In a way, yes...you are correct. There is less emphasis on it because you can bridge the gap with social media. But social media is just another avenue to get messaging out. It's more of the promotional arm of a brand because stuff like Twitter and IG are free. But with socials, you are only promoting to the school's fanbase and a few others. You're going to need a much bigger reach to get those numbers from 5k followers to say, 25k.
A player's work on the field is the product, their merch would be a by product. Socials promote both. But a TV market puts the product in front of 250k or more people on Saturdays. I wonder what would be the rules on players posting highlights of their games from the networks tho.
Edit: And then again, there is a 50% chance I'm wrong too! Btw, Im proud of your 4 years sober from your jacked up keyboarding!