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While college basketball teams continue to dance their way in to the Sweet 16 and beyond, the ongoing name, image, and likeness (NIL) evolution continues to change rapidly in the background.
Over the last few months, there have been landmark rulings both in Tennessee and by North Carolina's governor that institute big changes in a lawless NIL landscape. Those rulings have gone in the favor of college athletes looking to capitalize while they can. NIL deals have proven to be a shifting space with minimal rules since its inception in 2021.
Since then - things haven’t become any clearer.
"The NCAA did not properly prepare for this coming, even though they should probably have seen the signs that it was coming," Eric Galko, Director of Optimum Sports Consulting, told WCNC Charlotte anchor Colin Mayfield.
Athletes are still signing and making money off of their name, image, and likeness. But, in early March a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit brought by attorneys general in Tennessee and Virginia.
The suit challenged NCAA rules against recruiting inducements given by what are called collectives. As a result, the NCAA halted investigations and rules surrounding collectives. Collectives are booster backed third parties that make deals with college athletes through NIL.
Days later, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper rescinded all state rules to equal the playing field for athletes inside the state.
"There is lots of discussion around schools bringing NIL in-house and having more control over what it looks like, but there are other conversations about athletes as potential employees too. It's changing fast," said Luke Fedlam, an NIL law expert with the Porter Wright Law Firm in Columbus, Ohio.
Fedlam said NIL deals have created a quasi-free agency space with players seeking the best deal for them. That includes collectives that make recruiting and retention a whole different ball game.
With the NCAA unable to enforce its own rules and no federal mandate, this opens the door for movements like unionization, which happened recently for Dartmouth's men's basketball team. Experts believe that could be a slippery slope as the money pie would only be split so many ways.
This is why collectives are stepping in, without NCAA oversight, to sweeten the deals at universities. Collectives have led to deals like quarterback Jaxson Dart at Ole Miss signing a private jet deal worth over $1 million, or Bronny James whose deals are worth more than $6 million.
But under this system with collectives in control, lesser-known athletes in sports that aren’t as popular or don’t get televised could be in trouble. Galko gave an example.
"It's the guys in the mid-tier or lower level getting $20,000 or $30,000 from a collective to be their third offensive tackle and he doesn't put the money aside," Galko said. "He than ends up in trouble because he's doing things to dig himself out of the debt and not worrying about school or football."
Without federal oversight likely in the near future, Galko also shared that there could be more college conference realignments to make the playing field fairer moneywise. But without any rules, NIL deals will continue to change as rapidly as it has since the beginning.
Contact Colin Mayfield at cmayfield@wcnc.com or follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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