How Do NIL Laws Help the Florida Gators? How Do They Hurt? For That Matter, What Are the NIL Laws?
- Buddy Martin
- May 7, 2021
- 9 min read
College athletics—particularly the Florida Gators and other big three Sunshine State schools—have been at the forefront of the legal world in recent weeks, as lawmakers and judicial courts determine the future of amateur sports in relation to the Name, Image and Likeness law. NIL, as it’s colloquially known, will be the death of amateurism according to critics; it will be what saves college athletics according to others. But regardless, there’s no debate it will change college athletics. Whether that’s for the better or worse is yet to be seen.
As NIL laws took over courts the past couple of months, it also placed football coaches and players in a position to which they’ve typically been averse—the midst of a political battle. Everyone from Mackenzie Milton, the FSU Seminoles quarterback, to Gators coach Dan Mullen has taken a stand in public on NIL and its current legal battle.
So what are the NIL laws? What are the pro’s, con’s? What was the June 1 debacle that put all of the Florida football teams on a soapbox? And perhaps most importantly, how will this help and/or hurt the Gators?
We examine all of that and more.
What is NIL
NIL, as explained above, stands for “Name, Image and Likeness.” The short, non-legalese explanation is that it concerns anything dealing with an athlete’s name, image or—you guessed it—likeness. If you were a fan of the popular video game, NCAA Football, and have been depressed at the lack of a new game in years, then the NIL is what you have to thank for it’s eventual return (EA Sports hasn’t yet announced an official date, just that the game would be returning).
College athletes often see their name, picture or something that technically is ambiguous but not specifically them show up in the marketplace. As amateur athletes, until now, they’ve been unable to capitalize on that exposure. For example, since 2007, No. 15 jersey’s have been prominent at Florida Gators football games. One’s sold off campus would even say the name “Tebow” on the back. Tim Tebow had nothing to do with those jersey’s and received no monetary return for their sales. There is a restaurant on University Avenue in Gainesville that has a carved wooden statue out front. A big bodied football player, toting a ball, in a No. 15 jersey, with facial characteristics that greatly resemble a famous Gators football player. It’s not hard to figure out who it is. As a student, Tim Tebow had no say over those sort of instances of likenesses.
The NIL looks to allow athletes from all sports profit off such instances, have a say in where and how their name/picture/likeness is used and become product endorsers.
The school’s themselves will have nothing to do with how a player uses NIL. It will be purely between the player and any outside businesses that want the player to act as an endorser and/or any promotion the player wants to take part in while in school.
“I'm pretty excited because you know, college kid, we can't have a job or anything,” explained Gators receiver Justin Shorter back in February. “So, I feel like that's just a really great thing that the NCAA is doing for the players just because how much time we put into football. And I'm just really thankful, and I'm just hoping that next year maybe I could have a little bit more money and play with myself in Madden, or NCAA Football, but we'll see. But, I'm just very very grateful."
Pro’s of NIL
The pro’s for NIL is it allows athletes to have more control on their own name and image. Someone else isn’t using it for products they don’t believe in, and others aren’t profiting off of the player’s popularity without said athlete receiving some of that profit as well.
The argument exist—and understandably so—that a scholarship covers an education, room and board and provides the opportunity to prepare themselves to play professionally and subsequently make millions. The average student athlete spends an inordinate amount of time on school and athletics, meaning there is little to no time to have a job, so NIL hopes to make up for some of that, by letting the sport be the job.
See, until now athletes weren’t allowed to use their status as an athlete to promote themselves in anyway to make money. A few years ago, there was a UCF football player—kicker Donald De La Haye—who had a lifestyle YouTube channel. He talked about fitness and schoolwork and music and movies, and you get the point. He also had some athletic related videos. His videos were popular, to the point he was able to make advertising money on them through YouTube’s monetization feature. The NCAA ruled that since a portion of his videos dealt with football topics, he was using his status as a football player to promote himself and therefore couldn’t make money off of his YouTube videos. His choices were to take down his videos or lose his scholarship. NIL looks to change those instances and allow those players to benefit if they’d like.
Con’s of NIL
The con’s of course, are this will inevitably change college athletics. It could be for the better, or it could be for the worse, and that’s really not known yet. The uncertainty is what scares coaches, like Dan Mullen, who like to have every minute of every day planned out, and be prepared for any scenario in a game.
It’s why college coaches are seriously considering the NFL (although endorsement deals are prevalent there too, but more on that in a minute) so as to not have to deal with NIL and the new transfer rules which allow essentially for free agency.
NIL will change college athletics for starters in recruiting. A new apartment complex in Gainesville could offer a recruit $5,000 to appear in a commercial asking students to live where the athletes do…then, just before signing day, an amusement park in Miami could offer the same recruit $10,000 to appear on advertising if they commit to the Hurricanes. It essentially takes everything that was happening below the table and brings it above board.
Then, where do you draw the line? Are there certain businesses and company types that players should avoid? Who tells them to avoid those certain businesses? What sort of reaction would there be if a player promoted a shady bar? Or company with questionable business tactics? Can you allow a player to promote the college ministry at a local church without also opening the door to a fringe group labeling themselves as a religion that wants a player to promote a “gathering?”
The "Locker Room Division" Argument
One of the more recent arguments/narratives currently circulating around NIL is that it will cause locker room division. That a back-up linebacker won’t have as many opportunities as the starting quarterback and therefore will become bitter and jealous.
This never seems to be a problem in professional sports (albeit they are receiving a paycheck regardless) and one has to ask why we aren’t giving college athletes the benefit of the doubt to be mature enough to handle this as well.
It’s also very likely we’re underestimating how many opportunities there will be for athletes of all sports. Any one with a decent social media following will be able to benefit. The power of social media and the advent of businesses using influencers will sync perfectly with the NIL plan.
As such, athletes are provided some stability and protection for those who may not make it to the professional league or don’t have the option to play professional at all. Take Keyontae Johnson for the example. The Florida Gators forward was predicted to be a draft pick in the upcoming 2021 NBA Draft. But after a scary medical episode last season, he’s planning to return to Florida…but only if he’s medically cleared to play basketball at all. His playing career could effectively be over. If he’d been able to use his his Instagram account, with over 50,000 followers, as an influencer the past year, he’d have a nest egg to supplement his lost income as a NBA player.
And for those in sports that don’t have a professional league—or one that’s incredibly small or primarily an Olympic sport—the NIL laws allow the athletes to benefit off of their current athletic standing. Now a Florida women’s lacrosse player can promote lacrosse products on her Instagram and Twitter page and be paid for the advertisement.
Anyone that’s in the public eye or outgoing or business savvy—or all of the above—can find a way to make their niche with the NIL laws.
The July 1 Debacle
Florida and California were at the forefront of NIL laws, as the first states to take charge and promise the opportunity to their athletes. Florida’s law has been set to go into affect July 1, 2021, just over two months from now. Governor Ron De Santis has been a huge proponent since the beginning, pushing for his state to be able to promise recruits something other states couldn’t.
“I viewed it as something that was a matter of fairness, and just understand what we’re not talking about,” DeSantis has said on NIL. “We’re not talking about, you get a scholarship to Florida State or Miami and the universities are gonna pay you. That’s not what we’re talking about. You’re an amateur … But in a situation where you have some great athletes, especially in a sport like football and basketball whose likeness is being used to make millions and millions of dollars and they don’t even have an opportunity to get any of that, there’s something fundamentally unfair.”
Then, in typical political fashion, pork barreling held up the bill and wanted to push the policy change to 2022. “We did not want our student athletes, if this law went into effect, to start profiting off NIL and potentially lose scholarships from the NCAA,” state Sen. Travis Hutson, the St. Augustine Republican behind the delay language, told Sports Illustrated on Thursday.
“We decided to do a one-year hold," he added. "It was an abundance of caution. We want our kids to profit from the NIL and that’s something we’re passionate about, but not at the chance they could lose the right to play.”
To this point, there has been no indication of an issue with the NCAA in relation to players benefitting from NIL.
College coaches from around the state—Manny Diaz at Miami, Gus Malzhan at UCF, Mike Norvell at FSU and Dan Mullen as well—expressed their frustration at the change. Tweets from FSU quarterback McKenzie Milton were even read on the Florida Congress floor.
"Are we serious right now??? Milton posted on Twitter. "That little black line in a bill with more than 70 pages to continue to screw all these athletes?? Make it make sense."
"The state of Florida needs to enact NIL legislation in 2021, as was originally planned," Mullen tweeted. "We need to do what’s best for our student-athletes."
After a few days of whipping, lawmakers put through a motion to reset the date to July 1. But in the meantime, Alabama and Georgia signed laws that set their state in motion, with athletes allowed to take part in NIL benefits beginning July 1.
How It Affects Florida (Good and Bad)
For so long, schools in the state of Florida were able to sell recruits on coming to school here and being able to benefit from NIL while other states were lagging behind. Of course Nick Saban didn’t let that last long, but Florida and schools within were ahead of the curve. Plus, it was easy to go into South Florida and now sell to recruits, “stay home, win a championship in your home state, and it will work out for from a business standpoint as well.”
Georgia and Alabama jumping up to claim the July 1 date while Florida legislature drugs its feet hurt the state’s argument about being on the forefront. But the Gators and other schools did catch a break, when it was revealed the state of Georgia and Governor Brian Kemp had snuck a provision in their legislation. It states the school’s have the description to garner 75% of an athlete’s NIL earnings and place them in a holding account to be distribute to other athletes (which is basically a scholarship and opposite of the capitalist themes on which the law is founded). It was only discussed after a journalist read the entire bill and discovered the line. Within mere hours of signing the bill in the Georgia Bulldogs recruiting lounge, the narrative shifted to highlight schools in the state of Florida once again, where schools have nothing to do with the NIL process and therefore an athlete will be able to keep their entire earnings.
The Florida Gators athletic program has been preparing for the change, enacting the "Gators Made" Program which builds on the existing program that helps with career advising, financial planning, and professional sports counseling, and adds enhancements with brand and social media assessments and education on name, image and likeness opportunities.
"The comprehensive and continued education of our student-athletes remains a priority in the Gators athletic program," said Athletic Director Scott Stricklin. "A staple of those programs over the years has been financial literacy, along with career and personal skills development. GatorsMade adds personal brand and social media development to better position student-athletes for current and long-term success."
So what are the NIL laws? They’re the next step in the changing landscape of college athletics. Will they be the savior? Or the death? That’s yet to be determined. The only thing for certain? Gainesville car dealership commercials are about to get an entirely new look.
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