NIL changing college sports
Author: Tangela Cheatham
“For Better or Worse: NIL Is Changing College Sports.” Central Michigan University, https://www.cmich.edu/podcast/episode/for-better-or-worse-nil-is-changing-college-sports. Accessed 18 Feb. 2025.
What is the NCAA's Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) rule, and why is it such a significant change for college athletes?
Adam: Alright. Yeah, it's been a little bit longer. And I guess to that point, and before we start saying NILA bunch, which is an acronym that some people will be familiar with and some aren't. Maybe you could explain what that is and how you see it in the current space, which is NCAA athletics.
Tangela: So, keep it very general for name, image, and likeness and at its core name, photo, and likeness legislation or passing when the NCA allowed student-athletes to benefit or profit from the use of literally their name, image and likeness in conjunction with their role as student-athletes in college in a way that they previously hadn't been allowed to before and they had been prohibited from doing because it was seen as an extra benefit or an opposite of what we consider amateurs. It completely changed how the NCAA had looked at student-athletes before.
Adam: And there was a lot of pressure for that to happen. Correct. I mean, you had been mounting for a while.
Tangela: Absolutely. It started. I can't even give you a year for how long people have asked for this change. There's been the Ed O'Bannon case, and I can't give you the number of cases that have come that have tried to say student-athletes should be able to be paid or profit from the use of their image, their name, their likeness. But the Summer of '21 is when the NCAA put into effect and said, "Hey, this is going to happen." We need to figure out how to make it happen.
Adam: And how do we put guardrails up for how institutions will do it?
Tangela: We're still working through how to put guardrails and make this happen.
How has the NIL rule changed the college athletics landscape since its implementation?
Adam: So, I guess that would be my next question, which is just how has this changed the landscape of college athletics for someone like yourself who, I mean every day your day is helping run these institutions and all these different programs, how has it changed for you since '21?
Tangela: Yeah, I think it's changed based on how people view NIL. So, at its core, name, image, and likeness, you'll hear some people say true NIL and then NIL, which some people will view as a pay-for-play piece. So at its core, name, image, and likeness is supposed to be an entrepreneurial endeavor for student-athletes where they kind of go out and find opportunities where maybe they can market a product, or perhaps they're sharing stories about the day in the life of a student-athlete, or they're doing something that's a business endeavor where again, they are using their business as insert, I dunno, a softball student-athlete at insert institution to put some money in their pockets or build brand awareness for themselves and they're doing something for that. Or you're also seeing things where it's being used as an incentive to maybe go to an institution. So, it's changing because we don't have true guardrails that there's a handle on for different institutions. And we'll talk about, I think a little bit later, other places have distinct regulations, different rules, and by places I mean states, the NCAA has put out, you can do this, you can do that, you can do this, but then some things supersede that. And so again, at its core, it is how I take my opportunity as a student-athlete to build something maybe to help secure my future. But then some other things come into play when you consider other people's interest in this opportunity as it relates to helping maybe their institution or even themselves.
Adam: And I imagine you, as an athletics administrator, are looking at it. There will probably be six more lawsuits before I know what is really going on. I mean, most of this has played out in court or is playing out in court as we talk.
Tangela: Yes, it is, again, active every day, and I do not have a JD, so I do my best to stay out of that and work with our conference and our compliance team and to pass that information on to our coaches as they go out to recruit and figure out what it is we can do, what we can't do because we want to do the best that we can for CMU as an institution and the best that we can for our student athletes. And so again, things are changing every day, but ultimately, we're trying to figure out how we educate our student-athletes so there are tax implications right now that they can make money. So, we're always trying to teach financial literacy, whether it's because they were going to be able to make money from their name, image, and likeness or because they were preparing to go out and get a job once they graduate but now we know that they can make money from name, image, and likeness.
So, there are tax implication,s and we're going to help them do that. Or is it because we need to help our coaches understand what they can share when they're out on the road recruiting or when a recruie asks something about name, image, and likeness? So there are so many things that play a role in how we're navigating NIL as athletics administrator. Still, ass far as the litigation that is happening, I listen to what our conference is passing along and the updates that we receive from the NCAA just because there's so much happening. And again, it changes every day. There's this piece that's happening out in California, which a lot of what's coming is happening on California happening out there. And then there's peace coming up in Colorado. There's just so much as far as the court cases that are coming that are leading to what we're seeing playing out throughout the last few years that's impacted what we know as college athletics today.
What impact has the NIL rule had on recruiting student-athletes across the country, and how are schools adapting their strategies in response?
Adam: And I have to imagine that from going back to the recruiting piece, there's just a whole new language and conversation that I assume is happening regularly because of this. Has it been a drastic change? Are the recruiters now fielding this question?
Tangela: To a certain extent. And I mean, even if you pay attention to the court cases, some of the sports most closely explicitly addressed in court cases are your footballs and basketballs. But this impacts all sports because every student athlete can go out and profit or benefit from their name and mentioned likeness. And so students, when coaches are going or are asking, well, do you have a collective that we'll see going forward? How do collectives operate? Will collectives operate? Will NIL management move entirely in-house to athletics departments? Because previously we had to be kind of all hands off, and now there's been legislation passed where NIL, there's some NIL management that can be in-house where we can help student-athletes from a NIL standpoint and helping to manage opportunities for them.Againn, before it's like I can't help you student athlete, you have to manage that on your own.
Adam: You'd be totally hands-off.
Tangela: And so that is changing by the day. But on the recruiting trail, to your point, your question, students, is when coaches are going out, and I did ask, Hey coach, how's this going? And do you have a collective? How much can I get? I'm hearing people who are middle school are getting offered $40,000 to go, we don't know what they can do and you don't know what they'll be able to do by the time they're prepared and ready to go to college. But it impacts the recruiting trail because you have to figure out how to use secure funding, sustainable funding to help fund your program, and help build your programs. After all, you still have to go out and fill the team for your sport at this level.
What is a collective?
Adam: I want to go back briefly and explain what a collective is because it's interesting and sometimes foggy.
Tangela: Yes, great question. So, a collective is a fund that donors have at this point. They've gone in, put money togethe, andy decide how they want to provide that to student athletes at a program. Different collectors use different parameters to determine how they put that funding out. So they can have requirements for the student-athletes, and they can have it for specific teams. We do have the Chippewa NIL fund through CGA America. You can go to that website and pick a team you'd like to donate to their collective. And each collective can have parameters on how a student-athlete can access those funds. So, there can be specific things. So, they may want to give to a student-athlete who is interested in nursing that that student-athlete can get a few thousand dollars, and they have to put a post on social media promoting a product or go and do community service.
So, donors will give to this fund, and then they can have requirements for a student-athlete to get those funds. At this point, institutions themselves do not run those for the most part, they're run by outside groups. It's actively changing by the day what type of involvement institutions can have with that. It's also on the table whether collectives will go away and whether institutions can pay student-athletes directly. So, at this point, again, heavily collectively driven, but we could see a future where institutions are looking to directly pay student-athletes in some capacity.
Adam: It's such a weird place, and this has moved so quickly and just in the last year, the amount of clarifying information NCAA has tried to provide is almost immediately being met by either state laws being changed to challenge the NCAA or by lawsuits being brought up against them about these specific rules. Because, as you had mentioned, it seems like not everyone's, some collectives are pretty distant from the university. Some collectives almost feel like they're adjacent to the university. The NCAA has different thoughts on how that should go, and then courts sort that whole thing out. But to your point, it does seem to be trending towards the institution having more control over essentially that pot of money that might be used.
Tangela: Or control of the process of funding more.
Adam: Funding, getting funding.
How are universities keeping up with ever-changing NIL rules?
Tangela: ...and what that looks like. We're trying to figure that out. So, even within our department, we have created a group that looks at what is happening in this space, all things college athletics. But NIL is a big part of what's happening because it greatly impacts the landscape of intercollegiate athletics. We call it our AL loop group, which is observing, orienting, deciding, and acting. And so instead of this longer strategic plan process, because of the rapidly evolving state of intercollegiate athletics, we're like, okay, we have to pay attention to what's happening and assess what's happening. We have to figure out how awe aregoing to address that. And so, we have this group of our senior administrators or senior group within the department where we actively look at what is coming every week and how we address it at this level.
But also, again, from a bigger standpoint, because there are MAC (Mid-American Conference) implications that are a little different than our friends down the street at the more prominent institutions. But we still have to see "what the implications are from an NIL standpoint" because I'm not sure we'll be able to operate in the same capacity. But we do still have to see the implications for when our coaches are going out in recruiting and the conversations that they'll be able to have with students when they're asking, well, what is the collective that you have? And we do have a collective, but are the funds the same? Are they different? Will we be able to bring it? What would it look like if we were able to bring it in-house? We do have open doors, a platform where people can go on, and broker deals directly with our student-athletes.
So if they wanted to have an autograph signing at a local store, they can go on and they can go to athlete one who has their profile set up, and they can say, oh, I want to reach out to you and set up an opportunity for you to come to my store and do autograph signings. They can do that directly through Opendorse. So, we actively monitor that and have provided an opportunity for our student athletes to do it. However, within our department, we are actively watching and paying attention to what's happening nationally because it is changing so much.
What's the difference between "true NIL" and NIL?
Adam: And there's a lot of implications there, too. Even the resources that might be needed to deal with some of thi willifferently for different institutions and athletic programs. But it feels like there's all sorts of questions, and I don't know that you can answer them, but it's like, are these students going to become employees? Are there benefits? Istudents become employeesee, how many hours are they allowed to work? What constitutes his work if it goes that route? Or if you're managing it through something like open doors or something similar depending on the program, sorry, depending on the size of the overall athletics program or the program within that college, does the student have representation? Do they understand what they're getting into? How much can the institution step in to advise them when you don't want to do business with this person, or you're not getting a good deal here? There's so much stuff that isn't very clear right now. And part o,f I thin,k the concern that folks you probably have to,o is we're trying to protect athletes at all sorts of different levels in terms of what they might be able to make or the attractiveness of them to these potential partners in terms of business, right?
Tangela: And again, you'll hear several people talking about true NIL and then NIL, which is more geared toward a pay-for-play. And I'll always go back to my interest in working in college athletics has always been, who are you without your jersey? And that's that kind of personal development and branding and developing who you are. So, when you talk about aligning with the business, that's important. So, do you want to align? I know this business may come and say, "Hey, we're going to pay you X amount of dollars to represent our organization or our product," but is that a company that you want to be aligned with? And I know the dollars may sound like a great opportunity, especially if you need to make some money, which who's not. But you have to be able to assess that. And if those opportunities start coming in at a large amount, how do weensuree that we're in a position as a department to help our student-athletes? And I think that's what a lot of departments are trying to assess: how do we ensure that we're still in a space where we can help navigate the student athlete experience? Because at its core, that's what the NCAA, that's what our departments are working to do is createan outstandingt student athlete experience. So, within NIL, how are we still ensuring we navigate a great student-athlete experience? And that's what we're looking at. How are we doing that?
What is the impact of NIL on athletes in less-prominent sports?
Adam: And I think in the national headlines too, in regards to that, the focus tends to be a little bit more on, well, if I have this athlete who is, they're making national headlines and they're getting offers from these big brands and companies that we know about, they are probably, they have some business installation that's already built into that level of spotlight. There are also student athletes out there who might be getting courted and don't have that kind of representation because it's a local dentist, it's a local car dealership where that could be a big deal for them, and it could help with some of their comfort and some of their ability to plan for their futur. Still, they'ree not like that athlete that's selling jerseys to kids seven states over. And that's probably a bit more difficult to manage for the institutions right now because they're on their own doing that, I imagine.
Tangela: Well, I mean, most students will probably have local opportunities because there are more of those available. They probably have more connections to opportunities back home. You'll see those more than your more prominent national insurance companies or food chains. Those are probably geared to those once-in-a-lifetime type athletes. And so most of the student-athletes probably do have opportunities for a gift-in-kind type opportunities, and they're excited for those. We have student-athletes with those types of opportunities now, which still go a long way. I think what we see a lot in media right now are those sensationalized opportunities that, again, lean more toward this is a pay-for-place situation. Is this a recruitment inducement? And I think when people were more hesitant to move toward name, image, and likeness, which led to the lawsuits, which were like our hand was forced, that was the type of opportunity that was the hesitancy, not necessarily the local dentist or the local car dealership. Those are great. Sell the car and go to the local Humane Society and help support that organization are we using this as an opportunity for an unfair advantage over the next place? I think those local opportunities are excellent because most people, that would be the opportunity that most of them will have, and they're excited about it. We'ree excited for them, but we want to make sure those are true NIL opportunities.
Adam: Right. Yeah, the stuff that people are where a lot of that debate right now is, and this is again really at powerful institutions, there's a tremendous amount of money, a tremendous amount of money in these collectives and what you have to do to access that money isn't always that business transaction. We just described it. She's like, you're going to be in a local car commercial.
Tangela: Well, it's being said, right? I don't see, we don't know. We only know what's being told, right? And so I think that's what keeps some people up at night is we don't know. And I'm not opposed, right? I'm not opposed to student-athletes being able to benefit from the work that they're putting in as student-athletes. It's just what that looks like. One thing I have concerned about is a lot of the conversation is around your higher profile coach pay and your higher profile administrator pay. Because that's where it's like, well, we see all of these folks getting paid, and in football, men's basketball athletes, some women's basketball athletes, and I think sometimes in the conversation was lost are some of the folks working to support them. And this is not a self for myself as I did start in student-athlete services.
So, I was an academic advisor at one point. I was on the ground in student-athlete life skills. But you do have the folks that are athletic trainers; you do have folks that are facilities and event staff. You do have folks that are academic advisors, and development officers on the ground working that aren't these higher paid positions that are the main talking points for why student-athletes are losing out on funding that I don't want to be lost in the conversation of who's helping to keep these student-athletes going. And so, hopefully, they don't get lost because they do help the student athletes go and succeed every day. And so I think it's essential to speak up for that group of people again, not only because I was that group of people, but those folks aren't making six figures in most cases. They aren't making the seven figures that some of your higher profile coaches that are getting large buyouts and getting paid for years that are part of the conversation of, well, why aren't our student-athletes getting this that led to these lawsuits and we need our student-athletes get a piece of this pie.
Because I don't think student-athletes shouldn't get a piece of the pie, it's just kind of being that true NIL we're working for. And again, it's a wild west right now, and I think markets settle, right? So I think once we get a handle on how we make this work, we'll be in a much better spot, but it's going to be painful as we see while we work to get there. And I do not know what that looks like. I have no idea, but maybe I had to look at that glass-half-full mindset because I think that's the only way I can sleep at night. But I'm looking forward to us figuring out, as an industry, how we make name, image, and likeness work. So how do we make this experience one that is positive for the student-athlete where we're getting to the core of them getting to experience, again, a benefit from their name, image or likeness, but we're still getting to experience a genuine connection between athletics and higher education because again, this is the only country where this model exists.
And I think it's great that even though there is a transfer portal, so you may not experience the four- to five-year connection as you did before, there is that tie between athletes and alums or athletes and the general student population that you don't see in other spaces. TI think thatmakes college athletics great, and we don't want to lose in all of this.
Adam: Yeah, I think to clarify my point too, that is when I was mentioning, and it's this dark, it's not that I'm trying to insinuate that it's some dark money, but I think when a lot of people hear about this, the stuff that's getting argued about, they think about that Johnny Mazel documentary and they go, someone's just going to give this guy a million dollars to sign autographs in a conference room and that's going to recruit him over. And I think we're trying to have guardrails against it. Do we want that? Do we not like that? Versus these things that are more pure NIL.
Tangela: That's where we are, and that's what many people believe is happening, and that's what may be happening.
Adam: Yeah, we don't know,, and we don't have enoughclear rulesy to figure it out yet. I also wanted t—itt is just a bit of an aside, but I think it helps clarify for the American audience. Nobody else in the world ties athletics to higher education institutions,specifically high schoolsn.
I have an exchange student who lives with me right now, and she couldn't believe how tied athletics were to higher high school when she got here. It's just something that doesn't get done in other places, too. So we are very unique in that. So if you were even a 16 or 17 or 18-year-old and you were playing tennis or field hockey or something like the opportunity to play that semi-professionally at some sort of a club team in Europe, or it would exist for you and the school would have nothing to do with it at all. So these moments do not exist in other systems, which admittedly, I wasn't that privy to. I had an exchange student, and I was like, oh my goodness,
Tangela: I only know because I did study higher education in intercollegiate athletics. And so we talked about that a lot.
Adam: Yeah, I mean, you had a proper,
Tangela: For my grad school.
Adam: You had a proper education. A German 16-year-old told me about it.
Tangela: We stress that a lot.
What is the impact of NIL on smaller schools?
Adam: I want to talk about that size thing about how this will affect the huge power institutions versus how it will affect mid-major schools like us, like Central Michigan University. We're a division one school, but we're not like we're not a big 10 school and then even go down the train a little bit. How does a division two or division three school affect it differently than your larger institutions?
Tangela: I think, ultimately there remains to be seen, but I mean we're seeing it now even with how the transfer portal works. So, you'll have a student that will recruit from high school, and they'll come here, we'll train 'em up, they'll do well, then they'll transfer to a more prominent institution because they can offer some NIL funding that maybe we don't have access to at this time. But at the same token, perhaps we'll get some students from a larger institution that may not work out there that can come here. So, it can give and take from both an NIL and a transfer portal standpoint, but I think it remains to be seen. I listen to different podcasts. I'm reading articles every day, and I'm hearing outrageous numbers. It seems from, oh, it takes 10 million to build a basketball team at this level now. And if that's for a basketball teal, we can only imagine what it will take for a football team.
And so I think what it means for different levels remains to be seen. But even you look at the recent college football playoff agreement, which, again, will fully play a part in name, image, and likeness and how we navigate pieces. But your Big 10 and SEC schoolsare are getting a much bigger payout than your ACC and Big 12 schools. To answer your question or not answer, answer your question, it remains to be seen. But the things that a significant 10 or SEC school can offer from a name, image and likeness standpoint doesn't compare. And again, we don't have that answer yet, but like I said, I've been reading different articles and listening to other podcasts. I actually just was at an event out in Arizona and talking to people who are at Power Four institutions about some of the things that they're navigating, and again, hearing these million dollar answers for how much it takes to build a roster. And so again, this a non-answer answer to your question, but it impacts us a lot differently. And again, on the recruiting trail, it's just the difference of how you have to compete and try to convince the young people that this is the education they want. This is where you'll have a well-rounded experience. This is where you'll be able to compete.
And have aspirations for the next level. You'll get reps. So there's still value in that. I know sometimes it's looked at as people want to go and play at the more prominent schools, but I've worked at more prominent schools and I have schools, I have student athletes who've transferred to smaller institutions, and they've liked that experience a lot better because they've had an opportunity to compete. And they're still valuing that within all of this. And so there are different implications for more prominent schools because there's a lot more money flowing through those institutions that we won't be able to compete with and haven't competed with. But it remains to be seen if we'll still. So we'll still compete with those schools. We'll still play a few games against them to start the season, and I think that'll still happen. But as far as an all-out war from an NIL standpoint, that won't happen in a proper form.
Adam: Yeah, I, and I agree with you, at least from my reading of it, it feels like a, there are too many unanswered questions to know, but also to some extent, mid-major college athletic programs and division two and three athletic college programs, they're still already, money becomes another factor in some of the things that make them different from programs that are just massive brands. When you talk about the University of Michigan or Alabama, I'll name it; it's not going to hurt anything here. Those are huge brands. You might not know one whole player, the players in the National or National Honor, University of Mithosen or f ,or those national championships in Alabama. Still, you probably recognize the logo when you see it. And there's just a lot of, most schools don't have that benefit, and it feels like they already have a lot more money. So this is just kind of another little step.
Tangela: They just renegotiated right there, media rights, and the numbers range from an additional 30 million. I mean, so again, we're already in a different ballpark, and those are public numbers. That's not a number I have from a secret meeting or anything.
Adam: Tell us about your secret meeting.
Tangela: Yeah, no, so I mean, we're already in a different ballpark, so it is going to stay that way. But I think the key is understanding where you are, who you are, and what brand your institution is. What is your brand within intercollegiate athletics? How do you sell the experience to the student-athletes? And again, I'll go back to it: student-athletes still care about their athletic and competitive experience. They still care about the coaches around them. And again, we do know coaches and administrators move. I've talked about, oh, I've worked at this place, I've worked at that place. Our coaches can do that as well, but student-athletes still care. So, while we will have some that will transfer and take advantage of NIL opportunities, we will still have some that will come in because of the experience. So, there will be some give and take. We have to figure out how we adato and make it work for uin my conversations with our coaches, that's what I'm hearing because they're actively on the road. Thankfully, I'm not on the road recruiting. But my role and my position is to help our coaches do what they need to do out on the road and help get the resources that they need. And so, I'm asking, well, what is happening? What are our students asking? And they do have some. Do you have a collective? Do you have what we need? So, will we have the same thing as Michigan, or, from your point of view, will we do everything we can to compete and be the best leader in the MAC? That's what we're going to work to do.
Adam: And I imagine for, again, folks in positions like yours, there's probably getting some of these lawsuits settled and seeing some of these state laws, it feels like we want, I imagine that you all would like to see schools operating at least a level playing field, not necessarily financially, because as we just discussed, there's going to be different amounts of money, but that we don't have different rules in Connecticut and in Texas than we have here in Michigan, because that's happening a little bit right now too. So, we are waiting for a lot of dust to settle. It's not the way at the base level schools can interface with this, which is affected by these challenges at different levels.
Tangela: And then it gets tricky, right? Everybody can't do the same thing because that's how we got into this place in the first place: antitrust. And so, you have to be careful so we can work together as a conference, but then now every conference can't do the same thing, or we're back where we started, where the lawsuits start coming again. And so, I think we'll be in a unique space until we find the sweet spot. And we want to be in another field because we'll continue to compete against each other. Again, I'm always a fan, and we compete on the field. We're not competing from the aspect of preparing students-astudent-athletesand do life. I think that's where we are all on the united front. We want our student athletes to go out and be great contributors but trying to figure out how do we make this makes sense and how do we still preserve some form of amateurism, which I know some people, they laugh. They say, oh, what do you mean amateurism? Because of the money that's being generated from TV. And again, they see that it's hard to yell amateurism when you see some of the buyouts that some coaches have for years after they work at an institution or some of the pay you see in some spaces. And that's not the takeaway from the hard work that those folks have done.
To get there. But again, that's how we got to where we are. And so I think once we figure out how to make thistle inferences, we figure out how to work? I.. ththat'lthink that'll bet place and preserve the student-athlete experience. I'll keep going back to that because, again, that's the core of why I work in college athletics: trying to figure out how we can help you use this opportunity to go out and do life. We don't want to be a college athlete to be the highlight of life.
We want this to be a great spot in life and a great snapshot, but we don't want this to be the pinnacle.
Adam: It feels weird saying it now, just given all the discussion and all the money that constantly gets talked about. But I'm with you. I think it's essential for these young people to come in here and know that this can send them down many different roads. To your point, there's a lot of life after 22. There's a lot of life after 22.
Tangela: Which I mean, they think 30 is old. And...
Adam: So, oh, stop. Stop it, stop it.
Tangela: Hey, the jokes on you. So there we are.
Adam: This has been interesting. I'm so glad you can come and clarify this subject. I don't know if I have. We navigated through the fogginess because you said there's just just happening from so many different directions. I feel like I understand it a little bit better now, and I appreciate your perspective.
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