Tweet

College athletes and current high schoolers are now dealing with exponentially large numbers in their recruitment process. Specifically: 1.4 million, 800,000 and 20,000. These numbers represent the dollar amounts of recent NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) deals for current and future college athletes. ESPN recently reported that Quinn Ewers, a high school senior quarterback and Ohio State commit, inked the aforementioned $1.4 million deal with GT Sports Marketing. Bryce Young, Alabama’s current starting quarterback, signed new endorsement deals well over $800,000 leading up to the 2021 season. There are many other student-athletes securing endorsements, apparel partnerships and camp appearances to generate personal revenue. All of this money being sent toward young, amateur athletes is a product of the recent NCAA rule change regarding NIL rights. The NCAA, and state regulators have been considering changes to their previous NIL rules since 2019. Through this long process, the NCAA eventually settled on rules that would vary from state to state and school to school.    

The new rule is a monumental step for the NCAA as they have often been under pressure for change and under scrutiny for their perceived exploitation of the student-athlete model.    

Dr. Scott Bull, associate professor of business administration, teaches Sport Management at Grand View University. Bull shared his thoughts about the NCAA’s past. He specifically focused on the topic of students being paid and his stance on the new rule change.   

“I have always been in favor of them (student athletes) making as much money off their name, image -and likeness—their brand if you will— as they can because they’ve been exploited in the past by the NCAA,” Bull said    

Dr. Mark Slavich, associate professor of business administration, also teaches sport management at GV. He shared a similar sentiment with Bull. Slavich expressed that no matter the school or level, he believes there should be the opportunity for compensation through the NIL rules.  

“I think you should have the opportunity to make income based upon who you are,” Slavich said.   

Bull and Slavich also referenced and praised the Olympic model, which is effectively the direction the NCAA is taking with athletes being able to profit off of their name, image and likeness while still competing as amateur athletes.    

All of this is exciting for athletes who compete at the NCAA Division I Level, but why should students, coaches or faculty here at GV, an NAIA school, care about this groundbreaking rule change? The NAIA has enacted the same rule change and was ahead of the game by nearly a year, Bull said. Each university and state has different restrictions; however, there are fewer rules in comparison to the NCAA. Slavich expounded on the benefits and reasons for excitement here on Grand View’s campus. He said that students here have the opportunity to profit and generate revenue in many creative ways while they are student-athletes.  

“We have some very successful individual athletes on campus who could generate more than probably most people outside of our campus would think,” Slavich said,    

Jesse “Jett” Driver was able to sign an endorsement deal with Elite Athletic Gear. Driver, a junior outside linebacker from Danville, Illinois, has been playing football for over 16 years of his life.   

“(I’ve) been playing football for so long, and just the chance to be able to make some money, just a penny would be just great,” said Driver. “Just a chance to get paid to do what I love to do at the collegiate level.”    

GV athletes can also benefit from Driver’s NIL deal by using his promotional code “DRIVER10” on Elite Athletic Gear’s site. Although Driver was excited about his deal, he stressed that no matter what changes are made outside the locker room and off the field, his team is the still most important thing.   

“We’re here to win at Grand View, and that’s what we’re really focused on,” said Driver. “We really don’t care how we look, we just want to win.” 

The local impact of the NIL deal has reached more of Des Moines. Raygun, self-described as “a printing, design and clothing company owned and operated by extremely attractive Midwesterners,” has recently partnered with star Iowa State athletes Brock Purdy and Breece Hall. Raygun has also partnered with viral sensation Derien “Deebo” Beauregard from Division III football’s Buena Vista University.  

  

“One of our core values is working with our local communities and supporting our local communities in any aspect,” Kacia Correa, a graphic designer at Raygun, shared that said.    

Correa add that athletes have the opportunity to reach out via Instagram direct messages and collaborate with Raygun.    

Slavich, Correa, Driver and Bull all shared their excitement regarding the fact that this rule change creates plenty of opportunity for young athletes. But is ther a downside to this change.  

One concern is related to recruiting. Some schools, as detailed in a recent Sports Illustrated article, are beginning to partner with their athletes to reach more lucrative deals.   

“Anytime there is an opportunity for there to be greed, there is going to be unethical behavior,” Slavich said.     

This unethical behavior may take form in booster-driven endorsement deals or fixed endorsement deals at specific schools.   

When Bull was asked what he thought the dark side of the NIL deal would be, he said: “That’s the million dollar question and nobody really knows. I mean there’s lots of things that could go sideways, including recruiting.”   

“Blue Chips”, a 1994 sports movie starring Nick Nolte, Shaquille O’Neal, and Penny Hardaway, deals with the messiness of recruiting and corruption. Nick Nolte’s character, a college basketball coach named Pete Bell, wrestles with the moral tension of paying players illegally “under the table” to recruit them to his school. Now with these new NIL rules, there are ways that recruits can acquire money that might sway them toward a school in a completely legal way. Bell said something that could ring true more now than ever with the NIL agreement.  

“Some place in America right now, there’s some 10-year-old kid. He’s out there on that playground, and he’s playing, he’s dribbling between his legs, he’s going left, he’s going right, he’s already above the rim, and he’s stuffing it home. And you know what’s going to happen to this kid? Five minutes from now he’s gonna be surrounded by gents, corporate sponsors, and coaches, I mean, people like me just drooling over this kid because he holds our future employment in his hands,” Bell said. 

Only time will answer the “million dollar question” that surrounds the ethics and the equitability of the new NIL rules within college sports.