NCAA NIL Deals

NIL DEALS

BY DOMINIC ROJAS

The NIL which stands for name, image, and likeness is a new law passed by the NCAA Board of Governors allowing collegiate athletes to get paid and endorse their names. Athletes during my lifetime have always been asking to get paid because of how much money they bring into their respective schools, but the NCAA never listened. When Covid shut sports down they started talking more and more. Then, in early summer of 2021, deals were finally being finalized and on July 1st, it was officially announced that NIL would be implemented into the college system. Once it was announced, college athletes immediately started booking plane flights to different companies in order to get first dibs on the endorsement contracts. The first set of college athletes to take advantage of these new deals were Fresno State’s women basketball player’s Haley and Hanna Cavinder who now play for Miami University. They signed a contract with Boost Mobile and even got their own billboard in New York City’s famous Times Square. We have now had NIL for one year, two months and three weeks in counting and will hopefully continue to bring a positive affect towards the student athletes. While the Supreme Court and NCAA passed the deal, specific schools still have specific rules in place for their athletes. These are to help keep athletes in check and make sure they aren’t going overboard with their names and brands. Some of the rules include they must comply with the state law meaning they can engage in such activities that are consistent with state’s law of where the school is located as long as they represent their name and image. If you go to a school within a state that has no laws you must follow the laws under your name, image, and likeness. Which means don’t receive money from promises you never fulfilled, such as receiving 100,000 dollars for an event you were supposed to go to, but never went. Since it is under your name you have to make sure that your name and identity are clean and well known for the better. And they are very strict with them too. If the rules are broken it could lead to loss of endorsements, suspensions, and maybe even being asked to leave the program. This may sound harsh but it’s actually very good because if these athletes are disciplined with this strict mentality they will be better suited professionally for later in their life after college wherever they may go. The NIL still is brand new and has many things we still have to learn about. With social media promoting athlete’s endorsements or personal brands, there are so many new and inventive ways for the kids to make good earnings.