one this in the fall to NBC Sports in New York. I want them to leave with a good foundational experience when they were here with us, right? That as you go out to these teams, your entry point into the marketplace formed you and shaped you for how to work with honesty, how to work with integrity, how to care for others, how to not be impatient with the noise and the issues and the struggles that happen around you. Like that’s going to be every place. Like, I’ve worked for multiple sports organizations and in this space it’s competitive, it’s highly visible at times when you have mistakes or issues or your team loses, right? Like it’s very public and it can be at times if you work at a team level.
Let’s be above that, right? With our perspective here today, with the challenges that are gonna happen or the failures today and dealing with teams or athletes or media companies, it’s highly competitive. Let’s work hard, be honest, care about your team members, have a human element of we’re gonna care about people. So it’s more so inside in my organization or my office than it is dealing with the athletes.
Case Thorp
Yeah. I could imagine, given the money on the line or the opportunities, there’s at times tension between the student-athlete and the parents or the coaches and the pressure they might get into. How have you seen that play out?
Ben Godwin
It’s interesting that there’s a lot more variables today. I mentioned we did some creative for the Cosmopolitan playoff. Well, you’re dealing with maybe the head coach and the quarterback, but their agents and their representatives and their families. While they’re together and they’re working together on the field, off the field they’re not, right? It’s different incentives. For example, like the quarterback for Indiana, his younger brother was his backup. Well, the morning after the national championship, he went in the portal and now he’s gonna be at Georgia Tech and be their quarterback next year. My point is there’s, in sports today, there’s always a lot more going on behind the scenes that like…
Yes, you’re playing the games. Yes, you’re focused on your team, but you’re also kind of thinking about your next chapter and your next move and your business move over here. So again, my group, as we play in that space or as we operate with the companies, we’re just trying to be a trusted source that, they’re honest, they’re legitimate. What they’re doing is legitimate and they’re a net positive when we engage with Catapult.
Case Thorp
Right. So if there’s an athlete listening now, perhaps looking at this whole world, maybe coming into it, what sort of advice would you have for how they cultivate their own development in their career in this?
Ben Godwin
I’m going to have get my siblings on, college coaches to talk to you about that. Ours would just be from a business standpoint, find people that you trust around you, right? To give you sound advice, to give you, you think about some of these times where, I could transfer from school A to school B. What are the conditions there? What are the playing conditions? What is the best path to playing time? What’s the net on money that I will make right after taxes after agent commissions, like, are you actually even netting out better by making this move? You need somebody who has your best interest at heart and is looking holistically at…
Case Thorp
Let’s look at the whole picture.
Ben Godwin
Also, hey, what happened to going to school? Like, what degree are you working on? Right? Because throughout the whole discussion here, transfer portal, NIL, the percentages are still the same. It’s micro fractions of the division one football players that will go on to actually make a lot of money and play in the NFL. Right? So the money that you’re making here in the NTA is not necessarily life changing for a lot of them. It may make your next six months better or your next couple years. So who’s advising you on taking advantage of the four years, five years that you’re in school to maximize your opportunity to play, to earn some NIL money, to have opportunities and still get a degree? Surround yourself with people you trust.
Case Thorp
Yeah. And not that I’m in this lot of work, clearly, but it kind of relates to the trust thing. Who are you putting yourself under in terms of authority, like these coaches? And I just appreciate those coaches I hear about who recognize the game is secondary to the formation of a future leader of your own life.
Ben Godwin
Yeah. It’s a lot of pressure, right? Those leaders, those family members, those coaches who can stand up to the pressure from fans, the pressure from TV and the money and the salaries and the opportunities that…Yeah, there’s still a bigger picture right here. Only so many teams are going to win the championship. Only so many folks are going to play quarterback and make the big NIL money or whatever it may be, that who can maintain a mature perspective, to your point of like, what’s really important, what’s really guiding our lives and day to day.
Case Thorp
Being from Georgia myself and having lots of friends and family there, I hear that Kirby Smart at UGA is one of those coaches that really cares about your growth and development. Now, he’s been wonderfully successful and I think the two can go hand in hand. And that makes me proud. I would hope more would lead in that direction. In our closing time here, let’s set collegiate athletics aside.
Tell me as a husband and as a dad of many, how does your faith help shape how you commit yourself to your work and to them and other responsibilities in life?
Ben Godwin
Yeah, Case, I think one thing I try to pray with the children every night is help us to have courage, help us to have trust each day. Like the Lord is guiding our path. I don’t do a whole lot these days because of just my schedule of working at home, of thinking about the long-term future. It’s not, where’s my next career move going to be? Or how am I going to jockey from this position to another? It is…Hey Lord, my cup is full. I’m blessed. I have a good job. I have a great home life. But my cup is full. I’m pretty busy most of the hours of the day. I’m gonna walk in faith, Lord, that you’re guiding our path. Our family is where you want it to be. Our home, my career. And I want to just teach that to my children that like, we’re going to walk in faith. If you’re nervous walking into school today, like let’s just walk in faith. One thing we’re working on in 2026 is what I’m calling micro prayers. Okay, well let’s pray about it real quick. It’s not going to be real clean. It’s not going to be real formal and it’s going to be probably less than 10 seconds, but let’s just stop and pray about it right now. And then we’ve been doing that like, we prayed at four o’clock in the morning when my son was scared the other night and came down. We prayed in the carpool last week when my daughter was having fears of going back to school after the holiday. So trying to just say, Lord, we turn it over to you and we’re not gonna try to figure everything out. Guide our path today. Help us to walk that path with your Holy Spirit around us.
Case Thorp
I remember when I would take my kids in the morning to school, and I’m still taking Brooks, he’s in eighth grade, but when I had all three at once, we would recite Philippians 4:6, or is it 4:9, Philippians 4:9, whatever is good, whatever is pure, whatever is true, dwell on these things. And it surprised me when a few months ago, Charles, my now sophomore at FSU, just rattled that verse out. He said, Dad, don’t you remember us doing that together? And I had forgotten and it just warmed my heart to hear that it had worked, right? He’d stored it up.
Ben Godwin
That’s great.
You know, we had one over the holidays, we took the children to see the movie David.
Case Thorp
Yeah, the new animated feature on King David.
Ben Godwin
That’s right. So we’ve been saying, hey, David, when he was in that field and Goliath was standing across the field, he was talking to God to give him courage. And we can do the same thing, right? Whether it’s, I’m nervous about going back to school or I’m nervous in the middle of the night. Hey, remember David and how he talked to God and God gave him courage and calmed him down? And so that’s part of our Christmas break that we’re trying to relate to David and how he talked to God and sang to God to get courage and how we can have that same courage ourselves.
Case Thorp
Well, if you’re listening or watching and you think, wow, I want to be a better parent in discipling my children, there’s a thousand ways to do that. And there are tons of resources online, even here at First Pres Orlando, Brad and Kim Allen, he’s our Minister of Family Life and she’s our former director of Children’s Ministry. But you don’t have to do it all and perfectly, but something and intentional. And it’s amazing how it shapes those little hearts.
Well, Ben, thank you. I appreciate your time, your thoughtfulness, your candor. For those listening, there is the Catapult website, www.catapult.com to learn more about their work. And we’ll have that link available in our show notes. Ben, thank you.
Ben Godwin
Case, thank you so much. Have a great day.
Case Thorp
Well, I want to thank the rest of you for inviting us into your day. Perhaps this episode might resonate with a friend of yours who’s super into collegiate sports. Send it to them and it’ll shape them perhaps in a faith perspective on such work. Like us, give us a review. It will really help. If you go to our website, wecolabor.com, drop your email. I’ll send you a copy of Zeitgeist, our journal on faith, work, and culture. Many thanks to the Stein Foundation for making today’s episode possible. I’m Case Thorp, and God’s blessings on you.
