How NIL has affected college athletes.
Name, Image, and likeness also known as NIL has been one of the best things if not the best thing to happen to college athletes in the nation. College athletes were never making money off of their name because of NCAA rules, now that rule has changed these athletes are making money off of their name that they deserve to make instead of other people making money off of their name.
We are starting to hear more and more about NIL deals with different athletes across the country and these deals can get very creative too. You see NIL deals involving the Beats headphones where star football players like Shedeur Sanders took college football by storm and star QB for USC Caleb Williams, one of the top college QBs in the nation. Then you see deals such as DB from the University of Alabama Ga’Quincy McKinstry and his nickname is “Kool-aid.” Now if you’re thinking what everyone else is thinking, he has an NIL deal with the drink company Kool-aid all because of his Nickname being Kool-aid.
Deals like this have made college sports change as a whole. Having deals like this and knowing you can make money off of your name not only changes how these players will play and think but it will also change things for recruits coming into college. It’s almost like a bidding war on trying to get the highly ranked recruits and bargaining to say we have this that and the third and NIL helps because making money in college as an athlete is bigger than what people think.
From this chart up above this is how a large majority of college athletes get paid and it's through opendorse. Opendorse is an app where you can see all of your NIL opportunities and how to get a payout straight to your account without any problems. As you can see social post is a majority of the income that these athletes make such as posting something on their Instagram page or Tiktok page to promote a brand or represent their brand in some type of way. It’s very interesting to see these social media posts because their athletes with more followers than others and their some athletes out there who are just public figures outside of their sport and already have a large following on their social media outlets.
NIL will only continue to grow but as of right now, it’s fairly new as it just started mid-way through 2021. We will start to see more athletes having agencies, going to more events, seeing them in commercials maybe even having their own store for things. You never know when it comes to NIL because these athletes have fans ranging from all ages from kids to elders.
This video gives a great overview of what NIL is going to do for student-athletes all across the world. Stan who’s an Executive Vice President of Regulatory Affairs who seeks all the insights within NCAA rules.
As a student athlete myself I am beyond thankful for having NIL because it helps me in every single area I need while I’m competing in the sport I love. Not only does it help me but it helps my family not to worry too much about what they need to provide for me and how I can finally start providing for them little by little.
If any student-athlete has any concerns about making money at a young age like this they should always remember what they are competing in their sport for and do things they know are going to maximize their full potential as a student-athlete.
NIL is the future for college athletes and will only continue to grow and help student-athletes all over the world so they can finally make money off of the hard work they’ve put in for so long.