You may have seen the news that the NCAA has decided to allow athletes to make money off of their name, image, and likeness rights. New rules are expected to drop in January so there will be time to absorb and interpret them before they go live in the 2021-22 academic year.
It was a momentous decision because it bring to an end a lot of what “amateurism” means in college sports. The athletes still won’t be counted as employees or receive salaries, but they will be able to make money based on who they are. Legislation in states like California and Florida has finally forced the NCAA’s hand. The organization wisely decided to put its own rules into effect rather than fight to the bitter end — a certain loss, as states absolutely have the power to enact their laws as written — and have others write the rules for them.
This can and will take many forms. The most obvious one is endorsements. Star players will be obvious subjects of these, but it doesn’t have to end there. A local barbecue or all-you-can-eat buffet might hire the starting offensive line to cut a commercial or just take pictures for print ads. Maybe some of the more photogenic olympic sports athletes could do modeling for men’s or women’s clothing stores.
Could there be abuse of the system? Define “abuse”. Since players will be able to take endorsement money while remaining eligible, there is no abuse there. The details of the rules will probably try to keep boosters from being able to “hire” athletes for no-show jobs or endorsements that never run, but I’m not going to begrudge players from getting money that literally any other student could.
If a music major scores fame from a viral video, there’s no reason why he or she can’t cash in on the notability in any way possible without losing any scholarship they might have. They might perform for an advertisement, and no one would think twice about it. I don’t know why athletes should be any different.
Social media will also be a fertile place. It could be making money from ads on a YouTube channel, something that got a UCF kicker into eligibility trouble a few years back. He eventually chose to quit football rather than quit making videos.
It could also be sponsored posts. A player could take a picture of themselves wearing a particular brand’s clothes and make money based on the number of Instagram views the photo gets. “Influencers” have been making money this way for years, so it’s a well-established pathway to cash.
And then there’s merchandising.
People have been making unlicensed merchandise with obvious references to college athletes for ages. One of the most recent examples is the “Respect the Specs” shirts that were made in honor of Georgia’s bespectacled kicker Rodrigo Blankenship. It was obvious who the shirts were about, but Blankenship never made a dime off of them. He couldn’t and stay eligible, after all.
UGA fans aren’t the only ones buying stuff that allowed others to profit off of athletes without cutting them in on it. Back in 2007-09, there were plenty of shirts around referencing Tim Tebow without using his name or any UF trademarks. They stayed just on the side of legality while being kind of scummy when you really think about it.
Some players and their families fought against that kind of practice. You might remember in 2014 when Texas A&M quarterback Kenny Hill became a sensation after shredding South Carolina on the Thursday night that opened the season. “Trill” happened to be a popular slang term at the time, so people began calling him “Kenny Trill”. After another strong showing in limited work against an FCS team in Week 2, Hill’s family trademarked the nickname.
I remember the move being mocked at the time, as it seemed awfully premature. In a sense it was. Hill’s play tailed off, Kevin Sumlin benched him for Kyle Allen later that season, and Hill eventually transferred to TCU.
But in a sense, it wasn’t. It gave the family some protection against merchandising vultures at the time, and it was good insurance for the future. Had Hill’s career taken off, it could’ve been a lasting thing. Robert Griffin III was known as “RG3” in college and the nickname still sticks today.
Once the new rules go into effect, players will be able to take advantage of sudden fame immediately. Quarterbacks will get the glory as they always do, and the Tebows and even Hills of the world will move some shirts. Blankenship shows, however, that anyone could make some money if they have something distinctive about them.
I expect that some players will cultivate quirks, gimmicks, catchphrases, unique looks, and anything else to make themselves stand out. Some of these will be tiresome. They’ll be preexisting clichés that they put their faces on, and no one outside their devoted fans will like it.
But at the very least Nick de la Torre would’ve bought a Tommy Townsend dancing shirt, and I bet a few people would’ve gone for “Hot Sauce Hammond” gear of some sort. On-demand merchandise services mean there’s basically no up-front investment, so players only need to find a competent illustrator (of which there are many out there) to get going.
I look forward to the universe of weird and quirky stuff that’ll come of the NIL rules relaxation. We’re about to find out just how many college athletes have fun senses of humor, and I suspect it’ll be a large number.