NCAA Athletes Can Now Make A Profit Off Their NIL: What To Know And Some Early Deals

A historic ruling years in the making will see NCAA athletes allowed to profit from their name, image and likeness.

What Happened: The NCAA adopted a policy on incoming and current student-athletes to begin receiving money from their name, image and likeness (NIL) beginning July 1.

“This is an important day for college athletes since they are all now able to take advantage of name, image and likeness opportunities,” NCAA President Mark Emmert said.

The temporary policy will remain in place until additional NCAA rules or federal legislation is adopted.

Schools React: The University of Illinois' new policy requires athletes to show any contract worth more than $500 to the school prior to signing the deal.

The University of Michigan’s policy requires athletes to file deals with the school seven days before signing them beginning July 16.

One of the more startling policies was from BYU. The school lists many common taboo items like alcohol, gambling and adult entertainment among products not allowed for athletes to promote while also including coffee on the no sponsor list.

Related Link: EA Announces Return Of Long Sought After College Football Video Game 

Athlete Deals: The first reported signed deal was University of Miami quarterback Deriq King, who signed a deal with College Hunks Hauling Junk.

Haley and Hanna Cavinder, twin basketball players at Fresno State signed a deal with Boost Mobile, a unit of DISH Network Corp (NASDAQ:DISH). The duo have millions of followers on Instagram and TikTok.

Petsmart signed a deal with Arkansas wide receiver Trey Knox.

Several athletes were signed to deals with Cameo, including Oklahoma quarterback Spencer Rattler, allowing fans the chance to book them for short video messages.

Barstool Sports, which is partially owned by Penn National Gaming (NASDAQ:PENN), started a new “NCAA marketing firm” according to Dave Portnoy and signed Jacksonville State volleyball player Adelaide Halverson and Stanford football player Zach Buckey to deals.