Earlier in the year, a huge change came for college athletes as the National Collegiate Athletic Association announced that players would be allowed to profit from their name, image, and likeness – something that up until now has been quite restricted with some big stars deciding to even step away from college sport in favor of other avenues. As college sports viewership continues to grow outside of the US too including into other markets as punters take advantage of betting promo codes available in Canada and other countries, the rules around NIL rights and how it may impact players could be much further reaching too.
(Image from sportico.com)
Players who represent Division I schools have already seen huge benefits from this, modern social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok have been great ways to market themselves with women’s basketball players and twins Haley and Hanna Cavinder having used these platforms successfully to land some big deals. In other sports like football, players like Bryce Young had already earned over $1 million in endorsement deals by late July and had shown just how important this change was for up-and-coming players.
Not all players have been so fortunate, however, whilst the NCAA have implemented these changes as a guideline to follow, not all states are signed on to the changes and whilst there have been suggestions that this could be pushed through country wide with some more uniformity to the rules, there are still many athletes that aren’t eligible to take advantage of these changing NIL rights – whilst the changes are certainly beneficial to many players and will prepare them for a pro career in the long run, not all can yet take advantage of the change.
One of the more influential names speaking about the change has been the YouTuber Donald De Le Haye, often better known by his YouTube handle of “Deestroying” – De Le Haye first saw time in the news after giving up his football scholarship to pursue a career on YouTube after being told to stop creating videos whilst being a student athlete – four years later he has empowered student athletes to take full advantage of the new NIL rights to ensure they’re able to earn a living during their college athlete careers and either set them up to move on in to different careers after, or teach valuable lessons about the contracts and endorsements that may be signed early on in their professional career outside of college. There are still changes to be made, but it’s a great opportunity for players to explore where possible, and certainly something that will see further change in the future.