Close to one-third (31%) of adults said the NCAA is moving in a positive direction, while 23% said the opposite and 46% had no opinion.
Meanwhile, about half (49%) of NCAA sports fans said the college sports system is on the right track, while about a quarter (26%) said it is headed in the wrong direction and 25% had no opinion. These figures are essentially tied with results from an August 2021 survey.
NIL’s collective growing pains and successes
In October, the NCAA attempted to clarify how athletic departments can get involved in NIL activity and interact with collectives. The new guidance sparked more questions and ambiguity, some said.
Executives interviewed characterized NIL as two separate conversations: the traditional advertising and marketing value for a student-athlete, and then their NIL roster value, similar to recruiting inducements or pay-for-play.
“What this has morphed into is, for 95% of kids, this is bona fide NIL,” said Tom McMillen, president and chief executive of the LEAD1 Association, which represents athletic directors from the 131 members of the Football Bowl Subdivision. “But it’s the 5% — the very top — who are making money that’s probably not connected to name, image and likeness.”
The prospect of NIL money influencing an 18-year-old’s four-year academic commitment has clouded college football’s early signing period each of the past two seasons. University of Florida football four-star recruit Jaden Rashada requested a release from his national letter of intent last week after a four-year, $13 million NIL agreement that he reportedly signed with the school’s Gator Collective fell apart due to insufficient funding.
College athletic departments and NIL administrators walk a tightrope, balancing the NCAA’s policy with state legislation and their school-specific rules. Those three things are not always in line.
According to data provided by INFLCR, there are more than 200 collectives — independent entities that pool funds from boosters, donors and fans to facilitate NIL deals, and, in theory, make what’s sometimes a complicated process more manageable for student-athletes. Most of the deals aren’t huge — Belzer said the average student-athlete’s NIL value doesn’t surpass the five-figure mark — though there is still money to be made.
The University of South Carolina’s women’s basketball players agreed to individual NIL deals worth $25,000 each for the current season through the Garnet Trust and sports marketing firm NOCAP Sports. The Volunteer Club has distributed over $4.5 million to University of Tennessee student-athletes.
Student Athlete NIL is on pace to generate $30 million in deal revenue across its collective portfolio in 2023, Belzer said. The agency signed the University of Oklahoma football team as independent contractors to the Crimson and Cream Collective, which offers a marketing guarantee in exchange for fulfilling specific deal components with local companies. In December, the group raised $1.6 million through a 30-day campaign to support University of Oklahoma athletes in 2023.
Some experts interviewed, including Marc Spiegel, founder of the Louisville, Ky., collective 502 Circle, questioned the future of NIL collectives as schools await further clarity on their involvement with the donor-backed groups.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if, in two or three years, collectives are no longer around, and they are absorbed within athletic departments or some variation,” Spiegel said.
Bridget Perine, director of name, image and likeness at the University of Memphis, agreed. “Could we help student-athletes understand and negotiate their deals? Could we help them fulfill their contracts?” Perine said. “I could maybe see collectives and those resources coming in-house, and becoming a one-stop shop.”
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