Athletics Veritas is a weekly series aimed at helping higher education executives, faculty, and other stakeholders stay tuned in on trending national issues impacting college athletics, especially NCAA Division I. Athletics Veritas is created by senior DI athletic administrators around the nation.
Term-in-Ology: Agents in an NIL World
We know that NCAA student-athlete NIL endorsement opportunities are now permissible as of yesterday, July 1, 2021. A companion rule change to this amateurism overhaul seemingly getting lost in the shuffle is that student-athletes may retain agents or other professional service providers to help them pursue these NIL opportunities.
The NCAA’s agent definition and general agent rule have functionally been suspended by the NCAA to allow for all student-athletes, regardless of whether you participate at a university in a state with an NIL law or order, to permissibly pursue NIL opportunities for compensation.
The NCAA’s “agent” definition holds that an agent is any individual who, directly or indirectly:
(a) Represents or attempts to represent an individual for the purpose of marketing the individual's athletics ability or reputation for financial gain; or
(b) Seeks to obtain any type of financial gain or benefit from securing a prospective student-athlete's enrollment at an educational institution or from a student-athlete's potential earnings as a professional athlete.
The NCAA’s core agent rule holds that an individual (prospect or student-athlete) shall be ineligible for participation in an intercollegiate sport if the individual ever has agreed (orally or in writing) to be represented by an agent for the purpose of marketing athletics ability or reputation in that sport. Further, an agency contract not specifically limited in writing to a sport or particular sports shall be deemed applicable to all sports, and the individual shall be ineligible to participate in any sport.
Let the college athlete endorsement marketplace begin!
Athletics Veritas is presented for information purposes only and should not be considered advice or counsel on NCAA compliance matters. For guidance on NCAA rules and processes, always consult your university’s athletics compliance office, conference office, and/or the NCAA.
