NIL stands for Name, Image, and Likeness. In the context of college sports, it refers to the ability of college athletes to market themselves to receive compensation for his or her brand. 

 

Maven Sports Group has a group of professionals who are dedicated to working with Athletes who want to monetize their fame and create mutually beneficial partnerships with businesses.

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Are players going to make money?

Yes. Finally. 

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Are they going to be paid by the schools? 

No. Nothing’s changed in that respect. This is about an athlete’s ability to market herself/himself, outside of the university. A school still can’t give an athlete a “signing bonus” or anything like that to persuade them to attend their school. These new rules/laws don’t allow schools to pay athletes.

From the NCAA’s interim NIL policy: “While opening NIL activities to student-athletes, the policy leaves in place the commitment to avoid pay-for-play and improper inducements tied to choosing to attend a particular school. Those prohibitions would remain in effect.”

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How are players going to be paid?

Lots of ways, and by lots of people, honestly. Keeping track is going to be a giant mess, at least for the first year or two as everyone adjusts to the new — and long overdue — normal. Basically, if any person wants to pay an athlete to endorse and/or represent them, that’s now legal. Any sort of advertisement is legal. Any sort of personal appearance — for example, signing autographs for $20 each at a car dealership, with the athlete keeping a sizable cut of the cash, or a star player making a paid appearance at a nightclub — is suddenly above-board. 

The basic guiding principle is this: Everything an athlete makes has to fit under the umbrella of “fair market value,” which is admittedly a bit vague.

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