It’s been less than a year since student-athletes have been allowed to make money off their likenesses. The effects have been immediate and staggering.
NIL marketing deals are revolutionizing college sports in the United States. NIL stands for Names, Images, and Likeness, and allows student-athletes to monetize through marketing deals, appearances, autographs - or anything that can be associated with their personal brand. This is the holy grail of Influencer Marketing for college students across the country. Even high school-aged recruits are getting in on the action within a number of states including New York, California, and Louisiana to name a few. Everyone knew that when the NCAA finally relaxed its rules regarding student-athletes earning money that the response would be big.      For so long, the archaic rules of the NCAA prohibited student-athletes from profiting from their identity even as the athletic programs made billions of dollars from sponsorships and television rights.

For decades student-athletes couldn’t receive money or gifts. As a workaround, what sprung up around almost every large university in the country were ‘bag men’ - fans of the program willing to channel money and gifts to help recruit top talent. The NCAA not only frowned upon the practice, but they would also punish athletes and university athletic departments if they discovered involvement.       The recent NIL ruling more or less does away with the need for bag men, allowing fans and boosters (through collectives) to do much of this same activity under the guise of NIL out in the open. Now an athlete can take their own name and image, and partner with any number of entities to make money - without much fear of penalty.

     Since July 1, 2021, prominent student-athletes have been signing NIL deals for five or six figures. That was the day that the NCAA finally succumbed to pressure and relaxed its rules regarding student-athletes receiving compensation of any kind. Many states responded with a series of laws that further extended opportunities for student-athletes. This caused the floodgates to open for influencer marketing. While there are still rules in place regarding these athletes from getting directly paid, they are free to make money off their likenesses. The main way these athletes are reaping the benefits of the rules changes is by taking their names, images, and likenesses to social media and becoming NIL influencer.

Players in any sport can partner with companies to endorse their products or they can charge for appearances and autographs. While most of the biggest deals involve high-profile players in sports like football and basketball, the real measure of how much an athlete gets paid is often how many social media followers they have. NIL influencers are beginning to cash in, in a big way. Big-time collegiate football players like Bryce Young at the University of Alabama and Caleb Williams at USC have reportedly signed deals that total more than a million dollars. However, if you’re savvy enough on social media, you don’t have to be involved in one of the high-profile sports to make a buck.

Take, for example, Olivia Dunne- a popular gymnast that attends Louisiana State University. While gymnastics isn’t as high-profile as football, she has parlayed a massive social media following into a reported seven-figure NIL contract. For a student-athlete to be a big-time NIL influencer, they need a large and engaging social media following proving that any student-athlete can be a winner with NIL deals.

Even unknown athletes from smaller schools can cash in. While they won’t be signing any high-profile deals, they can sign up for smaller-scale NIL deals. There are even agencies that have started to help student-athletes discover NIL deals. Athletes who aren’t well known enough to grab a five or six-figure deal can benefit from gift cards, free clothing, and food for endorsing businesses. You are already seeing this in college towns all over America.

You shouldn’t scoff at a college student using their local pull to score swag. As stated above, getting compensated with gifts used to be essentially illegal in the eyes of the NCAA. These sorts of transactions could get an athlete suspended and their scholarship canceled. Student-athletes often live the same hand-to-mouth existences that most college students do. If they are using their name, image, or likeness to score some burritos or a free gym membership, they aren’t hurting anyone. They certainly shouldn’t be punished for it.  For those athletes who won’t get the big money, this is the real freedom that comes with the new age of NIL deals.