Stories We Tell

Before 2021, college athletes could not use their name, image or likeness — commonly referred to in sports circles as NIL — to endorse products, for example, and remain eligible to play college sports under NCAA rules. 

By Jayden Willis

Amid new guidelines from the NCAA Division I Council, N.C. A&T started a collective to help guide student-athletes on how to make money using their name, image and likeness.

The collective — Pride of A&T — is independent from the university and has been active since March. It is made up of organizations outside of N.C. A&T that want to help the student-athletes on campus. 

The collective will allow multiple businesses and organizations to connect with athletes and the school much more easily. Student-athletes can now receive revenue through scholarships and, through the collective, the use of their name, image or likeness, commonly referred to in sports circles as NIL.

Before 2021, college athletes could not use NIL to endorse products, for example, and remain eligible to play college sports under NCAA rules. 

“You hope your student-athletes surround themselves with people who have their best interests in mind,” Associate Athletic Director Brian Holloway said. “You also hope they make wise decisions about their name, image, and likeness.”

Opening up NIL to college students means they can now make money signing autographs, appearing in national advertising campaigns, selling memorabilia, making public appearances and promoting items on social media.

The biggest takeaway from the formation of the Pride of A&T collective is that athletes now have a group of people they can rely on when it comes to NIL. That being said, the collective is optional and student-athletes do not have to receive help from it.

However, NIL is not without its risks.

“A number of student-athletes made mistakes,” Athletic Director Earl Hilton said. “They signed contracts that exploited them and took advantage of them.”

Student-athletes have been subjected to various forms of exploitation, from companies asking students to sign away their intellectual-property rights to companies charging high commissions, Bloomberg Law reported last summer.

Before the collective and the guidelines from the Division I Council regarding NIL, student-athletes were at the mercy of a lot of people.

While still relatively new, what NIL looks like continues to change. There’s no national standard, so each state comes up with its own rules.

Neighboring Virginia passed a law this spring that will allow schools to pay student-athletes directly for use of their NIL. This new legislation gives Virginia a huge advantage when it comes to recruiting in all sports and could represent the new norm when it comes to NIL. 

This could add another problem that the NCAA has to deal with since allowing student-athletes to profit off of their name, image or likeness.

While problems have come with the introduction of NIL to college athletics, it has accomplished its main goal — to let student-athletes get paid for what they bring to their universities.

“All of the partnerships I have … have come from people believing in me to promote their brand in the best light,” said Jordyn Dorsey, an HBCU All-American and point guard for the N.C. A&T women’s basketball team.

Jayden Willis is a North Carolina A&T senior multimedia journalism student from Greenville, North Carolina