Bryan Boyce

English 12a

Oily Succulents

13 February 2023

Do NIL deals hurt college sports

College athletics have been growing in popularity year after year. It has gotten so

big to the point where coaches of big football teams get paid millions of dollars. Along

with that it has allowed universities to receive donations from clubs and/or organizations

who want to see the school succeed. With all this money coming into the schools the

ones who are on the field working didn’t get any credit. The universities were allowed to

give players scholarships to play, but other than that the players could earn nothing. In

2021 NCAA announced a new set of rules called the NIL rules. NIL stands for Name,

Image, and Likeness. This allowed for these players to earn money off of their

popularity. NIL allowed for players to control their student athlete life along with allowing

them to pursue media as a form of income. These new rules had some backlash from

the public. The main arguments about this are that it takes the amatuer out of college

athletics. Not only that, but people believe that this allows universities with more money

to recruit better athletes out of high-school. Two years later these rules are still being

debated with the same arguments over the same question. Should NIL deals be allowed

in college athletics?

Before I start listing some pros and cons let me explain what NIL is. Name,

Image, and Likeness deals allow for individual players to profit off of their popularity. In

years past college athletes weren’t allowed to earn money off of how well they had been

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playing and/or their impact on the community. For example if a college player was well

loved by a fanbase he couldn’t sell merchandise with his or her name on it. Not only

that, but if the player wanted to use media to earn money off of followers and brand

deals they could be kicked off a team or lose their scholarships. Now that the NIL has

been passed through the NCAA they created a couple rules. The main one being that

each state gets to decide the regulations of NIL deals. If a state has no laws about NIL

deals then the NCAA states that the university gets to decide.

With the addition of NIL into college athletics there are two sides of the argument.

The first being that this is positive for the sport and allows for the player to have more

control and power over the universities. A good representation of this comes from a

political cartoon drawn for the Sports Business Journal.

Tornoe. “Amateur sports are dead” Sports Business Journal, July 13th 2021

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This cartoon is showing how coaches get paid millions of dollars every year to coach,

meanwhile the player can hardly afford a way of living. The coach is shown crying on

top of his pile of money screaming “Amateur sports is dead!” stating one of the

arguments many fans and players are using against NIL. Going along with what I

previously stated about how this gives the player more control is how now that the

player can make more money for not only themselves, but also for the school. This

gives them the power to choose a school through their recruiting process to help benefit

them as much as possible. Not only does this help them control their future in athletics

and academics, but this allows for certain players to pursue goals in the media. These

college athletes can create a following on a form of social media and earn money for

their videos or photos. This is a major change from years prior where if a player wanted

to make videos all their videos had to be demonitised. If a player was found to be

earning money off of their photos or videos they could lose their scholarship or in some

cases be kicked off a team. WIth NIL in place these athletes can continue to be social

influencers and make money while doing so.

Although this gives the player more control it is also looked at as a negative.

Some fans and critics of college sports feel this is ruining how the games are being

played. While giving the player more power to choose this also hurts smaller schools.

The universities with lots of money can offer more for players coming out of highschool.

This doesn’t mean that these universities are recruiting players by paying them, but

instead means that if a player with multiple offers on the table can ask the school what

else they can offer other than a full ride. Schools with a booster club can offer to pay

these players if they sign with us and bribe them to choose their school. They are only

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allowed to do this as long as the money is given to the player after they graduate and

are enrolled in the universities. One other argument many fans have used is that this

removes the title “amatuer” from college sports. Stating that if players get paid to play

the sport becomes professionalized rather than a bunch of kids running around and

playing.

I personally disagree with these arguments. As a college committed athlete I feel

that this benefits the athletics of the school and helps the athlete. People that argue this

hurts the smaller schools are correct, but has opened up better opportunities for funding

towards the universities. Along with this there has been a massive jump in high school

athletes attending colleges to play sports. According to the NCAA the number of

athletes from 2021 to 2022 jumped to over 520,000. They state that this is an all time

high. As far as the claims about this removing the amateur out of college sports, I

believe that happened a while ago. College athletes are adults who are trying to pay for

their education and play a sport that they love. These adults shouldn’t be looked at as

kids who are playing to entertain the crowd and bring money in for the school. This is

something that I feel fans overlook.

Watching college sports is one of America's favorite pastimes. With these new

rules set in place many worry about the future of the NCAA. They worry about how this

affects smaller schools while only benefiting the big ones. Along with that fear that this

will ruin sports by removing the “amatuer” label off of college athletics. On the other side

many feel that this will bring a positive change by allowing the player to decide their

athletic and academic future, along with allowing for athletes to earn money to help pay

for their future. These rules also allow for the player to use social media to help earn

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money through sponsorships or ads on their videos. These points get brought up

throughout the fanbase all debating the question, “Should NIL deals be allowed in

college athletics?”.

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Tornoe. “Amateur sports are dead” Sports Business Journal, July 13th 2021

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/SB-Blogs/Newsletter-College/2021/07/13.aspx

1/30/23

Berkowitz, Steve Usa Today. “NCAA Adopts Temporary Policy on Name, Image and

Likeness in Seismic Shift for College Sports.” USA TODAY, 1 July 2021,

eu.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/2021/06/30/ncaa-adopts-name-image-likeness-

policy/7813970002.

East Coast Dyes Lacrosse. “Everything you need to know about N.I.L.” Youtube, 8/4/2021,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzKJ99Apyfo

https://www.ncaa.org/news/2022/12/5/media-center-ncaa-student-athletes-surpass-520-

000-set-new-record.aspx#:~:text=The%20number%20of%20student

%2Dathletes,Sponsorship%20and%20Participation%20Rates%20Report.