College Sports and the Evolution of Name, Image and Likeness

Four and a half years after its inception, the stakes for collegiate name, image and likeness (NIL) are higher than ever.    

Dr. Tim DerdengerAfter years of debate and litigation, on July 1, 2021, student-athletes became able to accept monetary compensation for use of their NIL. The initial focus was on deals being made by high profile individuals, but since its inception, how student-athletes receive NIL money has transformed. From individual endorsements to collectives (alumni of an institution coming together to form a company with the goal of providing NIL opportunities to student-athletes) to massive deals coming through institutions, NIL now takes many shapes and forms.

“Within four years we’ve gone from the Wild West to a very organized market,” says Dr. Thilo Kunkel, professor in the School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality at Temple University, who began researching issues around NIL before its implementation. “We’ve gone from what I call commercial NIL to collective NIL to now institutional NIL. We’re now in that third phase where we see those direct compensations from the institutions. Most of that institutional NIL goes to athletes in revenue generating sports. That’s means football and men’s basketball.”  

Impact on recruitment

Columbia University women’s player Blau Tor from last year’s Hoop Culture.College football is the most closely watched sport in terms of revenue and huge amounts of NIL money. There are 136 institutions currently playing in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), which is comprised of 10 conferences and two independent schools. This includes the Power Four (officially known as the autonomous conferences), which have considerable latitude and independent decision-making power, and the six non-autonomous conferences, which follow NCAA regulations.

Football athletes are rated on a five-star scale, with a five-star recruit being the most highly sought-after. Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business and the Jindal School of Management at the University of Texas at Dallas found that NIL is making college football fairer and more exciting, which disputes the “rich get richer narrative” that has prevailed since the inception of NIL. Dr. Tim Derdenger and Dr. Ivan Li assert that talent is now spread out more evenly because with NIL, lower profile schools have a better chance of attracting talent if the institution offers greater financial opportunities.

Derdenger, associate professor of marketing and strategy at the Tepper School of Business, says they examined high school recruits, not transfers. Data sources included the NCAA Sports Sponsorship and Participation Rates database, 247 Sports and other recruiting services and the College Football Data API. The data runs from 2018 to 2024.