Category: NCAA

The 3rd year of NCAA NAME, IMAGE, LIKENESS (NIL) is underway.

Unsurprisingly, the rollout has been inconsistent and unfair.

According to a study by Opendorse, the leading athlete marketplace and NIL technology company, the NIL market should grow by 11.2% to a whopping $1.17 billion. And while that’s great for all student-athletes, the lion’s share of that money is flowing into the 65 Power 5 football programs. …

More than half of $1.17 billion spent on NIL will go to 65 teams in one sport, report shows

Some additional facts from NIL year 2 via The Upside:

• Deep-pocketed alumni superfans, also known as boosters, have created complex organizations and nonprofits to effectively use as slush funds to attract the top athletes to play for their alma maters
• A group of University of Iowa superfans, pays recent transfer quarterback Cade McNamara $600 an hour for various community-oriented tasks, like delivering meals to seniors and making visits to children’s hospitals
• Michigan State football players, are simply tasked with promoting their collective’s charity via social media, … some athletes to make as much as $25,000 per post.
• University of Utah’s Crimson Collective is granting every scholarship football player a new $61,000 Dodge truck — leased to each player
• average starter at a major football program now makes about $103,000 a year, according to Opendorse, while the average men’s basketball player with a collective deal earns $37,000
•  “[The collective system is] a pay-for-play scheme disguised as NIL,” Big Ten Conference commissioner Tony Petitti said at a Senate hearing in October

HOPEFULLY, the beginning of the NIL era may be remembered as a short-lived period of unregulated mayhem. The IRS is increasingly cracking down on booster organizing.

More regulation is needed. And it must be enforced.

All that said, I support College athletes getting MORE of the billion$ made by the NCAA.

But it should be done more fairly.

Livvy Dunne was the highest-valued women’s college athlete as of 2022.

One downside of fame and money is the need for security.

“Olivia Dunne Says Security Travels with Her After Incident Last Season” | People https://t.co/3IT4ohfHFM

— GymCastic (@GymCastic) November 7, 2023