After years of debate, the NCAA is now allowing student athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness. This means UNC athletes can now partner with businesses around Orange County for promotional activities.
Changes in state law and NCAA regulations now allow student athletes to make money off their name, image and likeness (NIL). Following a Supreme Court ruling, these changes went into effect on July 1.
Last week, the Chamber for a Greater Chapel Hill-Carrboro held a webinar to provide guidance for local businesses on how to navigate the new NCAA ruling.
UNC Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham said while the lasting impact of monetizing college athletics is not yet concrete, this new era is “exciting.”
“The biggest change in the last couple of weeks is we have moved from promotional activity, which we’ve always been able to do — promote the game, promote the student, promote the event,” Cunningham said. “To commercial activity allowed by the student athlete themselves. So, they can align themselves with individual companies.”
As part of the new rules, student athletes can have an agent or representative who finds marketing opportunities. They also can appear in advertisements for commercial products and make personal appearances to promote businesses.
There are, however, restrictions on the ways student athletes are allowed to profit. They cannot be paid for their performance on the field and payment cannot be used to recruit players to the university.
Marielle vanGelder is the UNC Associate Director of Athletics for Compliance. She said compensation for student athletes has to come from work done off the field.
“What we tell our student athletes is the better you play, that will probably enhance the value of your name, image likeness,” vanGelder said. “But it can’t be the sole reason you’re compensated.”
VanGelder said because the regulations around NIL are so new, there are still large grey areas.
For example, student athletes cannot use images or logos of their university in promotional information, but if they show up to an event wearing UNC branded clothing, that’s much harder to monitor.
VanGelder said she believes the current flexibility in the rules is an opportunity.
“Our student athletes get to engage in activities that no student athlete has ever done before,” vanGelder said. “But there are still NCAA rules that will apply in this space, albeit limited.”
One of the concerns about NIL is that there will be an equity issue. Players from higher revenue generating sports like football or men’s basketball would have more deals, or more profitable promotions than other athletes.
Matt Laczkowski is the Director of Athlete and Talent Representation for Tandem Sports and Entertainment. He said it is likely there will be a disparity between sports, but local businesses can combat that by partnering with teams through group licensing agreements.
“If you do something with small groups like that, you’re going to end up impacting these kids in a real positive way,” Laczowski said. “They’re each going to walk away with a couple thousand dollars, and, by the way, if you tie a charitable piece to it, everybody wins.”
Laczkowski said he believes individual athletes will likely be disappointed by the lack of financial opportunities available to them. He said it is true that big name players like Sam Howell or Armando Bacot will win, but other athletes without the name attached can win too through creative brand deals.
Both Cunningham and vanGelder said they would be interested in pursuing a group licensing deal for all UNC student athletes in the future.
“It’s the right thing. It allows all student athletes potentially access to opportunities,” vanGelder said. “We are not quite there yet, but it’s something we would be interested in pursuing.”
NIL regulations will continue to evolve as the Tar Heels hit the field in the fall, but UNC has made it clear: it wants student athletes front and center.
Featured photo via Matthew Fedder/UNC Athletics
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