NIL Newsletter #9 | Monday, August 9, 2021
Welcome to the NIL Newsletter by Optimum Sports Consulting - providing valuable, actionable NIL resources for athletes, administrators, agencies and other sport professionals.
Welcome to the NIL Newsletter by Optimum Sports Consulting.
Through this newsletter and our additional legal and advisory resources, we aim valuable, actionable NIL resources for athletes, administrators, agencies and other sport professionals.
Every Monday (at 8:30am ET) and Thursday (at 8:30am ET), we will catch you up to speed with the latest news surrounding Name/Image/Likeness (NIL) in college athletics- directly to your email inbox. This newsletter is currently FREE.
Follow us @OptimumSportsConsulting on Instagram and @OptimumSportsC on Twitter for daily content, and see past Optimum Sports Consulting Newsletters here.
Major News
Indiana Athletics Unveils First-Of-Its-Kind NIL Directory
The IU Athletics NIL Directory provides information on how to contact all of Indiana University's student-athletes who are interested in NIL opportunities in a single location. The sport-by-sport, alphabetical directory includes direct links to the social media accounts for all participating student-athletes, thus offering an easy way to contact Hoosier student-athletes to discuss potential NIL opportunities.
IU Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Scott Dolson: “I'm confident that this will help both our student-athletes as well as these third-parties in expediting their NIL efforts and maximizing the opportunities on both sides.”
IU recommends that brands contact potential partnering SAs via social media or through their Opendorse links. The school has also set up an NIL email address for questions, and encourages brands to check out their institutional NIL policy prior to reaching out.
First NIL Car Deal with LSU’s Myles Brennan Exposes Risk for Brands Following Freak Injury
LSU’s Myles Brennan, a candidate to be the Tigers’ starting QB in 2021, injured his non-throwing arm in a fishing accident this past week. After a successful surgery, Brennan’s father Owen believes that Myles might be able to return by the middle of fall. “When they saw what they were able to do and how much they were able to secure the bone with plates and screws and knowing his healing process, they would not be surprised if he was ready to go before that.”
As Kristi Dosh notes in her piece for the Business of College Sports: “Hollingsworth Richards Ford, an auto dealership in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, leased a new Ford F-250 to the favorite candidate for starting QB at LSU this season. Because NIL deals cannot be premised on performance, Brennan’s injury–and an unknown number of games he’ll miss this season–will not (and in fact, can not) change due to his change in circumstances on the field.”
Ahead of his deal with Ford, Brennan already signed deals with Smoothie King and Small Sliders.
Outkick’s TK Sanders argues that this will deter some national brands from approaching athletes for NIL opportunities. “[K]ids haven’t yet earned the ability to sway audiences in an impactful way. College is their proving grounds, a place for the cream to rise to the top, at which point consumers recognize their uniqueness and therefore make subconscious decisions based on their influence.”
What’s Coming Next on NIL
August 28, 2021 | Week 1 of NCAA FBS Football
September 1, 2021 | Connecticut’s state NIL policy goes into effect
November, 2021 | NCAA Board of Governors to hold constitutional convention
Legal Updates
Conduct Detrimental discussed the In re NIL Litigation lawsuit and what the eventual timeline will be the student athletes and the NCAA
Conduct Detrimental’s John Sigety- “House, Prince, and Oliver (the Plaintiffs) challenged the NCAA’s prohibition against student athletes receiving compensation for their NIL, arguing that the prohibition violates antitrust laws because it constitutes a conspiracy to fix the amount student athletes may be paid for licensing and selling their NIL at $0, and because it prevents student athletes from accessing the market for the licensing and/or sale of their NIL.”
The NCAA has 21 days to answer the Amended Complaint, a deadline that falls on August 16, 2021. This will be the first in-court opportunity the NCAA has to take a position on the Supreme Court’s Alston decision and how it affects their amateurism model.
“What Every Student-Athlete Needs to Know: Six Key Issues for Name, Image, and Likeness Deals”
Jaron Bentley and Mary Cebula, writing for JD Supra, broke down some of the biggest issues student athletes and their NIL management teams should discuss before agreeing to deals. One of the most important scenarios? What happens in a deal if one party has a scandal and the other wants so sever the relationship? “These are considerations beyond the immediate monetary value that both parties to a deal must keep in mind when signing a contract.”
FOR ATHLETES
Examples of Success Last Week
ND Insider spotlighted Notre Dame safety Kyle Hamilton’s various projects through the first month of NIL, including YOKE gaming, Rhoback, a custom logo and clothing store, and his own podcast under the umbrella of IHeartMedia and Colin Cowherd’s The Volume.
Oklahoma State’s Bryce Thompson will be driving off in a new Ford Mustang after partnering with Bill Knight Ford in Tulsa, OK.
On top of USOPC prize money, additional awards for student athletes from national bodies like USA Wrestling and USA Swimming will be allowed under NCAA rules. The greater impact? With added spotlight and social following, Steve Berkowitz reports that these Olympic champs will set up nicely for NIL opportunities.
Tip of the Week: As school starts and practice begins, do not forget about your mental health
Simone Biles made international headlines during this year’s Tokyo Olympics for withdrawing from multiple events- citing her strained mental health. Over the past decade, players from different sports and leagues have driven a public discussion of mental health, and the struggles some of the world’s best athletes face every single day. At the collegiate level, student athletes face many challenges- balancing schoolwork, constantly being in the spotlight, and trying to focus on their short and long term goals. With NIL providing another area of interest (and responsibility), it is imperative that student athletes prioritize themselves. Front Office Sports reported on Sunday that UCF, like other leading schools, is seeking a mental health therapist to join their athletics departments. Small institutional steps like this can have a monumental impact for athletics programs. NIL is a complicated subject, and student athletes will make the best decisions when they listen to their bodies and utilize mental health resources.
FOR COLLEGE ADMINS
Notes for the Week
The Athletic’s Eamonn Brennan believes that men’s basketball recruits will be more likely to come to college due to the passage of NIL legislation combined with several players from G League Unite being drafted later than many projected. Acknowledging the small sample size of just one season, he still says: “Kids of this level should have a chance to make decent money in college now. Maybe not millions, but enough to feel like the decades of college basketball’s developmental pipeline benefits (such as they are) come with a bit of financial incentive, too.”
Kentucky Football HC Mark Stoops: “For me personally, I'm concerned about the way it affects our team… Many of our players feel like they just want to concentrate on football. The great ones will do that because they know they have an ability to do something special, have an opportunity to play at the next level, and that's really where they want their concentration to be. [...] I don't see any of our players overly consumed with going out and trying to do this NIL thing. I see them concentrating on football, and I hope it stays that way."
Tip of the Week: Indiana’s NIL Directory should be the direction more schools move in to support their student athletes.
IU’s big splash in the NIL world this week should serve as a beacon for athletics departments around the country. A simple, easy-to-read table that has contact information for every athlete (sorted by sport) will make it significantly easier for brands to find their ideal partner student athlete. Furthermore, an NIL-specific email address should help their compliance department organize questions relating to partnership deals, and will save brands the time from having to look up department members in the staff directory. Every school wants to see their SAs get the most out of NIL, and IU’s latest NIL efforts show that they are putting their resources where their mouth is.
FOR AGENCIES
Takeaways and Successes Last Week
Accelerate Sports Ventures announced the first members of its Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) faculty. The Accelerate faculty will teach brand building, marketing, entrepreneurship, business structure, social media, and financial literacy to athletes. Amanda Scarborough (ESPN Analyst, Entrepreneur), Rachel Balkovec (Hitting Instructor; New York Yankees), Devon Kennard (Linebacker; Arizona Cardinals) and Justin Simmons (Safety; Denver Broncos) headline the inaugural group of 9 faculty.
Sports Attorney Darren Heitner broke down NIL representation for NCAA FBS athletes. Rosenhaus Sports (17 clients) and First Round Management (now 14) lead the way in the space.
This week it was announced that Barstool Sports was sending out free merchandise to thousands of its Barstool Athletes. Under the NCAA’s Interim NIL Policy, that would be in violation because there isn’t a “quid pro quo” between the athletes and Barstool. However, as reported by Optimum Sports Consulting in previous newsletters, Barstool and founder Dave Portnoy have repeatedly said they are an AGENCY not a BRAND. The NCAA has not clarified if a quid pro quo is specifically necessary for agent-student athlete relationships (I.e. student athletes aren’t explicitly required to announce they signed an NIL agency). Does a SA who signs with agency X and wears a free t-shirt with X’s logo on it violate pay for play? This is the latest example of gray areas in NIL policy.
Tip of the Week: NIL marketing deals are risky, and brands are starting to realize that.
As seen with LSU QB candidate Myles Brennan this past week, brands are starting to take notice of the enormous risk investing in college athletes is (especially ones that are competing for starting jobs). While local companies might still choose to make deals because of the high upside of working with the hometown star, national brands might not see it the same way. Perceptive NIL agents should be aware of this when drafting partnership agreements- considering questions like: what will happen if the player is seriously injured during the length of the deal? What occurs if they lose their starting job? Can either party sever the agreement if there is a public scandal or other optics issue? Representatives can no longer just slap a force majeure clause at the end of an agreement- serious thought needs to take place between student athletes and partnering brands.