Before college athletes had the right to profit from their names, images, and likenesses, commonly referred to as NIL, administrators, coaches, apparel company executives, and numerous other figures associated with what was deceptively misclassified as amateur athletics benefited handsomely from the labor of young men in their teens and early 20s driving multi-billion-dollar revenue.
The athletes themselves were precluded from the free-market, neo-capitalist system that was inextricably dependent on their literal sweat equity that produced generational wealth for many. All changed on July 21, 2021, when the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), after years of legal action, began to allow student-athletes to monetize their NIL without relinquishing their amateur status.
The NCAA leadership, at the time headed by its now former president Mark Emmert, did so kicking and screaming as their stranglehold on the agency of student-athletes was loosened. The economic emancipation was achieved after decades of antitrust class action lawsuits filed against the NCAA, most prominently O’Bannon v. NCAA, decided on Sept. 30, 2015, and the death knell landmark NCAA v. Alston case, in which the United States Supreme Court issued a unanimous 9-0 ruling on June 21, 2021. The former related directly to NIL and the latter to compensation to collegiate athletes.
As we begin to reflect on 2024, it could aptly be dubbed “The Year of NIL.”
Travis Hunter, who was named the 2024 Heisman Trophy winner on Dec. 14 after an unparalleled season as college football’s best wide receiver and defensive back, playing for the University of Colorado, purchased a five-bedroom house for his mother, Ferrante Edmonds, in Savannah, Ga., in March from his NIL riches.
Over the past month, it has been widely reported that 17-year-old high school basketball sensation AJ Dybantsa from Brockton, Mass., a senior playing for Utah Prep in Hurricane, Utah, has signed NIL deals valued at over $7 million with Red Bull, Nike, and other brands. Last week, the 6-9 forward announced he will be attending BYU next year; he is the projected No. 1 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.
The lines between amateur and professional athletics are no longer blurred.