So, what’s in a name? That all depends on what your name is and your social media following. Prior to the NIL, ruling college athletes, were prohibited from receiving any form of payment outside of scholarships this included sponsorships and other stipends. What’s changed is that now athletes can engage in endorsement deals, product, promotion, social media sponsorships, and pursue other forms of entrepreneurship leveraging their names as publicity. What was once under-the-table money has now gone over the top. 
Athletes Are Empowered
The change has been transformational for athletes, especially those participating in high revenue-generating sports like basketball and football, to earn substantial income. This is life-changing, considering the fact not every college athlete is destined to make it to the next level of their sport.
Consider this—the highest paid college athletes like football player Shadeur Sanders, and gymnast Livvy Dunne are each making upwards of five million dollars through their current sponsorships.
Impact on Education
To this day, the remnants still exist of an age-old, discriminatory, argument centered around the notion that college athletes who perform for their institutions and in most cases, are provided with tuition-free degrees in exchange, should be thankful for the opportunity. While the NCAA boasts a 91% graduation rate for its athletes, a large number of students participating its most lucrative sports were never destined for college nor were they prepared for the demands of higher education prior to their arrivals. Additionally, there are widespread reports and personal accounts of athletes were effectively ‘passed’ through college with the help of tutors, complicit professors, and bogus coursework. The results are a group of young adults, with meaningless degrees, unable to thrive in the world beyond college. Hence, providing these athletes with the ability to earn real money, and quite possibly, learn a thing or two about business and financial literacy while in college can be viewed as a good thing.
Impact on Athletic Programs
Universities have been forced to drastically alter their approaches to recruiting in order to land the best talent with the largest and most successful programs being the early beneficiaries. Because of the branding and advertising opportunities that exist as a result of NIL, it’s proving true that institutions in the largest media markets have an early advantage in the race for talent. Programs will also need to navigate the effect on team dynamic created by discrepancies in player popularity and their earnings as a result.
Upcoming Changes
In the current state of things, players have been left with a lot of power and also vulnerability to outside interests. Eventual changes to the NIL framework are likely to come in the form of national guidelines for individual institutions and states to follow. Until then, NIL has brought the Wild West with it, and while colleges and universities adapt to what is a rapidly changing landscape, one thing is for certain the days of universities, being the sole financial beneficiaries of their athletic success are over. Superstar athletes, and rising stars, now have an opportunity to benefit from their popularity, which is a good thing, especially if you consider the fact that the vast majority of college athletes will never go pro.
