Student-athletes are making money like never before. Name-image-likeness (NIL) rules allow them to benefit from their personal brand at the college and even high school levels. It’s a chaotic change in sports that could get crazier soon.
New millionaires are being made and they’re younger than ever. The Supreme Court’s approval of NIL set the stage for major changes in amateur sports that could trickle down to the travel team that a kid you know plays for.
It’s also created a new generation of sports agent that’s helping not just the five-star recruits, but young people across all sports, benefit.
One of the top football recruits in America visited the two-time NCAA champion Georgia Bulldogs with his agent. Antoine Hyman and his client were chatting it up with head coach Kirby Smart. It’s a perk in the era of name image and likeness.
“There are a lot of people making an enormous amount of money off of these kids’ work that they in essence put in,” said Hyman. “And in a free market, capitalist society and what have you, they should be able to extract the value of the work that goes into the soul. If you’re saying that, then, you know, you’re, I think you’re speaking against capitalism.”
Hyman has his D-1 A-list recruits, but he helps students from all sports at all college levels maximize their shot to earn. It means brokering deals with local partners like a spa owner whose services will become part of the barter system with teens and college athletes. While so much of NIL makes headlines with the six and seven-figure deals struck at the national level, small businesses like the spa help many NIL agreements work for those who won’t be seen in primetime.
Hyman helped make the first NIL deal for high school athletes in upstate New York, which helped sister hoop stars Bri and Mariah Watkins from Webster capitalize on their success. He’s teaming up with local service providers to groom young athletes into what it means to represent for a living.
“If I feel as though you don’t respect and recognize that this is an actual job that you are doing or what have you, then no, I will not … I’ve turned a few kids away,” said Hyman.
Those who make the grade get to charge into NIL’s brave new world.
Plenty of people are calling for guardrails on name-image-likeness rules. Some want the NCAA to get more involved in helping student-athletes make money from endorsements like the ones Hyman gets for clients.
College sports leaders also want more control over this. They want their institutions to be allowed to find deals for athletes and even help them prepare taxes.
They’re just two of the proposals to be discussed at an NCAA committee meeting set for Thursday.
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