NIL: The Rules

NIL is an acronym for Name, Image, and Likeness. It is essentially the rules that the NCAA has in terms of college athletes making money from their image. When the NCAA video games were produced, it was probably one of the biggest drivers of the push for the NIL rules being changed. Players could play with someone with their height, weight, and jersey number, but they received nothing from this. However, this post isn't about the morality of NIL; the rules are what they are. Let's dig deeper into what can and cannot be done.

Most of us have seen commercials that feature high level college football players, like DJ in the Dr. Pepper commercial. However, there may be a few things that you aren't noticing about the particulars of such things. The NIL rules do allow athletes to make money from their image, but there are still guidelines and rules to follow.

The Do's

Players are now free to seek out opportunities to make money from their image, which they should take advantage of. Businesses, especially those in college towns, can use their biggest public figures to make more money, and the athletes get a cut of those profits.

Players can now do public appearances, sell jerseys, and sign autographs, which means that fans can connect to players more. Usually fans had to wait to get jerseys of their schools players, which meant that they had to use generic gear until their favorite players were professionals.

Organizations can give back to the communities as well. Some athletes have deals with charitable organizations, where they make money for each service. The plauers will pack meals or talk to youth for money.

The Don't

Players are not permitted to have deals directly with the school. This mean that Texas can not have a deal where they pay Arch Manning. Manning must have a deal with a party outside of the university.

Deals also cannot have anything that makes it "Quid Pro Quo", or "this for that". This means that payments can not be based on performance, but based on services provided. This means that the player has to make a public appearance or commercial with the company.

Players may have agents that help them secure NIL deals, but these agents may not use a contract that allows them stay with them on the path to going pro. They would need separate contracts when they go pro and for their NIL dealings.

Players must inform the school before partaking in NIL opportunities. The athletes are also not permitted to use school gear or logos in the commercial. This is why you don't see players wearing their jerseys in the commercials.

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The one with the biggest grey area is the rule that stipulates that schools cannot be involved in deals. Many boosters form what are called "Collectives". These are essentially pools of resources that boosters will funnel to players. This is legal, as long as the player does some sort of service for the money. For example, West Virginia starts a collective that works to pool together NIL money for their athletes. Jim is a huge fan of the Mountaineers, so he puts his dealership into the collective. When the 5 star QB signs, he gets an NIL deal with Jim's dealership that pays him cash for commercials. This can get murky, because boosters are not allowed to be involved in recruiting. However, if the university knows that Jim will be offering cash to top players, they will certainly be tempted to use this to their advantage. This is also made complicated when these boosters are given access to suites or sideline passes that university officials may attend as well.