Nil in College Sports

The NBA Draft's talent pool just shrank to levels not seen in a decade, and it's not a coincidence. This year, only 106 players entered the 2025 NBA Draft. That's the lowest number of early-entrants since 2015. Down from a peak of 363 in 2021, right before NIL became official in college athletics. College basketball is keeping talent like never before. What's driving this? 𝗡𝗜𝗟 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗰𝘀.  • Hundreds of college players now earn over $𝟭 𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻.  • Compare that to two-way NBA contracts at about $600K and non-guaranteed. Players are simply making the smart business decision. Star athletes can build their brand, develop their game, and make more guaranteed money in college. The real winner? College basketball. More talent staying in the NCAA means a better product on the court and more entertainment for the fans. 

Another lesson for scholar-athletes, parents, guardians, and representation. The stay-or-go decision used to be straightforward. Projected to go early, you declared. Not ready, you stayed. NIL and revenue share changed the entire equation. When a high-profile college player can generate more through NIL and revenue share in a single season than a late second-round contract pays in guaranteed money over two years, the calculus is no longer simple. That is not an opinion. That is the market speaking. NIL and revenue share also changed the downside. Staying used to mean putting everything at risk with no financial protection. That floor changed. Athletes who returned and saw their draft stock drop still walked away with real money. A top NFL draft pick confirmed he would have stayed his senior year if NIL existed, not because the money mattered more than the draft, but because the financial pressure that made leaving feel necessary would have been removed. The families who get this right understand the numbers on both sides before the moment arrives. Are you having that conversation early enough? #NIL #RevenueShare #ScholarAthlete #AthleteDevelopment #CollegeFootball #DraftDecision #AthleteEducation #NameImageLikeness #SportsBusiness #OleMiss #SEC

The NIL headlines are lying to most athletes. Not because NIL isn’t real. But because the opportunities you see online are usually built for the top 1%. After talking to middle school, high school, college, and even professional athletes and their families, I’ve realized something: Most athletes don’t actually know what opportunities exist for them. They just know opportunities exist for someone. They see the headlines. The six-figure deals. The national commercials. The athletes signing with major brands. The transfer portal stories. The massive revenue-sharing agreements. And they assume those same opportunities are available to them. But that’s not how it works. Every athlete is different. Every athlete has a different story. A different personality. A different audience. A different level of visibility. A different set of strengths. And because of that, every athlete has a different opportunity landscape. The biggest mistake I see families make is chasing opportunities that were never designed for their athlete in the first place. Instead of asking: “What opportunities are athletes getting?” They should be asking: “What opportunities are available to my athlete?” That’s a completely different conversation. Because for some athletes, the opportunity may be local business partnerships. For others, it may be camps and clinics. For others, it may be content creation. For others, it may be speaking opportunities, merchandise, recruiting visibility, or building a platform that creates opportunities years from now. The athletes who win are not always the most talented. They’re often the ones who understand how to identify, position themselves for, and maximize the opportunities that are uniquely theirs. That’s why we’ve spent so much time helping athletes and families identify: • What opportunities exist today • What opportunities could exist tomorrow • What opportunities are realistic for their current situation • What needs to happen to unlock bigger opportunities in the future The best part is watching the shift happen. You can literally see the relief on their faces. Because clarity is powerful. Most families don’t need more NIL information. They need a roadmap. And in my experience, that’s far more valuable than another headline about a deal they’ll probably never get. What opportunity do you think most athletes are overlooking right now?

Over the past week, I have reviewed dozens of #NIL agreements across the country. The market continues to mature, but certain issues keep surfacing in negotiations. Here are some of the things I'm finding: Payment structures have grown far more sophisticated. I'm seeing more hybrid deals that combine guaranteed upfront payments with performance bonuses tied to specific deliverables and some deals that contain no guarantees whatsoever. Any non-guaranteed income could leave athletes chasing money they were orally promised. Termination clauses remain the most heavily negotiated provision. One-sided, "sole discretion," termination rights without notice or cure periods are concerning. Post-termination rights and IP ownership remain areas of emphasis. I specifically look for "perpetual" and "irrevocable" grant of rights or extended licenses in my review. Athletes should want rights (other than limited archival rights) to expire cleanly when the deal ends. These are real business contracts with real dollars and real consequences. Athletes and their advocates need to treat them that way. The deeper the NIL industry develops, the more important it is for athletes to retain experienced counsel to walk them through every material term before signing. #LinkedInSports #NIL #Sports #SportsLaw #Law

It’s always an honor to work alongside people who use their public platform for good. This spring I’ve had the privilege of getting to know Kelvin B. and Larry Fitzgerald Jr. — two National Football League (NFL) stars who’ve turned the lessons learned from their personal experiences with financial hardship and sudden wealth into a powerful mission: ensuring that the next generation of athletes is properly prepared to navigate the financial complexities that can come with success in sports. Kelvin and Larry share a deep, authentic commitment to financial literacy, and experiencing this firsthand has been a true inspiration. Their voices convey credibility and a sense of urgency informed directly by their lived experience. This makes their new piece on the World Economic Forum (WEF) website a must-read. It sheds light on an entirely new financial landscape where “name, image and likeness” (NIL) rights have unlocked over $1.2 billion in earnings for college sports stars in a single year, but only 9% of those athletes have ever met with a financial counselor or advisor. Contracts, taxes, brand deals, long-term wealth decisions and other unfamiliar realities are arriving fast — often faster than the knowledge needed to handle them wisely. As Larry and Kelvin see it, the true measure of the NIL era shouldn't be the amount of revenue generated for student athletes, but whether these athletes can convert their sudden, short-term opportunities into lasting financial stability. Doing so requires education: mandatory, embedded and built for the times in which these young people compete and excel. This perspective provides just one compelling example of how financial literacy intersects with all professions and pursuits — human-centered thinking that drives the work of the World Economic Forum's Global Finance Council on Financial Education, which I'm proud to co-chair with Stanford University's Annamaria Lusardi. Whether it’s college athletes, recent graduates or underserved communities around the world, the message is the same: financial empowerment begins with knowledge, and access to that knowledge should be available to all. Read Kelvin and Larry’s full article and share it widely. https://lnkd.in/g6Mkrjy2 This conversation deserves the broadest audience possible. And speaking of those who use their public platform for good, many thanks to LinkedIn and Senior Finance Community Manager Jessica Oliveira Lee for consistently making this a great virtual classroom for financial literacy! #FinancialLiteracyMonth

I surveyed 700+ DI student-athletes this spring. Then isolated those who had secured NIL deals. We asked: What parts of your NIL education actually helped you get a deal? Only three areas showed a clear link to success: 1. Build a personal brand Athletes who shared their personality, values, and interests—not just their sport—were 12x more likely to land an NIL deal. Action step: Help athletes take a personal inventory and craft a core message that reflects who they are. 2. Create a social media presence built for NIL 85% of authentic NIL happens on social media. Micro-influencers (<10k followers) outperform bigger accounts when it comes to trust and engagement. Action step: Teach athletes how to optimize their profiles, post with purpose, and engage with brands. 3. Learn to market themselves 80% of athletes who secured a deal made the first move. They created message templates, pitch decks, and knew how to follow up. Action step: Give athletes tools to pitch with confidence and close opportunities. This is the NIL Blueprint. Want to see the full framework? Go to https://lnkd.in/ghESkZip #nil

For months, industry experts in college sports expressed concerns about the new NIL deal approval process—a software tool called NIL Go. They’ve been skeptical that the process would be legal on antitrust grounds, and scoffed at the idea that the College Sports Commission, tasked with overseeing NIL Go, would be able to police whether thousands of athletes followed the new process. Now the functionality of NIL Go is being called into question as well. NIL Go, the approval system created by Deloitte, NIL Go, is taking multiple days, if not weeks, to issue approval decisions, multiple collective operators and NIL player agents tell Front Office Sports. In some cases, deals submitted up to three weeks before publishing haven’t been approved at all. The delays have already caused at least one athlete to lose an NIL opportunity, as the time for the athlete to complete the deal’s deliverables has passed while the deal submission form languished in NIL Go’s system, one collective operator told FOS. “It’s kind of a joke, in my opinion, that they are taking this long to make some decisions,” the head of the collective said. Then, on Thursday, the College Sports Commission, the entity tasked with overseeing NIL GO and enforcing the settlement’s terms, released new guidance suggesting that some of the deals still in limbo—specifically some offered by collectives—may ultimately be rejected. My story: https://lnkd.in/dNBBBVjC

The NCAA may be on its last leg... Over the last three years, we’ve witnessed seismic shifts in the NCAA’s structure: - Name, Image, Likeness - Free Player Movement Now, the 𝗡𝗖𝗔𝗔 𝗰𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸 - allowing five years to compete in four seasons. The recent 𝘋𝘪𝘦𝘨𝘰 𝘗𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘢 ruling, which expands eligibility rules by excluding JUCO years from the NCAA clock, has added fuel to the fire. 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴?  - A rise in alternate pathways as players opt for JUCOs and prep school after high school to enhance their skills for better initial NIL earnings. The “amateur” model is no longer sustainable. And with potential revenue sharing looming and legal challenges against amateurism gaining momentum, another shift seems inevitable. This time, it could focus on 𝗮𝗰𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗰 𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺. Essentially, an option for athletes to take a sport-specific curriculum that better prepares them professionally. As a current professional athlete with a degree in engineering, I don't know how to feel about this. But if college sports are shifting toward professionalism, it’s worth asking: Should student-athletes have the option to tailor their academic experience—focusing on athletic and career development rather than traditional degrees?

Here are 4 things any student athlete can do today to land an NIL deal with any brand they want: 1. Look at products you already own If you actually spend your own money on it, I'd like to think you're a fan of it. So your audience will believe you when you post about it. Fans trust real, authentic content more than a forced ad. 2. Post about it for free Record something simple and tag the brand. Can be IG Stories or a feed post on TikTok/Reels. Show how and why you use it. Talk like you would to a teammate, not like a commercial. Bonus points to post more than once. 3. Track the numbers, then use them in outreach Views, likes, comments, saves, clicks. DMs asking about the product. Anything measurable. Brands want data, not hope. Share your numbers when you reach out and you instantly stand out. Then send a cold DM and email like: “I posted about [brand] 3 times this week. Averaged [X] views, [Y] engagements. If you’re running any influencer campaigns right now, I’d love to help create more content and drive awareness for you.” You go from asking for a deal like everyone else to showing value first. 4. Engage with the brand's content to stay top of mind Like their posts and drop comments as often as you can. Show up enough times and you become a familiar face. Play the long game If you keep showing up with good content and real data, you stay top of mind. When the timing and budget line up, you go from random DM to an obvious partner. Athletes don't get NIL deals just because they ask. They get deals for proving they can drive outcomes.

As someone who played at the highest levels of amateur and professional baseball, one of the biggest changes I see today is the professionalization of youth and college sports. The House settlement and NIL era have fundamentally changed the economics of college athletics: • Schools can now directly share up to ~$20.5M annually with athletes • NIL has grown into a ~$1.5B+ ecosystem in just a few years • The average Power 4 football program is now operating with professional-level roster economics What many people still do not understand is that this is no longer just a sports conversation. It is now a capital markets conversation. The schools that separate themselves over the next decade will not simply be the schools with the best coaches or facilities. They will be the schools that adapt operationally, commercially, and financially the fastest. Having lived the athlete side of this world firsthand, I also believe we need to be thoughtful about the pressure this system now places on young athletes. Only a very small percentage of kids will ever play professionally. The value of sports has always been much bigger than that. #CollegeAthletics #NIL #SportsBusiness #YouthSports #SportsInvesting #CollegeBaseball