How SU is Adapting to New NIL Rules | News Live at 6
By Max Williams
Last year the NCAA paved the way for college athletes to earn money through name image and likeness deals, also referred to as N-I-L. Since then, colleges have struggled with the policy claiming it was confusing. This has prompted the NCAA to recently change it.
The NCAA changed its policy in October last year; now, they are adding more. Effective last month, the NCAA added these four guidelines: an institutional staff member can not guarantee a nil deal to a student or their family prior to enrollment, an institutional representative can not announce or enter into a NIL agreement with a prospect, a nil deal can not require a prospect to be in the local, and collective can not be involved in recruiting activities prior to a student’s enrollment.
Recently, many have raised concerns over this new policy, saying that the NCAA is doing this as a threat to schools that they are abusing the nil policy. However, Syracuse University believes they have found a solution to the NCAA’s controversial and confusing policy. It first starts with the recruiting process,
“All sports and all of our coaches are looking for an athlete. I don’t see a scenario, and Deion Sanders said it great a couple weeks ago. If a kid says to me I need seventy grand without learning about Colorado or Syracuse or what academic programs are available, that kid is not gonna fit the system,“ said Dave Muluni, an Assistant Teaching Professor for the Falk College at Syracuse University and a NIL expert.
Once students are recruited into the Syracuse sports system, Syracuse has taken a unique approach in that they are using nil deals as means of education for student-athletes,
“The great part about this is, we’re taking a student who is also an athlete, and we’re teaching them indirectly entrepreneurial skills. Everybody can use entrepreneurial skills in any capacity you want . You can dive into NIL in whatever form you want,“ said Muluni.
Educating student-athletes and teaching them the entrepreneurial skills and benefits from it is what Muluni said he is most excited about. College students are confused by the NIL process and often jump into it too quickly, making mistakes. Syracuse’s approach of keeping education as a grassroot for their student-athletes and delaying the process of experimenting with NIL deals will allow students to flourish in what many have said is a fast growing industry.
