College athletes began the process of making money legally last year for the first time through their name, image, and likeness (NIL). Of course, many took advantage, with some players earning deals exceeding $1 million in total.
As the college landscape continues to change in regards to sports, this area is becoming more important than ever. Not only are NILs contributing to changes but so too are conferences selling player data to tech companies and of course, the legalization of sports betting.
However, Kentucky sports betting is not yet available even though over 60% of voters support it. HB 606 died in the Senate this year after the bill passed the House.
Last month, Adidas announced that it is creating a new network to help broaden the number of young athletes who can capitalize on NIL deals. This program is part of its “Impossible Is Nothing” movement and intends to get funding for a wide range of student-athletes.
At the same time, NCAA president Mark Emmert is looking into involving Congress to assist in forming one set of NIL rules in the US. Since the current format recognizes individual state laws, NIL guidelines vary all over the country.
Let’s take a more detailed look at how Adidas is impacting NIL moving forward and how the NCAA plans to organize these expansions.
Adidas NIL initiative
While the addition of NIL last summer was a massive step for college players finally getting some rightful pay, it wasn’t enough. Sure, lots of marquee names playing in the most popular sports saw some progress, however, it didn’t range too far beyond that.
According to reports, football players are receiving more than 51% of the total compensation provided by NIL agreements. Currently, the next sport on the list is women’s basketball, with almost 18% of the profits.
This discrepancy was even worse about six months ago. With football in the middle of the season, it represented over 60% of the figure. This compared to women’s volleyball in second with around 10% at the time.
To offset some of this lopsided distribution, Adidas is getting a lot more athletes involved. Its latest program affects more than 50,000 players.
Who’s eligible for the Adidas NIL network?
Adidas’ NIL network is available to all of the 109 programs within Division I that it partners with. Every eligible student from a total of 23 different sports in college’s top tier now has the option to earn money with one of the biggest brands. Adidas is making history as the first to provide paid affiliate brand ambassador roles to athletes in these many areas.
Along with enlarging the pool of recipients for NIL, the company’s “Impossible Is Nothing” also is promoting a positive message. Adidas wants “a more equitable and inclusive future in sports.”
Adidas’ NCAA program lead, Jim Murphy, discussed this latest venture. According to Sports Illustrated, Murphy said:
“We hope to uplift student-athletes by providing educational opportunities to learn more about the NIL and business landscape, which may include bringing them into brand moments and campaigns, partnerships with existing brand athlete partners and ambassadors. But really we want to open the doors to a more equitable future outside of just unlocking monetary rewards. We want to help them grow as student-athletes and set them up for a future beyond college sports.”
The future of NIL in the NCAA
The Adidas network is launching in four separate phases over the next year. It decided to first implement it in all of its schools within the Power 5, as well as those regarded as historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).
Murphy continued:
“As we look at college athletics and see some of the discrepancies within the landscape, we want to make sure we’re elevating our HBCUs and trying to find every moment we can to really elevate in this space and provide them opportunities that, quite frankly, in the past, they might not have been afforded to.”
It’s clear Adidas is making a groundbreaking move here and it seems likely that others will follow suit.
With additional athletes potentially receiving more money going forward, the NCAA’s job just got a little more difficult. As noted, the breakdown of NIL through a variety of state laws causes headaches in terms of creating uniformity.
According to ESPN, president Emmert said:
“It is, unfortunately, a circumstance where we’ve got now 30-plus different states with different laws. We need to work with Congress to create one federal landscape. We’ve had a variety of legal actions in the courts with all of that.”
The current landscape in college sports
Besides throwing payment into the equation, some of the top college sports are in a state of flux. The freedom of players today is unparalleled. Both college football and basketball are transitioning into this period where players aren’t forced to sit out following a transfer.
Recruiting is taking on an entirely different life and coaches are adjusting to the transfer portal on the fly. Naturally, money and NIL deals are included in these attempts to acquire certain available players.
All of these developments bring in the question of where college sports are headed. Emmert elaborated:
“We’re at a place of huge disjuncture around college sports. We’ve got a relatively, in my opinion, short window of time during which the schools, especially in Division I, need to decide what they want the relationship [with] student-athletes and their schools to be, what the governance structure around that can be in the current legal environment, and how the rules and structures at a national level, a divisional level, at a conference level could and should be made.”
Regardless of the NCAA’s future, at least a lot more deserving athletes can cash in on their abilities moving ahead.
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