UNC’s Cunningham Pens Letter to Student-Athletes Regarding NIL Compensation

In a letter to UNC student-athletes and coaches, athletic director Bubba Cunningham reiterated his commitment to ensuring that student-athletes should benefit off of their name, image and likeness (NIL) in a system that would support all players.

“As we move forward, I want to make sure that my intentions are clear: I absolutely believe that our student-athletes should have the right to benefit from their name, image and likeness,” Cunningham wrote. “However, we also must ensure that NIL legislation does not negatively impact student-athletes’ opportunities to participate. I do not want any university to have to cut scholarships or sports programs as an unintended consequence of NIL activities.”

In his letter, Cunningham outlined how only football and men’s basketball are sports at UNC which generate more revenue than they spend. Money made from those sports is then shared among the other 26 varsity programs.

He then argued that permitting NIL activities will divert funds — primarily from sponsorship agreements and scholarship donations — needed to support Olympic Sport programs.

“Rather than create legislation which would just benefit a select few of the most high profile student-athletes,” Cunningham wrote, “I believe we should pursue options which would benefit a larger percentage of student-athletes.”

Earlier this month, Cunningham prepared a memo outlining concerns from more than a dozen national associations in various sports about the effects of athletes profiting off of their NIL. The concerns included reduced resources for lower-profile programs, the risk of “crowdfunded recruiting” for boosters to “buy talent” for a competitive advantage, increased influence by agents and whether schools can effectively monitor for compliance.

The memo was sent to a to a law committee examining whether to craft a standardized athlete-compensation law for states to adopt.

Cunningham said the university will continue its partnership with INFLCR, a software which allows teams to deliver content to student-athletes.

“We will continue to invest in INFLCR and other software that allows student-athletes to share content on social media, and we will further invest in educating our student-athletes on how to better build their personal brands,” he wrote. “We also will continue to highlight individual student-athletes on our department’s communication channels.”

Last week, Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill that would allow college athletes to benefit off of their NIL beginning in the summer of 2021. Florida became the third state in the nation to pass an NIL law targeting current NCAA rules that restrict college athlete compensation, joining California and Colorado.

A similar bill has been introduced to the North Carolina Senate, co-sponsored by senators Wiley Nickel and Paul A. Lowe.

“The old system where athletes had to play for the ‘love of the game’ while the NCAA/Universities reap huge profits off their hard work is quickly ending,” Nickel said. “It’s critical that NC stay ahead of the curve to make sure our college athletics programs remain the best in the country.”

Read Cunningham’s entire letter to UNC student-athletes here.

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