Last June, when the NCAA’s board of directors suspended the organization’s rules prohibiting athletes from selling the rights to their names, images and likenesses, a new era dawned in college sports: college athletes could start earning money from endorsements and Olympic sports. athletes could capitalize on their success and still compete in college.
“This is an important day for college athletes,” said Mark Emmert, the president of the NCAA.
July 1 marks the one-year anniversary of the NIL era in college sports. Since then, there have been NIL deals on things as diverse as candles, dog food and local supermarkets. There have also been NFTs and car deals. Athletes, some of whom were already social media influencers, could now capitalize on their large following. UConn Huskies basketball player Paige Bueckers, the first to sign with Gatorade, and Stanford Cardinal golfer Rose Zhang, who landed Adidas’ first NIL deal, signed landmark deals with international brands. Nick Saban of Alabama feuded with Jimbo Fisher of Texas A&M and collectives became the model of the NIL corporate organization.
In addition to the headlines, the arrival of NIL touched individuals in every sport and at every level of college athletics. Athletes, coaches and administrators share how their lives and sports careers have changed since NIL came into effect.
Report by Myron Medcalf, Alyssa Roenigk and Tom Van Haaren.
How some athletes handle NIL deals
In recent months, nearly 2,000 Division I men’s basketball players entered the transfer portal. See the article : Lifestyle announces this season’s sale. The introduction of NIL has played a significant role in shaping decisions that changed some of America’s top programs overnight.
But the details surrounding name, image and likeness are still confusing to some athletes who have been asked to navigate the new landscape.
“Anyone who shows an interest, I just talk about it and see what they want to do and also make decisions for myself because if I want to associate my name with a certain company or a certain company,” basketball player Osun Osunniyi, who transferred from St. Bonaventure to the state of Iowa in the off-season, ESPN told.
“I don’t really get in touch. It’s more like if someone comes up to me, I just decide if it’s best to put my name on that… I think it’s a good thing to be able to get our brands early build up. “
For others, situations change quickly and new deals emerge.
Nijel Pack, a former Kansas State basketball star, took All-Big 12 first-team honors last season after averaging 17.4 PPG and 44% of his 3-point attempts. He entered the transfer portal after KSU coach Bruce Weber resigned after 10 seasons at the school.
ESPN reported that Pack received an NIL package through billionaire John Ruiz that included $800,000 over two years and a car, following his transfer to Miami.
“I had a few NIL deals at Kansas State,” Pack told ESPN. “It was very small things. It didn’t take too much effort and work. It was clearly the first year of NIL, so everyone didn’t know what to do, how to do it.”
Pack also has to deal with a part of NIL that is normally only a concern for professional athletes: the disclosure of their earnings.
“Some [deals], like mine, have been released to the public,” Pack said. “Of course it’s shocking how many student-athletes can benefit from this. I think [NIL] is something that should have been around for a while. College basketball is actually a job. … And if we’re going to play and be able to do this things, I think we should be able to take advantage of it.”
But Pack also said the idea that any player with a NIL deal will run to the nearest car dealership is misguided. He said he intends to make wise choices with his money.
“It’s definitely a blessing,” he said. “I have parents who are very smart and invest their money. … I will not be the flashiest person just because I have the money. I want to be able to use the money to make more money in the future. … I just feel like I’m just going to grow and use it to be more successful over time. Save, invest instead of spend and spend and spend.”
Different perspectives from coaches
As players and parents try to navigate this new venture, college coaches are trying to adapt to the added wrinkle in their job descriptions. There are differing opinions from coaches about NIL and whether the direction it is taking is even good for the sport.
“It’s an absolute mess and a train wreck, and eventually the kids will suffer,” Clemson Tigers coach Dabo Swinney told ESPN’s Chris Low in April. To see also : As sports elites think again about trans participation, our only demand is for justice.
But it’s more nuanced than that and complicated for coaches to deal with. From personal tutoring to recruiting activities, coaches are forced to fine-tune policies and help their players navigate NIL.
Technically, it’s still illegal to use deals with names, images, and likenesses as a temptation to recruit, but it does happen. Michigan Wolverines coach Jim Harbaugh still tries to rely on what a university has to offer, in addition to potential NIL deals, in the hiring process.
“Our philosophy is that coming to the University of Michigan will still be a transformational experience rather than a transactional experience,” Harbaugh said. “I hear a lot… I just don’t know how much is real, how much is right. It’s like, is it right or not? Is it like fishing stories.”
Not knowing what’s real and what’s not is part of what kept Harbaugh from discussing NIL with recruits and their families. Once they signed to the school, however, Michigan brought in large sums of money for players and has a group of alumni, led by former linebacker Jared Wangler, who started an NIL management company called Valiant Management.
Wangler and his group helped land multiple NIL contracts for Michigan players. In doing so, Michigan has used NIL to please players already on the roster, rather than as a recruiting ploy.
“I’ve always been in favor of student athletes taking advantage of their name, image and likeness. I think it just makes sense. Right?” said Harbaugh. “We could say that selling a jersey, for example, or who should benefit, who should have a share of the profits. Isn’t that the person whose jersey it is, rather than just the institution? can all agree that that’s something that’s fair and right.”
Like Harbaugh, who played college and professional football, Arkansas Razorbacks gymnastics coach Jordyn Wieber stood in the shoes of her athletes.
When Arkansas gymnasts receive Instagram DMs from companies offering them free equipment or paying them to promote a product, they walk into their head coach’s office and ask her for advice. Wieber, the World Allround Champion in 2011 and a member of the 2012 American team “Fierce Five” which won gold at the London Olympics, made the impossible decision at the age of 16 to turn pro and take advantage of her name, image and likeness and give up her dream of participating in collegiate gymnastics.
Until NIL became policy last July, NCAA rules banned Olympic athletes who made money from their sport from competing in college. So elite gymnasts — those who entered the national team — had two options: they could turn pro at the peak of their careers, sign deals and forgo college like Wieber, or keep their amateur status (unpaid) and drawing with a student team.
“I don’t think a 16-year-old should make that decision,” Wieber said. “I’m glad they can now have the best of both worlds.”
Over the past year, Wieber has used her experience working with agents and brands to help her gymnasts define their own brand identity and the companies they want to work with.
She teaches them to research the company and its values — “start typing the company name and ‘controversy’ into Google,” she said — and to make sure those values match theirs. She encourages them to be creative, seek out brands that can jump-start their careers, and shares practical advice such as holding photo shoots and ‘banking’ social media content to meet weekly posting requirements.
Arkansas was also the first university to hire full-time NIL staff. The three-member division, which includes former Arkansas gymnast Sydney McGlone, teaches athletes how to set up LLCs and file tax returns, works with agents and brands, and advises Razorback coaches and local entrepreneurs about the ever-changing NIL world.
Wieber says the school’s support for NIL has been a blessing during the recruitment process: “We support and advocate for NIL instead of fearing it and wishing it away.”
Facing compliance questions
As universities like Arkansas and others assign staff to NIL guidance, school compliance officers, whose job is to audit and comply with NCAA, school and conference rules, as well as state laws, face an evolving challenge with few resources to find answers. Read also : UM Stephens College of Business Computer Informatics program changes name to Data Analytics.
Nine months after her commitment to the University of Texas — and just three weeks after the NCAA passed its NIL policy — 17-year-old Lydia Jacoby became a breakout star of last summer’s Olympics in Tokyo.
She surprisingly captured gold in the 100-meter breaststroke, became the first Alaskan swimmer to win Olympic gold and swam the second leg of Team USA’s silver-medal winning 400-meter medley relay team. Approval deals started rolling in, and NIL allowed Jacoby to sign with an agent and process those offers as she continued to prepare for her freshman season in Texas in the fall of 2022.
But because Jacoby was still a high school student and NIL state law in Texas, like other states, does not allow high school students to participate in NIL activities, Jacoby’s agent and the university’s director of compliance teamed up to make sure her deals were above expectations. With state laws on the books, they replaced NCAA policy.
“With Lydia, we first had to investigate whether Alaska had its own state law,” said Blake Barlow, an AD associate for compliance at the University of Texas. “It didn’t, so she operates under the NCAA’s interim policy, while a high school student who is a resident of our state operates under Texas state law.”
Texas also has an exclusive uniform and apparel agreement with Nike, which requires athletes to wear the brand’s signature swoosh logo during training and competition — something that has caused confusion among brands interested in signing Jacoby. But since Nike doesn’t make swimwear, and Texas allows its swimmers to wear whatever swimwear brand they prefer, Jacoby signed with Arena last October.
“That’s a difference-maker,” Barlow said. “Our athletes can make their own deal with a manufacturer and wear it to our races knowing that Nike still owns it when they’re on deck, in the stands or representing Texas on team trips.”
The apparent convenience of one scenario has not made it easier to find solutions to broader NIL problems.
“It was difficult because the NCAA was hesitant to answer questions,” said Barlow, who also serves on the board of directors for the National Association for Athletics Compliance [NAAC]. “As compliance professionals, we rely a lot on each other. Those who sponsor FBS programs, I think there’s eight or nine Texas schools represented in a group chat and we’re like, ‘Hey, what do you think about this? can counsel interpret this? ?’
“We’re so used, in the compliance chair, to ask the NCAA a question and get an answer. They’ve all been things when you had a question that needs to be addressed. And now, as they hesitate to get NIL guidance It was a challenge, we all look at each other and say, “What are you doing? What are you doing? How do you approach NIL compliance?” It was hard not to have a lot of that guidance from the NCAA, which in turn has pushed people to the limit.”
Agencies’ involvement in NIL
The ban on the use of agents was always an easy NCAA rule to remember in the pre-NIL world. Those days are long gone.
When Excel Sports Management hired Parker Cain, an experienced sports marketing agent, to help represent the company’s NIL agents, it was a clear sign of the impact that name, image and likeness had taken on in the sport. A major global agency such as Excel, which represents talent in the NBA and WNBA, NFL, MLB, PGA Tour and LPGA Tour, its involvement in college athletics meant there is an enduring strength and durability within this relatively new aspect of college sports.
“I recently got into a conversation with a brand and they were deciding whether to allocate budget to NIL or something else,” Cain said. “And the fact that they’re actually arguing, ‘Do I allocate this budget to NIL, or do I allocate it to the sport I usually spend professionally on,’ shows how crazy it is.”
Agencies represent college athletes, and for Cain, he and Excel focus on teaching the process, brand building, media opportunities and social media.
“In order for NIL to continue to be successful at this level and continue to grow as a marketplace, I think you really need to identify leaders in the space that you can trust and who can really be education experts,” Cain said.
The bigger the market, the more opportunities there will be for student-athletes, and Cain believes we’re just on the tip of the iceberg of just how big NIL can get.
“We’re almost 12 months into it and we’re just getting to the point where brands are actually planning and budgeting NIL spending,” Cain said. “Regional brands, national brands, we’re going to see significant investment from brands in NIL because the space and platform is so strong.
“…I think this is just the beginning.”
