KEY POINTS

  • NCAA allows student-athletes to profit off of their name, image, and likeness
  • The Supreme Court voted unanimously against the NCAA’s previous NIL policies
  • Student-athletes now have legal revenue streams to earn during their college careers

The NCAA has finally allowed college athletes to profit off their names, images and likenesses starting Thursday as per Stadium and The Athletic’s Shams Charania.

According to the NCAA’s own statement regarding the new ruling, the announcement stated that “governance bodies in all three divisions today adopted a uniform interim policy suspending NCAA name, image and likeness rules for all incoming and current student-athletes in all sports.”

The statement released by the NCAA also provides guidelines for the new policy changes which can be seen below:

  • Individuals can engage in name, image, likeness (NIL) activities that are consistent with the law of the state where the school is located. Colleges and universities may be a resource for state law questions.
  • Colleges who attend a school in a state without an NIL law can engage in this type of activity without violating NCAA rules related to name, image and likeness.
  • Individuals can use a professional services provider for NIL activities.
  • Student-athletes should report NIL activities consistent with state law or school and conference requirements to their school.

A long-anticipated move that many past college athletes--now pros--have lobbied for, student-athletes now have an opportunity to earn money that they rightfully earned due to their level of play.

As of this writing, there are 20 states that have passed NIL legislation, seven of which are to be in effect by Thursday.

About a week ago, the Supreme Court was unanimously against the NCAA’s current policies as the association “cannot limit education-related benefits for student-athletes.”

The fact of the matter is this: not all NCAA athletes have an opportunity to play their sport at a professional level.

Many get injured before they debut and get their careers derailed before it takes off. Some prefer to live the non-athlete lifestyle, while others elect to focus on their degree rather than playing their sport after college.

These athletes stand to benefit the most from the rule change as they can make the most of their time in college, making money from playing a sport that they’ve dedicated much of their life to.

Should they change direction or feel like their time is up, at least they are able to earn from it before they call it quits.

That’s sometimes how the life of a student-athlete goes, and the new ruling comes at a perfect time.

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