How much are you worth?
For today’s college athlete, that is no longer a hypothetical question. In the world of collegiate sports, your name, face and reputation have value—not someday, but now.
Arkansas basketball coach John Calipari understands just how dramatically the business of college sports has changed.
When he arrived at Arkansas in 2024, the university itself emphasized the importance of NIL in attracting and retaining athletes.
More recently, Calipari helped inspire an insurance product designed to protect the financial investment made in players if a season-ending injury sidelines them.
College athletics has reached the point where people are insuring the money invested in athletes. Perhaps athletes should be thinking just as seriously about protecting the investment in themselves.
What NIL means and who can get paid
In recent years, the acronym NIL has been tossed around as if the average person should know what it means. Maybe, but for those who are late to the party I will break it down.
NIL stands for name, image and likeness. In its simplest form, NIL allows a college athlete to receive compensation when a business, brand or other person commercially uses the athlete’s identity.
The concept is fairly broad and might include a social-media promotion, endorsement, autograph signing, camp, commercial or personal appearance.
But don’t be fooled by the seemingly simple concept, because NIL raises a deceptively difficult question: Who decides what an athlete’s name is worth?
Let’s consider two basketball players.
One averages 20 points a game but rarely uses social media. Another averages 10 but has 950,000 followers who pay attention to what she wears, where she eats and what products she recommends.
Why NIL value is not just about the stat sheet
Which athlete has the more valuable NIL? The answer may surprise you. It isn’t necessarily the better basketball player.
Athletic value and commercial value are not necessarily the same thing.
A company may care about points and rebounds, but it also cares about eyeballs, influence and whether consumers will purchase something because a particular athlete recommended it.
That distinction matters when a school booster offers an athlete an “endorsement deal.”
Is the athlete being paid to promote a real product or service, or is that label covering a payment to join or stay with a team? Under current rules, deals with school-associated parties face review for a valid business purpose and reasonable compensation.
Division I athletes generally must report third-party NIL deals worth $600 or more.
Protecting your name as a business asset
Determining what your image is worth is only half the equation. The other half is protecting it. You must think of your name as an asset.
A company signing an athlete to an endorsement agreement isn’t merely purchasing a social-media post. It is associating its brand with that athlete.
The athlete’s conduct matters. Drugs, repeated excessive partying, an arrest, a reckless social-media post or missing a promotional event can hurt the brand.
A bad decision can damage the reputation a business paid to be associated with.
I am not suggesting that college athletes shouldn’t enjoy college. However, when someone begins paying for your identity, your identity has become a business asset, and you need to govern yourself accordingly.
In other words, honor your commitments. Think before you post and, by all means, be careful about the people in your inner circle.
Remember that today’s check may not be worth jeopardizing tomorrow’s reputation.
Questions to ask before signing an NIL deal
Treat NIL like a job. Before signing, consult a lawyer and ask questions:
Who decides how long the company can use your image? Can you endorse a competitor? What must you do for the money? What happens if you’re injured or the company terminates the agreement?
Those questions might seem tedious to an 18-year-old who has just been offered more money than he or she has ever possessed.
However, they become considerably more interesting when something goes wrong.
Current rules allow athletes to use agents and marketing professionals in connection with NIL activity.
Meanwhile, Congress continues debating legislation that would create additional protections for college athletes, including measures aimed at predatory agents.
The laws and details will continue changing, but this one principle won’t: never sign something you don’t understand. You must learn to protect your best asset — you.
Who protects an athlete’s reputation
Coaches, schools, parents, lawyers, agents and financial advisers can help. But none of them can protect an athlete’s reputation every hour of every day. Ultimately, the athlete has to do that.
The question is no longer simply whether they can make money. It is whether they understand what they own.
Before signing the next endorsement agreement, perhaps every college athlete should ask two questions: What is my image worth today? And, more importantly: What am I doing today to make sure it is worth even more tomorrow?
Deborah A. Wilson is a Georgetown University Law Center graduate, a practicing Northern Virginia attorney and lifelong sports fan. She is the author of the speculative novel The Seam: Secrets Beneath the North Pole.
