INDIANAPOLIS — Starting July 1, college athletes can earn money for their name, image, and likeness without losing their athletic eligibility. Governing bodies in all three divisions of the NCAA voted Wednesday in Indianapolis to adopt interim policies allowing current student-athletes in all sports to accept paid endorsements and sponsorships.
“This is an important day for college athletes, since they all are now able to take advantage of name, image and likeness opportunities,” NCAA President Mark Emmert said in a news release. “With the variety of state laws adopted across the country, we will continue to work with Congress to develop a solution that will provide clarity on a national level. The current environment — both legal and legislative — prevents us from providing a more permanent solution and the level of detail student-athletes deserve.”
The NCAA made the change to avoid recruiting advantages across the country. Several states already passed laws taking effect July 1 that allowed college athletes to sign name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals. Indiana is not one of those states.
"It's the next evolution,” said Purdue University Athletic Director Mike Bobinski. “It's change that probably needed to come to the college athletic world. It became, I believe, indefensible to justify why student-athletes could not take advantage of these opportunities."
None of the potential new money is paid by the schools to the student athletes. The NCAA's new policy allows the student-athletes to pursue personal endorsement deals on their own, independent of the colleges for which they compete.
The policy provides the following guidance to college athletes, recruits, their families, and member schools:
Individuals can engage in NIL activities that are consistent with the law of the state where the school is located. Colleges and universities may be a resource for state law questions.
College athletes who attend a school in a state without an NIL law can engage in this type of activity without violating NCAA rules related to name, image, and likeness.
Individuals can use a professional services provider for NIL activities.
Student-athletes should report NIL activities consistent with state law or school and conference requirements to their school.
This marks a major change to amateurism in college athletics.
"This has been a model that Olympic athletes have been operating under for some years, and I don't think any of us look at the Olympians in any different light just because they've been able to have endorsement or sponsorship opportunities available to them away from their Olympic competition,” said Bobinski. “That's really very similar to what we're talking about here."
Indiana University football coach Tom Allen said the new policy only increases the responsibility of his players to protect their personal brand and marketability.
"Life's about choices,” said Allen in a video posted on his Twitter account earlier this week. “So, we're trying to help them make great choices. And then when you make great choices, and they do learn to handle themselves in the right way, they have a platform and they have a means to be able to show the world who they are. And that allows them to have a voice, as we've said. It allows them to have an impact."
And allows them to make money while playing college sports.
As an example, a college athlete can now be paid for endorsing products on social media, or for their name on a sports camp. But they cannot appear in their college uniforms or identify their school in sponsorship opportunities.
IU and Purdue have both hired consulting firms to help them sort out the new policy.