NIL Might be in For Some Changes
The NCAA will discuss changes that would allow schools to be more involved in helping athletes make money from endorsements.
(Getty Images)
A NCAA subcommittee will be considering adjustments to guidelines that would allow schools to find NIL deals for athletes, review contracts, help with taxes and provide marketing resources.
The proposed changes comes more than two years into the NIL era, when athletic departments navigated uncertainty surrounding how much they could help athletes with their endorsement deals. Trev Alberts, Nebraska athletic director, said that he’s in favor of making “aggressive” changes to the guidelines and that NCAA members should be too, according to ESPN.
“Let’s be honest. Some of the stuff we’re talking about now, we would have never even had a conversation about two years ago,” Alberts said. “The goalposts keep moving. We keep sliding further and further. Some of the things early on that were impermissible, it’s time to rethink those things.”
Currently, NCAA rules prohibit anyone in an athletic department from representing athletes in marketing deals but schools are allowed to provide them with education and tools for forming connections with boosters and businesses who might want to sign them to a deal. State laws and a school’s interest in pushing the limits of the NCAA’s loosely defined rules have also been a factor in how involved they get in an athlete’s NIL affairs.
Many have hired staff or consultants to help their athletes. Casey Schwab, founder and CEO of Altius Sports Partners, said the new proposed changes could be a gamechanger.
“These are the types of things that people on campus have been clawing to do and venting to us about for the last few years,” Schwab said. “We want to be able to support athletes; we need to be able to do more of it.”
“We all know how college athletics works. If schools are allowed to do something, and it provides value to their athletes, then it’s going to be used in recruiting,” Schwab added. “That’s going to lead to schools investing quickly and heavily in these support services.”
Right now, it’s unclear if or when any new guidance would be adopted.
Noah Johnson (he/him/his) is a Chicago-based journalist. Follow him on X: @noahwritestoo.
Edited by NaTyshca Pickett