Name. Image. Like This.
Why College and High school athletes should be allowed to profit off their name and image
March 12, 2022, the largest individual NIL (Name Image Likeness) deal was signed by a non-professional athlete. A class of 2023 5-Star recruit signed an agreement with a school’s NIL collective that will pay him more than $8 million dollars over his four years spent at the school. Though the names have not been released it is speculated to be CA native, Nico Iamaleava, who recently announced his commitment to the University of Tennessee. This is groundbreaking news due to the fact college athletes weren’t allowed ANY compensation off of their personal brand until 2021. Past athletes such as former UCF football player, and famous YouTuber Donald De La Haye, also known as Deestroying, paved the way for athletes of today to make generational money in high school & college off of their athletic ability.
In 2017, Deestroying played kicker for the University of Central Florida and profited from YouTube videos he created in his free time. The school found out and allowed him to continue making videos as long as he didn’t monetize any videos related to football, or they would pull his scholarship. He decided to continue pursing YouTube and was soon kicked off the team which picked up national coverage from fans all over calling it “unfair.” He now has over 4.2 million subscribers from creating vlogs about high school and college football.
The decision to allow college athletes to profit from their athletic ability was certainly a good decision. According to On3 NIL, the top 5 class of 2023 high school recruits for both basketball and football are all projected to make over 100k a year, with the highest paid player being estimated to make a whopping 6.3 million!
In college, most NIL deals are done directly through school boosters. For example, The University of Texas alumni and supporters created Horns with Heart NIL initiative. They sponsor every offensive lineman at Texas with $50,000 in annual financing for using their individual name, image and likeness to make charitable appearances and bring awareness to things that impact their local communities. Another example would be the recent creation of Ohio State’s THE Foundation. This is another third party group that will pay Ohio State athletes for working with local charities.
NILs have received extreme backlash from college sports fans all over. They expressed their feeling that NIL would be the downfall of college sports due to the fact that teams could “buy” players. The sad truth is that teams were “buying” players far before NIL was legal. It was confirmed in 2020 that The University of Tennessee was handing recruits McDonalds bags filled with money on recruiting visits, and Texas A&M head coach, Jimbo Fisher, recently stated, “There were a lot of NIL deals going on before all this was going on, they just weren’t legal.” Paying college athletes has already been a part of college athletics and can now finally be brought to light.
I believe allowing NIL deals to be a part of NCAA athletics was one of the best decisions they have made. It allows student athletes to be financially stable while taking on the stress of a demanding college sports schedule, while also being able to create generational wealth while still in school. I recently witnessed an athlete from my hometown commit to the University of Nebraska, put up solid numbers in his freshman season, declare for the NBA draft, and buy a 2021 Mercedes AMG in a matter of months, all while being under the age of 20. NIL was a life changing opportunity for many student athletes including myself.
