You’ve seen the three letters: NIL.
You’ve heard the buzz these three letters have caused around college sports, read headlines about universities filing lawsuits against the NCAA on the issue and watched commercials of athletes like LSU gymnast Livvy Dunne tumbling while wearing Vuori joggers or USC quarterback Caleb Williams drinking Dr. Pepper.
But what does NIL — “name, image and likeness” — encompass, and why is the line between what’s within the rules and what isn’t so difficult to discern?
Here’s a breakdown of the acronym that has changed college sports:
What is NIL? How’d we get to this point in college sports?
NIL stands for “name, image and likeness” and has become the universal shorthand for college athletes’ ability to become paid endorsers and monetize their success outside of their school-funded scholarships and benefits. Before July 1, 2021, college athletes were not permitted to receive profits from their name, image and likeness. Since then … a lot has happened.
That summer, in response to pressure from laws passed by state legislatures that permitted varying levels of NIL activity, the NCAA created an interim NIL policy: For schools in states with laws on the books, the state law would guide them; otherwise, schools could set their…
