No angst about college athletes cashing in at 1st NIL summit
ATLANTA (AP) » Almost a year into the NIL era in college sports, there has been much angst about boosterfunded collectives, milliondollar quarterback recruits and the need for federal legislation to regulate how athletes monetize their fame. Nick vs. Jimbo, in fact, has been the story of the spring.
At the College Football Hall of Fame this week, the inaugural NIL Summit included none of that.
“Everybody has their own experience in NIL,” said Leah Clapper, a University of Florida gymnast and entrepreneur. “A lot of the things that are in the news are those big stories of these huge deals or collectives swooping up players from universities and all of these crazy things that are happening — and in my experience, that’s not what’s happening.”
The summit is actually an example of the disjointed nature of this new world where college athletes can be compensated for use of their names, images and likenesses. Unlike the Southeastern Conference meetings in Florida two weeks ago, no one was stressing about NIL at the summit.
“I feel that if I were to give a message to like any adults or people who kind of maybe didn’t have NIL (when they were in school), it would be be just see what these younger athletes are doing,” Florida linebacker Derek Wingo said. “See the impact that they’re making.
This is our future.”
Hundreds of athletes attended the summit, many with representatives from their schools. They heard from companies such as INFLCR, the main sponsor for the event, Meta and Wasserman on how to build brands, find reliable representation and manage finances. Paul Levesque, known to wrestling fans as Triple H, gave a presentation. So did Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow.
“Obviously, most of the media coverage is lately on the pay-for-play type deals,” said Mit Winter, a sports attorney from Kansas City. “So I think it is good to have an event like this to really celebrate the people that are doing what people thought NIL was going to be.”
Missing from the threeday event was anyone from the NCAA and representatives from the major conferences. The number of athletic directors from more than 350 Division I schools in attendance could be counted on one hand.
“It’s a little bit head scratching that everyone is saying that NIL is the number one issue in college sports right now, but they’re not sending people to the place where they can learn how to navigate it all,” said Jason Belzer, whose company, Student-Athlete NIL, is managing collectives at Penn State and Rutgers.
Belzer said about 400 athletes attended the event, some on their own such as Rachel Glenn, a high jumper from South Carolina. Glenn is part of the the WWE’s second NIL class.