Will NIL Collectives Start to Vanish?

Since July 1, 2021, when the NCAA officially allowed student-athletes to sell the rights of their names, images, and likenesses, schools have been instructed to stay out of the NIL process. Between the NCAA telling schools to not get involved and various state-by-state regulations, many college athletic departments were not encouraged or permitted to take part in their student-athlete NIL journey. The emphasis, however, was placed on educating their athletes on NIL and financial literacy.

Now, almost a year later, it is evident that athletic departments have nearly the same ability as collectives that are led by donors, according to Tom McMillen, who is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the LEAD1 Association. If you are not already aware, collectives, which are independent of a university, are groups that can serve a variety of purposes. Most often, they pool funds from boosters and businesses, help facilitate NIL deals for athletes and also create their own ways for athletes to monetize their brands. McMillen stated that, “now, we’re starting to see some schools get more involved. I just wonder whether they are going to go the full route and just get rid of collectives entirely.” Since donor-led collectives are out of a school’s control, we may start to see a clash of interest between athletic departments and these collectives.

Don’t believe that schools are getting more rights to intervene and aid? At first, Tennessee laws prohibited school officials from being involved in NIL deals. Since then, the law has been rewritten to allow the schools to aid its athletes in deals as well as allow the school to be involved with the collectives. This model will likely start to be seen across the board.

If schools do become more involved in the NIL deals of their student-athletes, it is unclear whether or not they will try to eliminate collectives to have full control or work alongside them. It will be interesting to see how an increase in school involvement will impact the seemingly crazy world of NIL, and we will likely see this sooner rather than later.

To learn more about the future of NIL Collectives, check out the CleanKonnect NIL Certification Course.