When the NCAA changed its name, image, and likeness policy a few years ago to allow college athletes to profit from their fame, it was intended to allow athletes to sign endorsement deals and cash in on their popularity. But that’s not what it’s become.
As former college football head coach Dan Mullen points out, what started out as an opportunity for student-athletes to cash in on their unique fame has turned into essentially a pay-for-play situation.
“Maybe you didn’t know exactly how it was going to play out, but you knew generally that transfer portal would lead to free agency,” Mullen told Outkick’s Trey Wallace in a recent interview according to On3. “NIL was going to be solely recruiting-based, not based off of – Livvy Dunne has 3 million Instagram followers as a model, and she should be able to make some money as well as being a gymnast. Or Tim Tebow jerseys being sold in the bookstore as this larger-than-life figure while they’re in college. Should they be able to profit a little bit off of that as a one-off compared to everybody?
“Now, it’s the third-string center needs a couple hundred thousand dollars. I think the coaches could see there was going to be an issue with what they were proposing coming down the road.”
Now, it’s changed college football and other sports radically, and it was an issue coaches like Mullen saw coming the whole time.
