Why Student-Athletes Aren't Exercising Their NIL Rights
NIL Participation Remains Surprisingly Low
When Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) rules opened the door for student-athletes to profit from their personal brands, it was supposed to be a seismic shift. Overnight, athletes gained the right to monetize their identity, something that had been denied for decades.
And yet, the percentage of student-athletes participating in NIL remains surprisingly low:
At some NCAA Division I schools, participation is as low as 10%
While others see rates as high as 65% of student-athletes securing at least one NIL deal in a given year
A reasonable estimate for the median participation rate is around 30%
But maybe it’s not so strange. NIL is just one of many rights young people underuse. Voting, healthcare autonomy, financial tools—there’s a long list of rights they either avoid or don’t even realize they have.
NIL isn’t special in that sense; it’s part of a broader pattern. If we understand why young people underuse these other rights, we might also understand what’s holding NIL back from greater student-athlete participation.
Estimated participation rates by 18-23 year olds.
Why Rights Go Unused
It turns out there’s no single reason young people let rights go unused. Sometimes they don’t know they have the right in the first place. Sometimes the processes to use them are confusing or inaccessible. And sometimes, even when everything is clear and simple, young people still don’t feel motivated to act.
NIL participation hits all three of these barriers.
Take voting as an example. Everyone over 18 in the U.S. has the right to vote, but turnout for 18-24-year-olds is famously low. In presidential elections, it’s about 50%, but for midterms or local elections, it plummets to 20-30%. Why? Partly it’s because registering can feel like a hassle. But it’s also because young people often don’t see how their vote will make a difference.
The same goes for NIL. Many student-athletes don’t think NIL opportunities are “for them.”
They hear about million-dollar deals and assume NIL is something only quarterbacks can benefit from. But we know better. Most deals are small—social media posts, local endorsements, even free meals at a favorite restaurant. These smaller opportunities are less flashy but still valuable.
The Role of Awareness
Awareness is the most obvious barrier. You can’t use a right if you don’t fully understand how to use it. This is true for everything from NIL to financial tools like building credit.
For instance, most young people can apply for a credit card at 18, but many don’t. They don’t know how credit works or why it matters. Even when they get a card, they might not use it strategically to build their credit score.
The same lack of education shows up in NIL. Athletes often don’t know where to begin. And we’ve added to the confusion by dumping lesson upon lesson of “NIL Education,” much of which feels irrelevant to (who needs more info on regulations, compliance, and life skills when your main goal is securing your first partnership?)
Access and Complexity
Sometimes the problem isn’t awareness but access. Take healthcare, for example. At 18, young people can make their own medical decisions, but many don’t.
They avoid routine checkups and often ignore mental health resources. Why? Healthcare systems are hard to navigate, and most young people don’t know where to start.
NIL can feel the same way. Even when athletes know about the opportunity, the process of finding deals can seem overwhelming. To many student-athletes, the NIL Marketplaces have felt like an empty promise.
For mid-major programs, where support systems are thinner, just figuring out how to begin can be a major hurdle.
The Perception Problem
But awareness and access aren’t the whole story. Even when young people know about a right and have the tools to use it, they often still ignore it if it doesn’t feel relevant. Voting is a classic example. Many young people think their single vote won’t change anything, so they stay home on Election Day.
NIL suffers from a similar perception problem. Athletes see big-name deals in the news and think, “That’s not for me.” Unfortunately, many AD’s contribute to this narrative (I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had an AD tell me, “We don’t have ‘those’ athletes here.” Ugh 🙄.)
This creates a self-fulfilling cycle: student-athletes don’t pursue NIL because they don’t see themselves as NIL-worthy, which keeps them from gaining the experience they need to land their first opportunity.
This perception problem shows up in other areas too. Only about 6% of student-athletes hire professional help for NIL deals, like agents or lawyers, because most deals are too small to justify the expense. But without professional help, they risk signing bad contracts or missing out on opportunities entirely.
It’s a Catch-22: you need to participate to build momentum, but it’s hard to start without momentum.
UCLA’s second annual Westwood Exchange Live.
What Can Be Done?
If the barriers are awareness, access, and perception, then solving the NIL problem means addressing all three.
First, education. Schools and organizations need to demystify NIL. That means showing athletes how to find opportunities and explaining that NIL isn’t just about million-dollar endorsements. It’s also about personal branding, NIL-centric social media, and learning to market and sell their NIL.
Second, access. As I said previously, NIL Marketplaces can help, but are not likely the sole answer. Athletic Departments have begin to have success hosting NIL “mixers” for local businesses, brands, and donors to meet student-athletes in-person for NIL consideration. Check out this great example at UCLA.
Finally, perception. Athletes need to see NIL as something achievable. That means celebrating small successes, not just headline-grabbing deals. When an athlete gets free gear or earns a few hundred dollars from a social media post, that’s worth highlighting. Success breeds success, and even small wins can change how athletes see their own potential.
The Bigger Picture
Understanding NIL through the lens of other underused rights makes the problem clearer.
The NIL participation challenge is about how young people engage with the world. They avoid voting because they don’t think it matters. They skip routine healthcare because it seems unimportant. They ignore credit cards because they don’t understand them. And they miss NIL opportunities because the system feels too big, too complicated, or just not for them.
But none of these rights are inherently inaccessible. With better education, more streamlined systems, and a shift in perception, more student-athletes can be empowered to use NIL.
About Bill Carter
Bill has advised brands on Name, Image, Likeness for 25 years—first in pro sports, now at the college level. He was the Co-Founder of the Gen Z sports agency Fuse, which he sold in 2019. In 2020, he founded Student-Athlete Insights and consults on NIL strategy with Fortune 500 companies and 30+ DI universities. Read more about Student-Athlete Insights.