The Pros and Cons of NIL Deals In the NCAA
When the MVP of men’s NCAA College Basketball was announced on April 11, no one was surprised that Zach Edey, center for Purdue University, took home the John R. Wooden Award. Yet, with all of the fame from being the top player in men’s college basketball, Edey was not legally allowed to use his name, image, or likeness (NIL) in sponsorships or advertisements for companies in America. This is not the first problem with NIL deals since their introduction in the summer of 2021 and it certainly will not be the last.
The aim for NIL is to allow college athletes the chance to have promotions of the same scale as professional athletes. It was a program many had been asking for for years, as the institutions that made millions on their players every year were preventing the players from gaining any share of the whole. Ever since its introduction, NCAA athletes have been able to make around $1 billion a year in revenue, and the program has had an estimated 450,000 athletes who have participated from all D1 sports the NCAA offers in both the men’s and women’s divisions.
Many of the sponsorships have come from local businesses in the area surrounding the colleges and universities, which promotes economic growth in these areas. Another benefit of NIL is that college athletes who would be able to become pros now have another reason to stay in school longer. For example, top women’s college basketball athletes can make more money in one year of college basketball than they would in the first year of an entry-level WNBA contract if they declare for the draft. Caitlin Clark, for example, made an estimated $3.1 million in 2023 from NIL. In comparison, the most she will make in her first-year WNBA contract is just shy of $100,000. More money from NIL as opposed to a pro contract encourages athletes to stay at their schools for longer and build connections with the fanbase, as opposed to going “one and done,” which means leaving college after the first year to the pro draft in hopes of making more money.
While NIL has had upsides, large questions remained unanswered and parts of collegiate athletics that NIL has altered still are not fully understood. NIL deals in football have provided many star players with the opportunity to make money before moving on to the NFL. Unlike college basketball, in the NFL, players are required to play at least two years of college football before entering the NFL draft. This eliminates the problem that college basketball has of athletes leaving after only one season.
However, expansions of the transfer portal, where athletes who believe they have a better chance of playing time and possibly more NIL deals can transfer to other schools, has only increased with an increase of NIL. Football players have also expressed that increasing potential for NIL to provide financial security in a sport with an average professionl career lasting only three years leads collegiate athletes to look to earn as much as they can before they retire. This means that players are looking for as much money as possible, in addition to factors they previously looked at such as the facilities, staff, and potential play time they would receive if they committed to a specific college. This has prompted a fundamental change in the way that coaches now recruit players, making their jobs harder and pushing some of them to leave. For example, Nick Saben, future Hall of Fame coach at Alabama, recently retired after the end of the 2023-2024 season. One of the reasons he cited was the increasingly strenuous process of recruiting athletes to his school and their focus on earning money. This has caused many people to call for substantial changes to NIL, yet the NCAA seems to be sticking to the current format for now, citing widespread enrollment in programs and success from those who do participate.
Yet for Zach Edey, his problem with NIL is due to his citizenship. Edey is Canadian and grew up in Toronto, Ontario. His current student visa prevents him from making money off NIL deals that take place within the United States, whether it be the signing of a contract or filming and shooting an advertisement. Yet Edey has found a loophole: during the offseason and when the Purdue team travels outside of the United States, he uses the time to shoot commercials and sponsor brands. Additionally, Edey is allowed to make money on jersey sales. He has previously described this as “‘passive income’” when asked about the situation in early April while doing media events for the Final Four of March Madness. However, he has lost out on potentially millions of dollars in NIL revenue. While he will no longer encounter this problem if he enters the NBA this summer, he will have already lost out on millions of dollars. When speaking about this problem, he claimed that something must be done to fix this situation for international athletes. This problem is one of the many that are likely to pop up with the shift in college athletics. However, since this is a United States law and not an NCAA regulation, it is unlikely to be fixed quickly, creating more frustration for top athletes like Edey.
The NCAA has put a significant amount of work into making this program viable, and while many athletes are using the program to their advantage, many athletes still are not able to make significant money from NIL. Football, Men’s Basketball and Women’s Volleyball make over two thirds of the money from NIL deals, meaning that most of the money is funneled into those sports, which receive far less by comparison. The NIL system may not be perfect, but it is better than a system that prohibits athletes from making any money on their talents. While NIL may not be permanent, more likely than not, some form of it will remain in college sports for the foreseeable future.
