How NIL Deals Have Changed Collegiate Sports Forever

As of July 1st, 2021, collegiate athletes have been able to make money off their Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL). Since day one, I always thought that college athletes should be able to profit off themselves rather than the universities. I decided to look more into the topic because I was once a college athlete myself, and I can understand the tough lifestyle they commit to. Waking up at 5am for lift or practice while the sun hasn’t even risen yet, then going to class right after, having a few hours to eat and do work, then meetings at 5pm. This continues for 5 to 6 days a week which is truly a test to one’s physical and mental strengths. Understanding the infancy of this rule, I wanted to dig deeper to see how it could change college sports for good. With that being said, I decided to organize this topic into two perspectives: current athletes and directors tied to athletics. All perspectives are important because all can lead to predicting new future outcomes, especially the ones coming from current athletes.

The ability for college athletes to make money off themselves through deals, sponsorships, etc. is clearly being used to their advantage, which is its intended purpose. All over the US, athletes are signing a variety of different deals including college athletes here at The University of New Hampshire. Star Quarterback for the Wildcats, Max Brosmer, has been utilizing this new rule to his advantage. When asked about NIL deals, Max explains, “Personally, NIL has come in my college athletics career through endorsement of businesses and product in exchange for product. I have represented a few restaurants, an arm care company, a chess company, and a few others.” This goes to show that athletes can be sponsored both by local and online companies with the help of social media. People may believe that only the cream of the crop from the top sports schools in the nation are able to get the deals, but athletes of all genders, sports, and divisions are able to benefit from this new rule. Max is a great example of breaking this stigma. Diving more into the perspective of the athlete, this made me think of how college is more beneficial for all student athletes now and how this could potentially lead to athletes being more inclined to stay in college for as long as they can.

Since the likelihood of going professional from college is not very high, some athletes have decided to stay in college rather than go professional. Athletes are given 4 seasons of eligibility which can be prolonged through sitting out and redshirting. This has a trickle effect into the high school scene as players will stay in high school for as long as they can to enter the next level more developed. As you can see in the chart below, the highest percentage of going pro is 21% considering all professional basketball leagues around the world and the lowest is 1.6% for football.

Athletes for some sports will still sometimes skip college entirely or even drop out of college and not get their degrees. If it doesn’t work out, it leads to athletes not being fully prepared for the work world ahead. Understanding the doubtfulness of making the professional level, there will probably be an increase in athletes who’d want to profit on their athletic ability for as long as they are in college.

Recently, UConn women’s basketball point guard, Paige Bueckers, could have been drafted into the WNBA but instead, opted to stay in college. Due to the UConn women’s basketball team being very well known, Jason Belzer, chief executive of an NIL agency, believes that “she probably has more value as a student athlete from a marketing and endorsement perspective than she will as a pro.” The only backfire would be if she turns into the next Hall of Fame, once in a generation, type of player, which is highly improbable. This is not the case for every athlete, especially for Brosmer, who has a different perspective on his longevity in football.

When asked about prolonging his collegiate career, he replied, “There's only so long you can do it for. For me, it would be a game time decision if it was based on money, but I am not playing football for the money! I want to play as long as possible because I am passionate for the sport!” It’s evident that there are two sides of this situation, where one would be more inclined to stay due to financial reasons and the other would want to stay due to the passion they have for their sport. Since there are more student athletes wanting to stay, I believe that it will cause some large ripple effects.

Now that there are more incentives to stay in college longer, this would likely lead to a backup in players, similar to the effect that COVID-19 and the transfer portal caused. What the transfer portal does is allows for student athletes to show their desire to transfer schools, acting as a free agent market for coaches to get better players. This potential backup would make it difficult for the next generation of athletes to get recruited since their roster spots would decrease slower overtime. On the more positive side, more athletes would get their degrees and even their masters the longer they stay. This would allow for them to come out of college very well prepared to start their career if they don’t go professional. Not only will the rule change athletes’ decision making when it comes to which universities to attend, it will also change how athletic departments work with their athletes.

After only considering how athletes are affected, I took a step back to look at another perspective, one that involves how colleges themselves will change as a result of NIL deals. With the marketability of a college being a new factor when athletes make their decision, how will universities react and change to gain the top prospects? I figured that the answers to those questions would vary depending on the division and or level that their school is in. What differs between an FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) college from an FCS (Football Championship Subdivision) college is that FBS is larger in size, has a bigger budget given towards sports, and there are capacity requirements for games. I wanted to see perspectives from each level, so I decided to start locally here in Durham, NH.

I was able to get in touch with UNH’s Athletic Director, Allison Rich, to try and gain some insight from an FCS program. When asked about making potential changes at UNH for athletes, she said, “I don’t think that college physical improvements are made based on NIL opportunities. When an athlete makes their college decision, they consider many factors. They’re looking academically, what are the programs. Most aren’t going to play professionally, so when they’re looking athletically, they’re looking at who’s the coach and will they have a chance to play.” This made me realize that every type of athlete has different desirable factors that they value more than others do when considering what school to attend. Although this is true, I’m sure it will be different for those schools at the top level athletically.

On the other hand, FBS schools have been racing to get into the much more televised conferences. More televised games lead to more profit for schools and athletes alone which would be taken into consideration by the top recruits as well as current players that could transfer. Recently, UCLA has begun transferring into the Big Ten Conference and their main reason doesn’t surprise me at all. Their chancellor and athletics director explained, “Big Ten membership offers Bruins exciting new competitive opportunities and a broader national media platform for our student-athletes to compete and showcase their talents. Specifically, this move will enhance Name, Image, and Likeness opportunities through greater exposure for our student-athletes and offer new partnerships with entities across the country.” In my opinion, this is the smart move in the long run because many teams will get left behind in the less televised conferences which no top athlete would want to attend. This strategy for UCLA already seems to be working since one of their athletes, KiKi Rice guard on the women’s basketball team, is “the first athlete to sign a name, image and likeness deal with Jordan Brand.” Evidently, FCS colleges will stick to what they’re doing while FBS colleges are willing to change in order to bring in the world’s best talents. With these large sums of money being dished out to young athletes, I’m curious to see how athletic programs will keep their athletes in line.

Imagine if you just came out if high school and you were making tens of thousands of dollars a year, or even a month. I’m sure we’d all make a few stupid decisions and purchases here or there. I accidentally bought a year subscription to Varsity Cheer and only used it once. Looking back at it now, I can’t believe I did that and wished I was more careful with my money. Even head coach of the Georgia Bulldogs, Kirby Smart, is concerned with young athletes making all that money. He mentions, “Is that actually gonna make him more successful in life? Because, I promise you, if you handed me $10K a month my freshman year of college, I probably wouldn't be where I am today." This brings up the concern of how universities will provide their student athletes with the proper financial support. If it were me, I would want help from the university because I wouldn’t know how to properly save, dispense, and invest such earnings.

Considering the higher-level programs, The University of Nebraska “has set up a program that will ‘position all Husker student-athletes for success in N.I.L,’” which teaches student athletes about branding, financial literacy, and marketing themselves. I can understand why they would need to instill such program because their athletes would likely bring in more income from NIL deals in comparison to an FCS university. Looking at UNH, I initially thought that they would have some sort of program like Nebraska’s, but after learning about the money being made from the higher divisions, it made me change my mind.

Regarding UNH, Allison Rich mentioned, “We try to help them with what the campus rules are, for example, licensing rules. There are already some financial literacy classes on campus. We want to let them know of all the resources available on campus to help them get the support that they need in addition to what we provide.” I really like that they’re using the university for its educational purpose, but at the same time, I would want there to be some program that can help all their student athletes. Understanding the year-round commitment to college sports, it can be tough making money on top of doing schoolwork. When most of these student athletes don’t make it professionally, they’ll look back and wish they took advantage of NIL deals to make some money.

NIL deals are still a very young market that allows athletes to finally make a profit off themselves and their athletic abilities. These athletes live a very dedicated lifestyle to their respected sport which is now being rightfully rewarded. Initially, I believed that when athletes made their final decision of what university to attend, their marketability would now be the highest weighted factor, but I was wrong. After researching and hearing opinions from people effected by NIL deals, I concluded that athletes’ weight of a factor differs from one another since each one of them have their own desires of what they want to get out of a college. Some student athletes will go in hopes of going professional afterwards and some will go for educational purposes. All athletes pick colleges off of factors they value the most and not everyone values certain factors the same.

If anything, it has aided their future, but could affect the future of other athletes that are trying to get into the new athletic business. Regarding the universities and their athletic departments, I came in wondering how and if they’ve adapted to student athletes’ new ability. It’s evident to me that it has changed the playing field for the FBS schools but stays the same for FCS universities.

Overall, it is nice to know that these universities are helping their athletes through a time where they could be taken advantage of by a bad deal. There are still a ton of lingering factors that will occur and can either show the good or the bad of what is to come of these NIL deals. At the very least, student athletes around the nation are finally given the freedom they deserve to benefit off their hard work, rather than being just valued for the number on their back.