Author Biography

Tate Gatherum is a freshman at Utah State University. Throughout high school, Tate played basketball and competed in track and field. He loves everything and anything related to being outdoors. Tate is a Sports Management major here at USU and would one day love to be a collegiate basketball coach.

This essay was composed in November 2023 and uses MLA documentation.

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“Psychologists who study the impact of wealth and inequality on human behavior have found that money can powerfully influence our thoughts and actions in ways that we’re often not aware of, no matter our economic circumstances” (Gregoire). Money always has been and always will be a major factor in decision-making. Does a 14-year-old teenager like mowing the lawn? No. Will the likelihood of them doing it increase if their parents offer them 20 dollars to do it? Most likely yes. So why would the promise of more possible money at one university than another not sway an 18-year-old potential college athlete trying to decide what school to attend?

June 30, 2021 will go down as a pivotal date in the history of college athletics. From that day on, collegiate athletes have been able to profit off of their name, image, and likeness, or NIL. Over the past two years, we have seen how NIL is changing college sports. College athletes are now appearing in commercials, signing endorsements with major companies, and some are making millions. Before NIL, recruiting was about convincing the athlete that a coach could help them be successful and that they could win with the university’s team. Now, it is about how well a coach can help them be successful, and how much they can put in their bank account.

Sure, the old way makes some sense, too. Student-athletes compete for glory and for a chance to hear their names called by the big leagues. That introduces a level of raw passion–poetry, for many–to college athletics that professional leagues cannot duplicate. Regardless where one stands on that debate, however, the truth is out. NIL compensation is happening. Student-athletes will now derive at least some profit from their names while playing college sports. (Knobbe)

NIL has introduced a completely new variable in what teams have to consider when trying to convince recruits to come and play for them. To land the nation’s top recruits, you will now have to appeal to every aspect of recruiting. But how does this change things? For one, it gives schools that are not traditionally so dominant the possibility to snag a major recruit with the promise of NIL implications.

Deion “Prime Time” Sanders is one of the biggest names in the history of the sport of football. After years as a high school football coach, coaching his sons, Sanders decided to make the leap to the collegiate level and took the head coaching position at Jackson State University. After just one season, Sanders landed the nation’s top recruit in Travis Hunter, something almost unimaginable for any FCS school. Hunter originally committed to Florida State, a historically great football university(Lyons). So why Jackson State? Coach Sanders brings the eyes of the world to his program. The more exposure and publicity, the more people know who Travis Hunter is, which means the more he profits off of his name, image, and likeness. One of the first examples of how potential money lured a top recruit to an unlikely school.

However, Coach Sanders’s recruitment reign and headlines do not stop at Jackson State. Sanders decided to make the next leap up the chain to the FBS, signing on as Colorado University’s new head football coach. Within the first couple weeks of Sanders being there, the lighthouse that is Coach Sanders started drawing in recruits from all over the nation. Travis Hunter and highly-rated quarterback Shedeur Sanders, Deion’s son, made the move with him to Colorado. Multiple others also declared they would be joining Sanders soon.

The Buffs signed two five-star recruits (high school signee Cormani McClain and transfer Travis Hunter) for the 2023 class. Colorado has only signed two five-star recruits in the modern era before 2023 (one five-star signee in 2000 and another in 2008). Colorado signed seven four-star recruits matching the previous high set in 2002. Combined, the Buffs signed nine four-star and five-star recruits which is the most ever for Colorado. (Schwanitz).

Since 2011, Colorado has only had one winning season (more wins than losses). The year prior to Coach Sanders’s arrival, the Buffaloes were an embarrassing 1-11. Why are all of these super-talented recruits choosing Colorado, a university that has recently not seen any success, over universities like Alabama, Clemson, LSU, etc., that have brought multiple championships in recent years? Sanders brings lots of things to Colorado: his experience, wisdom, passion, and everything else players want from a top-tier coach. But he also brings the possibility of millions of NIL dollars for his players, a fact that is going to catch any 18-year-old’s attention.

“NIL money, that’s a real part of college football now,” said former Colorado Buff and NFL player Tyler Polumbus. “I never thought that Colorado would be able to live in that world and compete in that world, but with Deion Sanders, it becomes a whole new land of opportunity” (Polumbus qtd. in Gionet). In just his first year at Colorado, we have seen just how much his players have benefited. Star talents Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders have brought in a collective amount of over 6 million dollars this season alone. An amount most players on NFL rosters are not bringing in.

What does this all mean? Why does this matter? This means that moving forward, we will see money being used extensively as a recruitment strategy. This could potentially create a competitive advantage for teams who can offer the most money. Over time, those schools could become the “recruiting powerhouses” because they have the most enticing offers. However, this could also level the playing field in college athletics. By making it possible for not-as-popular universities to potentially play a role in recruiting big-name athletes. If NIL was not established, Colorado fans could only ever dream about landing multiple 5-star recruits. But now that is a reality. And not just for Colorado. For any college that has the monetary stability to catch the attention of these top-ranked recruits. “Colorado has generated so much interest, and this (turnaround) never could have happened without the combination of NIL and transfer portal, so that’s exciting. Now there’s hope for a lot of schools, whether it’s this year or in the future, and that’s cool. That’s fun. That’s great for college football” (McCartney qtd. in Mandel).

Moving from the turf to the hardwood, you cannot talk about NIL without talking about the queens of NIL: Haley and Hanna Cavinder. The Cavinder twins were the first female athletes to sign an NIL deal and have never looked back. “The duo is nearing $2 million in NIL deals, according to Forbes, and more is undoubtedly on the way. They are at $1.7 million annually. Their overall NIL ranks are 32nd and 33rd in the nation, and they’re first and second in the women’s rankings” (Tidwell).

The twins started their collegiate career at Fresno State University as a dangerous backcourt duo. During the Covid-19 pandemic, their TikTok and social media accounts took off, and they gained a massive following from fans all over the nation. “Not only do they have their own personal Instagram pages — Hanna with 581,000 followers and Haley with 589,000 followers —  they also share a joint account where they promote their brand. It has 162,000 followers. They’re also on TikTok, where their joint account has 4.5 million followers and 136.7 million likes” (Tidwell). Hanna and Haley were some of the first college athletes to gain a serious social media following. They found what worked and never looked back, and are still growing their following day by day.

Following their junior season at Fresno State, the twins announced they would be transferring to the University of Miami, a big change for multiple reasons. For one, the Hurricanes are in the ACC(Atlantic Coast Conference) which is a much bigger conference and market than the Mountain West, where the twins were coming from. It is a pretty simple recipe for these two: the more exposure, the higher the likelihood of more social media followers, and more money in their pockets. Going to a historically successful and well-known university will do just that for the twins. “Miami averaged 1,378 fans at home games this past season” (Associated Press).

We may never really know how big of an influence NIL played in Haley and Hanna’s decision to switch schools. Maybe they went because they felt they could flourish as guards for the Hurricanes. Maybe Miami’s coach gave one of the best recruitment presentations ever, and they just could not say no. However, we cannot say that NIL did not play a role in their recruitment process because they were the first athletes to receive a violation for breaking NCAA recruitment laws.

The news story broke in late February of this year, towards the end of the Cavinder’s first season for Miami. It was brought to light that prior to announcing their commitment to Miami, the twin sisters, along with their parents, had dinner with John Ruiz, a Miami University booster. Meeting with boosters prior to signing at a university is not allowed by the NCAA during the recruitment process of athletes. “That dinner, which took place at Ruiz’s home, broke the rules because boosters are not authorized to have in-person, off-campus contact with prospects. Boosters are also not allowed to pay for prospects’ meals” (Gonzalez).

This was the first concrete example in the NIL era where recruits were known to be talking about NIL deals and implications prior to signing on at a university. Has it happened elsewhere? Most likely, yes. Are the Cavinder twins going to be the last ones to receive this punishment? Probably not. But this raised awareness of just how powerful NIL could really be to the whole sports world. If talking about possible NIL earnings and possibilities at a dinner on a recruitment visit can lure one of the nation’s best backcourts to their school, then the possibilities of tactics for other schools to land top commits are endless.

Something else that is happening in college athletics is that NIL is not only attracting these athletes to attend a certain university, but it might also entice them to stay longer depending on profitability. “With greater opportunities to earn money, top recruits, who in previous years may have pursued a professional athletic career out of high school or before depleting their collegiate eligibility, might give greater consideration to a full collegiate career”(Andrews). Caitlin Clark is a prime example of this. Clark is one of the best, if not the best, female basketball players in the game right now. After a fantastic junior season, leading the Iowa Hawkeyes to be runner-up in the National Championship, Clark had a massive decision to make. Take her talents to the next level and enter the WNBA draft, or return for her senior year at Iowa. Clark ultimately decided to return to Iowa to try to bring back a championship for Hawkeye Nation once again. However, something that cannot be ignored in the decision-making process is the financial implications.

The average WNBA rookie salary for a player drafted within the top four picks is around 72,000 a year(Suggs). Clark was predicted to be drafted either first or second in the 2023 draft. Information from on3.com, the site that tracks NIL deals and valuations for all college athletes and sports, has Caitlin Clark’s NIL valuation sitting around 765,000 dollars(Women’s basketball). With over 700,000 Instagram followers, Clark gets more and more popular by the day. Playing an additional year at Iowa does give Clark another chance to chase that elusive National Championship, but it also gives her more money than a WNBA rookie contract ever would. Recruitment efforts are not just about getting athletes to come to your university; it is also about getting them to stay.

However, there is a law that prohibits traditional recruitment. If the NCAA allowed athletes to profit off themselves and did not add rules and regulations to it, there would be chaos. There are laws and guidelines in place for athletes to follow when it comes to NIL. When athletes can meet with potential endorsers or boosters, when they can sign certain deals, etc. That would seem to make things fair in recruitment. If NIL is not allowed to be discussed in the recruitment process or play a vital role in luring athletes from other schools, we would be back to square one of recruitment, making it seem like a good place to play a respective sport. However, as recently seen with the Cavinder twins, not every rule is always followed. Nor will they ever be. And not every state’s NIL laws are the same. Which makes a huge difference.

When NIL came about, the NCAA struggled to create a national law to regulate NIL. They eventually decided to leave it up to each individual state legislature to make the rules about what was allowed or not allowed in their state. The NCAA is still trying to find a national solution to rule and regulate NIL, but nothing seems to be on the near horizon. Peter Schoenthal is the CEO of Athliance and consults with schools about NIL deals. When asked about NIL laws when they were fairly new, he said, “Whenever you have new legislation, whether it’s name, image, and likeness, the criminal world, the civil law world, you always start off with a vague statute,” he said. “Then the statute starts to play out. People look to take advantage of the statute and look for loopholes. Then you realize how you need to further define and narrow the scope of the statute”(Schoenthal qtd in Smith). Schoenthal believes that it will take anywhere from  3-4 years for the NCAA to iron out all the issues and loopholes that could come along with NIL (Smith).

Until the day comes when the NCAA has everything it needs to make a national law that works for everyone, the individual NIL state laws will play a major role in the recruitment process. While most of the 50 states’ laws and regulations are similar, there are some significant differences. Some of those differences might just sway an athlete one way or another. “Illinois, Mississippi and Texas — for example, are among the few states where an athlete could be punished for signing endorsement deals during the time period between when he or she signs a scholarship agreement and the time of enrollment. Huma says those differences are worth considering” (Murphy).

Money implications are definitely something being considered as a student-athlete choosing where you are going to spend the next few years of your life. If you can attend a university where you can succeed, and at the same time make more money than you could at a school two states to the north, it could be a very persuasive argument. At the end of the day, there are a couple of things that could happen because of these individual state laws. One is that within the next couple of years, we will see that universities in states with more lenient and “athlete beneficial” laws will receive more advanced and talented recruiting classes. If there is a significant difference in recruitment, states will begin changing their laws to keep up with their competition. “Without any imminent national laws arriving to even the playing field, it’s possible that states could start to push to revise their legislation to make sure it’s not holding back their schools in recruiting races”(Murphy). Either way, NIL is changing the way recruitment is being done, even at the legislative level.

Where does this leave us? Is there a solution to make sure that recruiting is done fairly and that NIL does not change the way recruitment has been done for hundreds of years? Not in the foreseeable future, there is none. College athletics are now more popular than they have ever been. Being able to see collegiate athletes in commercials and billboards, and being able to buy their jerseys online are all things that make collegiate athletes more well-known than they ever have been before. All because of NIL, and these athlete’s ability to make money.

Steven Ashworth was a Utah State guard who transferred to Creighton University this past year to finish out his collegiate basketball career. When asked about being recruited by other schools and NIL, he said, “Schools will come with the NIL pocket first and then try to pitch, ‘Hey, we also have some good things going with our basketball program” (Ashworth qtd. in Preece). That sums it up pretty well. NIL is here, and it will not go away anytime soon. Projections show that in the coming years, it will most likely just get bigger and bigger. Schools and recruiters are going to have to accept and learn to use it in their efforts, or they will be left behind. Because as we know, money talks.

Works Cited

Andrews, Katlyn. “Addressing Nil Recruiting Issues at the Collegiate Level.” Baker Tilly, 12 Sept. 2021, www.bakertilly.com/insights/addressing-nil-recruiting-issues. Accessed 13 Nov. 2023.

Associated Press. “Cavinder Twins Haley and Hanna Transferring from Fresno State to Miami Women’s Basketball Program.” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/33781373/cavinder-twins-haley-hanna-transferring-fresno-state-miami-women-basketball-program. Accessed 13 Nov. 2023.

“College Womens-Basketball NIL Rankings.” On3. https://www.on3.com/nil/rankings/player/college/womens-basketball/. Accessed 12 Nov. 2023.

Gionet, Alan. “Welcome Something Else to Colorado along with Coach Deion Sanders: Nil Money.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 6 Dec. 2022, www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/deion-sanders-nil-money-colorado-buffaloes-college-football/. Accessed 13 Nov. 2023.

Gonzalez, Isabel. “NCAA Hands down First Known Nil Ruling in Miami Women’s Basketball Cavinder Twins Infraction Case.” CBSSports.Com, 24 Feb. 2023, www.cbssports.com/womens-college-basketball/news/ncaa-hands-down-first-known-nil-ruling-in-miami-womens-basketball-cavinder-twins-infraction-case/. Accessed 12 Nov. 2023.

Gregoire, Carolyn. “How Money Changes the Way You Think and Feel.” Greater Good, 8 Feb. 2018, greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_money_changes_the_way_you_think_and_feel. Accessed 13 Nov. 2023.

Knobbe, Travis. “Impact of Nil Compensation on Recruiting.” Last Word on College Football, 19 Feb. 2020, lastwordonsports.com/collegefootball/2020/02/18/impact-of-nil-compensation-on-recruiting/. Accessed 13 Nov. 2023.

Lyons, Dan. No. 1 Recruit Travis Hunter Officially Commits to Deion Sanders …, 15 Dec. 2021, www.si.com/college/2021/12/15/travis-hunter-commits-jackson-state-video-announcement-deion-sanders. Accessed 20 Nov. 2023.

Mandel, Stewart. “Mandel: Instead of Ruining College Football, Nil and the Transfer Portal Are Why It’s Booming.” The Athletic, 13 Oct. 2023, theathletic.com/4958639/2023/10/13/college-football-nil-transfer-portal-booming/. Accessed 13 Nov. 2023.

Murphy, Dan. “Nil Laws Add New Variable to Recruiting Decisions.” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/32445468/nil-laws-add-new-variable-recruiting-decisions. Accessed 21 Oct. 2023.

Preece, Brian. “Steven Ashworth Sheds Light on Nil, Transfer Portal.” KSL Sports, 27 Apr. 2023, kslsports.com/500889/steven-ashworth-joins-hans-and-scotty/. Accessed 13 Nov. 2023.

Schwanitz, Jake. “A Complete Breakdown of Coach Prime and Colorado’s 2023 Recruiting Class.” DNVR, 7 Feb. 2023, thednvr.com/a-complete-breakdown-of-coach-prime-and-colorados-2023-recruiting-class/. Accessed 13 Nov. 2023.

Smith, Michael. “Nil vs. Recruitment: As Deals Explode, NCAA Board, Others Call for More Enforcement of Long-Established Rules.” Sports Business Journal, 16 May 2022, www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2022/05/16/Upfront/Colleges.aspx?hl=NIL%2Bvs%2BRecruitment&sc=0&publicationSource=search. Accessed 13 Nov. 2023.

Suggs, David. “WNBA Salaries: How Much Money Do WNBA Players, Rookies Make in 2022?” Sporting News, 12 Apr. 2022, www.sportingnews.com/us/wnba/news/wnba-salaries-players-rookies-2022/vh258kpsm7xbnuj4cghmigfl#:~:text=The%20base%20salary%20for%20WNBA%20rookies%20varies%20on,second%20round%20picks%20will%20receive%20%2463%2C389%20in%202022. Accessed 13 Nov. 2023.