College athletes are able to profit off their name, image, and likeness or NIL - changing the game. The NCAA made this change in July 2021 leaving it up to states and schools to decide how to govern the change. In November 2022, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed new legislation governing collegiate NIL in New York.
Hochul's legislation allows collegiate athletes to profit off their NIL. Dave Meluni, a Syracuse University professor who teaches a name, image and likeness course within the Sports Management Program, said that legislation allows athletes to have representation with an agent licensed in the state.
“The other thing is that Division One athletic programs basically have to offer students now assistance, you know, in different sort of capacities, which would be mental health, could be financial literacy, so on and so forth,” Meluni said.
But the state of NIL throughout the country is still a little murky. The NCAA made the initial change in July 2021 but with no federal legislation or specific NCAA NIL rules leads to different schools and states can have varying policies.
“We had legislation in October of last year regarding high school athletes' name, image, likeness in New York state before we did [college],” Meluni said.
But despite some changing legislation, Meluni said he’s been happy with how athletes have embraced their NIL - especially female athletes.
“They understand what the brands are looking for," Meluni said. "I'm not saying male athletes don't, but they're more engaged with it. They're more humanizing than a male athlete who just may post me on the football field, me in the weight room. Here where we're starting to see that personality and that's what brands are looking for.”
And those deals aren’t always national. Meluni said oftentimes deals start in local markets and build out regionally. Other times athletes can capitalize on their NIL through camps, lessons or video shoutouts.
But regardless of how student-athletes choose to cash in on their name, image and likeness, Meluni said ultimately he hopes athletes know their value and sign deals on topics they are passionate about - not just for the money.
