NIL Insider: Florida Law, NIL Recruiting, and Being NIL Verified
In this week’s Name, Image Likeness Insider, read about Florida’s repeal of its NIL law, the University of Alabama’s impact on NIL recruiting, and what it means to be “NIL Verified.”
what florida’s repeal of its nil law means
Florida initial NIL law, named the Intercollegiate Athlete Compensation and Rights Act, was passed in 2020. Over the last several days, the Florida House voted 113-0 and then the state senate voted 34-0 in favor of a House Bill 7B to amend that original legislation. Governor DeSantis is said to have signed it soon after.
Most of the attention regarding the amendment will go to the fact that athletic departments - including coaches - will now be permitted to facilitate NIL deals. For example, let’s say a local car dealership contacts the athletic department inquiring about student-athletes who might be interested in a deal, the athletic department is now allowed to communicate that interest to its athletes.
What won’t get the headlines about this new law, but is of more intrigue to me is…
“Market Value” is no longer a consideration when doing an NIL deal
While Collectives had made a mockery of market value already, this really bothers those of us that believe NIL will be more sustainable if athletes and brands are allowed to compete
NIL agents must register with Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation
Barrier to entry here is low: be 18 or older, get fingerprinted, pay a fee, submit an application
“Disclosure” of NIL deals is no longer required
You may be surprised to hear me say about this one, “so what?” A big percentage of deals aren’t being reported anyway (I know this from my survey work) and I’m not sure that disclosing deals was improving behavior
Student-Athletes are now allowed to strike deals with brands in categories in which their institution has an official partner
On paper this feels like a step toward fairness, but in reality few brands are going to do deals with athletes when their competitors have already struck up a bigger, more visible partnership with the institution
Big picture: Many states originally passed laws that proved to be more restrictive than the NCAA’s NIL guidelines. Louisiana, Alabama, and now Florida have now all changed course and we should expect more of the same throughout 2023.
what alabama’s new nil “advantage center” means for recruiting (a sports business journal preview)
Photo from Learfield and Slate I Shepherd
This is a preview of this week’s NIL Corner, my monthly column in Sports Business Journal, which I hope you will check out in it’s entirety this Tuesday (February 21) on SBJ’s website.
I have watched carefully NIL’s impact on recruiting for the last year and have done several surveys of student-athletes on the topic. Still, I thought having another perspective in preparing for this month’s NIL Corner was important. So I had a conversation with Alabama AD Greg Byrne. We discussed the announcement of the University of Alabama’s new Advantage Center - their new NIL hub which will launch this Fall in partnership with Learfield.
The Advantage Center should set Alabama’s recruiting apart - at least until the Tide’s competitors build something similar. The Center will be the hub of education and more. At 1,800 square feet, it will sit next to The Authentic, the first-ever retail team store focused on selling officially licensed team apparel and student-athlete NIL merchandise. The Center will include infrastructure for student-athletes to record podcasts, film in a green room, and meet with brands to discuss marketing opportunities.
Byrne said in our conversation,“We have tried to be slow and steady from an NIL standpoint. We have tried to not have a whole lot of shock and awe.” From my perspective, and the data I’ve collected on NIL’s impact on recruiting, I think that approach has paid off.
Again, be sure to check out the complete NIL Corner in SBJ this Tuesday.
why the NIL VERIFIED NETWORK is so important
In nearly every one of our many conversations in the last year and half, NIL Network’s founder Michelle Meyer and I have discussed (and cringed at) the “exaggerated credentials” that so many would-be NIL providers have proclaimed. Last week, Michelle announced the NIL Verified Network to help everyone in NIL find experienced and legitimate providers.
It’s not often in business that someone is both your competitor and a friend, but Michelle is both to me. And it’s with that bias - or lack of bias - that I believe there is nobody better equipped than Michelle to have launched a membership program to help ensure transparency throughout NIL. She has the experience, smarts, and the heart to help the industry identify companies with student-athletes’ best interests in mind.
Bill Carter is an NIL Consultant, Educator, Speaker, and Columnist for Sports Business Journal. He also teaches NIL in College Sports at the University of Vermont’s Grossman School of Business. Bill’s a SportsBusiness Journal Forty Under 40 Award winner and former co-founder of the athlete & event marketing agency Fuse, which he operated for 20+ years before selling in 2019.