Title IX, Gender Wage Gap, and the Emergence of Agencies
Name, Image, Likeness Insider is a blog for brands, agencies, and sports properties. It covers the latest NIL developments and explains what matters.
NAME, IMAGE, LIKENESS BRAND DEALS OF NOTE
Artwork by artist Marlene “Motion Mami” Marmolejos
Last week - June 23rd to be exact - marked the 50th anniversary of Title IX. There were several NIL deals and developments in celebration of the landmark, including:
Bumble
The dating site Bumble (where “women are required to make the first move”) launched a campaign called “50for50” in honor of Title IX’s 50th anniversary. The brand has signed 50 female athletes to one-year agreements in which each will receive compensation in exchange for social media, personal appearances, and other activities. Their impressive roster of student-athletes can be viewed here.
Sprouts
Grocery chain Sprouts Farmers Market announced 50 NIL deals with female student-athletes from the Big 12 and Pac-12 Conferences. (The brand recently entered into partnerships with both conferences.) It’s believed that the deals include cash compensation, store gift cards, and product. Among the 50 are USC beach volleyball stars Audrey and Nicole Nourse, who posted on their instagram*.
Division Street
University of Oregon collective Division Street is launching a series of NFT’s to benefit women student-athletes at Oregon. The collection is called “Visions of Flight” and is designed by Lili Tae in collaboration with Oregon women athletes in 12 sports. Visions of Flight NFT’s will be “blind minted” and the NFT will be unknown to the buyer until deposited into their wallet. 75% of the initial revenue goes to the participating athletes. Royalties from future sale on the secondary market will benefit Oregon student-athletes.
*Reminder about NIL brand activation: A big mistake that brands and agencies are making, particularly in these multi-athlete deals, is providing copy to student-athletes to post on their social media - and then requiring/allowing them to post it exactly as provided. Remember, what a brand is paying for is the authenticity that a student-athlete has with her fans and followers. Having a group of sponsored student-athletes post the exact same, corporate sounding copy is inauthentic and antithetical to the brand/athlete partnership. Brands, agencies, and sports properties: provide your student-athletes the key messages and then let them post in their own unique voice!
NAME, IMAGE, LIKENESS GOVERNANCE
Collectives and Miami
Sports Illustrated and other news outlets have reported that the NCAA is inquiring about the activities at the University of Miami. They have met with Miami booster John Ruiz. Ruiz has done 100+ NIL deals on behalf of his various companies, including an $800,000 deal with Kansas State basketball transfer Nijel Pack. At the core of the inquiry is whether these deals were an inducement to enroll at Miami. As a reminder, the NCAA forbids recruiting inducements. So for example, in the case of Pack, was the NIL deal offered by Ruiz before he committed to Miami? If so, many fair-minded people would deduce that the $800,000 was an inducement. If the NCAA believes that to be the case, the penalty could include fining the University of Miami and forcing the institution to disassociate from Ruiz.
What this means for brands and agencies: Of all the parts that make up the NIL ecosystem in this its first year, none is more volatile than collectives and the activities of the boosters behind them. Right now, collectives are acting as both fundraising arms and the distributors of that cash to student-athletes. Student-Athletes don’t work on behalf of collectives. Rather, collectives need brands to partner with so that student-athletes can receive compensation in exchange for a valid NIL activities. In light of the negative attention and until the guidelines and state laws are settled with regard to them, I advise brands and agencies to steer clear of collectives for now.
WOMEN STUDENT-ATHLETES AND NAME, IMAGE, AND LIKENESS
A question that I get almost daily is, “Is NIL good for women student-athletes?” The unsatisfying answer is - sort of, but maybe not as good as you think or hope.
Women student-athletes are getting over 40% of NIL deals and women’s sports make up 5 of the top 10 NIL income earning sports. So if those were the only data points, you’d probably say, while imperfect, NIL is has been ok or good for female athletes.
But here’s the thing. There is a giant data point missing that rarely enters into the conversation and here it is:
When you look beyond the raw number of deals and into the actual compensation by gender, NIL has not been good for women. In fact, the gender pay gap or gender wage gap ( the “average difference between the compensation for men and women who are working”) is striking. Right now, the average deal size for DI men is about $650 average. For DI women, the average deal size is about $170.
By comparison, the pay gap for U.S. workers ages 18-23 is about 2%.
What this means for brands, agencies, and sports properties: As exciting as it is to see the growth of women athlete deals (and many women-only deals), I urge brands and agencies to research the fair market value as it correlates to the WHOLE NIL ecosystem. In other words, a brand needs to take into account how much ALL student-athletes (including males and including football players) are being paid for a specific activity - and using that data to determine the compensation it will offer. Choosing a compensation rate based on gender and sport will only exacerbate the problem.
NIL AND MEDIA/MARKETING AGENCIES
USC has partnered with the media agency Stay Doubted to provide NIL services to its student-athletes. Stay Doubted will operate under the name BLVD. USC student-athletes can opt-in to non-exclusive NIL representation (student-athletes can work with other professional service providers too.) While USC has hired BLVD, it will not receive revenue from student-athlete NIL activities. You can read the details from USC here.
What this means for brands and agencies: This seems like the first step in what may become the norm. As the NIL arms race escalates, the hiring of a third party, NIL agency could have been predicted. USC’s Pac 12 and other Power Five rivals will likely respond in a similar manner. So brands and agencies can expect to do more deals in the future with the athletic department’s agency instead of with student-athletes directly.
I consults with brands , agencies, and properties on Name, Image, and Likeness and teach NIL in College Sports at the University of Vermont’s Grossman School of Business. My NIL services include consulting, training workshops, newsletter-style monthly updates, content development, on-demand courses, and more.
I’m a SportsBusiness Journal Forty Under 40 Award winner and former co-founder of the marketing agency Fuse, which I operated for 20 years before selling in 2019.