On this Sunday’s show, I wanted to do a deep dive and discuss both the short-term – as well as the long-term – impact that the new rules regarding college student-athletes being able to make money from selling the rights to their Name, Image, and Likeness – or NIL in short.
As we have discussed and debated over the last year, these landmark changes that are occurring to the NCAA and its student-athletes have been, quite simply, astounding.
Anyone who has followed college sports in their lifetime – or perhaps played at a NCAA institution, or has had a son or daughter who has played college sports – knows full well that the rules and regulations regarding one’s “amateur” status have been well-defined and strictly enforced by the colleges.
For example, I grew up in a time – and many of you did as well – where college athletes were not allowed to earn a thin dime from any kind of endorsement deal, or get paid in any way by a team, or even make any money from outside entrepreneurial ventures, such as writing a blog, or doing social media.
If you did, well, you immediately jeopardized your amateur status as an athlete – and not only would you ruin your eligibility to play in college, but more than that, being stripped of one’s amateur status carried a sad taint with it – that is – that you knowingly did something wrong, that you were caught, and now you’re going to pay the price. In effect, you were shamed – and of course, banned from playing college sports forever.
But all of that is now fully in the past.
Thanks to a very strong decision from the US Supreme Court, and thanks to a bunch of individual states which are supporting this movement, college athletes are now finding themselves open to all sorts of new money-making ventures while they’re in college and playing sports.
In effect, these new laws now enable student-athletes to generate income beyond their college athletic scholarships. These monies can come from social media deals as influencers, doing endorsements with local sponsors, making personal appearances where they can charge for their autograph and so on – in short, the possibilities seem to be endless.
You probably won’t be surprised to hear that there are already several entrepreneurial firms that are specializing in repping college athletes who want to take on clients. Just to name a few….Opendorse, a Nebraska firm that helps generate endorsement opportunities, reports that college athletes had received more than 1,000 offers through its system already. Another one, Icon Source, said more than 2,000 athletes had built profiles on its platform. Dreamfield, a Florida company specializing in personal appearances by athletes, reports that 62 businesses had registered to use its platform in the first 12 hours it was available. Another early leader is MOGL, started by a couple of Notre Dame grads. In other words, business is booming!
This new frontier represents all sorts of discussion and debate, and it’s going to affect not only today’s current college athletes, but also kids who are in HS and future generations of athletes.
To that end, I’ve asked our long-time Sports Edge colleague, sports commentator and attorney Steve Kallas to join me this AM to map out all the legal aspects of these changes, And I also asked Noah Savage, All-Ivy League basketball player at Princeton and who now does color commentary for ESPN on college hoops, to discuss all of this with me.
This is a most engaging and entertaining discussion of this “brave new world” of college student-athletes. I urge you to check it out below. I really think this is one of the best shows I’ve had the privilege to host.
Read more on this story at askcoachwolff.com, tune in to WFAN every Sunday morning at 8 A.M. for 'Rick Wolff's Sports Edge,' and follow Rick Wolff on Twitter @askcoachwolff.