Name, Image & Likeness (NIL) Current Issues Forum - NILPublic.com - was created to cultivate a space where fans, policymakers, administrators, agents and legal professionals could come together to review aggregation of latest news, legal and policy developments in the NIL space. In the future, a channel to share and inform their opinions, and connect with each other with the aspiration to raise the level of awareness of trends, legal challenges and potentially inform the development of a more equitable and transparent NIL model. We also endeavor to disclose the major funding sources for the evolution of college sports or, as some might state it, the devolution of college sports into a pre-professional league. There is an acknowledged bias on the part of the editors to promote the collegiate element of college sports and to promote more transparency in respect, particularly, of state-sponsored institutions, of the funding sources and subsidies that are happening behind a veil of secrecy under the auspices of FIRPTA concerns or 'privacy' generally. The counterpoint to this posture is that these public figures, whether or not employees of the institutions, should be every bit as public in their compensation as professors, administrators and others who are paid using the states' coffers.
One other point. NILPublic recognizes the current imbalance in the negotiating power of the athlete versus the institution in respect to the relative value that each furnishes to the other. The highest profile brands in college athletics are STILL providing much more value to the athlete in nearly all cases than the athlete is bringing to the brand. Through contractual leverage and a hundred plus years of brand equity, built upon immense state resources (for public institutions) making a consistent brand that imparts at least as much value to the athlete's name, image & likeness as the flash-in-the-pan star athlete brings to the institution. Importantly, these institutions (and in some cases the conferences with which they are affiliated) procure a television audience, afford an arena, arrange for high caliber opponents and, dare we say it, offer an educational experience that far outweighs the relative contribution of even the most attractive young, star athletes. Our view is that, by-and-large, these schools, the prized institutions of the state in which they sit, are not using these aspects to extract commensurate value from the athletes and are (whether directly or indirectly) offering unnecessary subsidy that is drawing upon the public commonweal, increasing ticket prices, foregoing tax revenues (in some states) and generally capitulating to unreasonable demands while garnering a highly unstable product from year-to-year.
NILPublic promotes more stability in the arrangement and makes the case that contractual terms and the loyal fan base need to be abided more deference than the whim of a 19 year-old athlete perpetually chasing a bigger, better deal. Increasingly, tension (and opportunity) between NIL compensation and the transfer portal are making a mess of the college sports landscape and valued brand "ambassadors" have become the antithesis, pure free agents.