When Graham Neff was officially tapped as Clemson’s athletic director following Dan Radokovich’s departure for Miami in December, Neff divulged some of the items at the top of his to-do list in his new role.
Among them, not surprisingly, was to help Clemson’s student-athletes navigate the changing landscape of collegiate athletics, particularly when it comes to them being able to profit off of their name, image and likeness (NIL).
“NIL opportunities and how we work within our states and NCAA guidelines, it’s just such a moving target right now within the industry,” Neff said then.
So how does the athletic department go about helping athletes maximize their opportunities within the rules? Neff said that starts with education from the top down.
“Certainly operating lawfully within our state laws and certainly within an NCAA standpoint. Excited for the elements from a protection of student athlete standpoint,” Neff said. “With South Carolina law – all of them are a little different – there are a lot of good protections for our student-athletes.
“The confines that exist that are continuing to evolve is where you start. Education for our head coaches and our (assistant) coaches as far as what our abilities may be in the future. There’s a Wayne Gretzky analogy in there somewhere maybe as far as skate-to-where-the-puck-is-going kind of idea. I certainly don’t claim to know where it’s going, but it’s being passed and going somewhere quick. Where it sits today is not a stagnant stop.”
Neff said that education extends to boosters, who fall into the third-party category to which NIL deals are largely restricted. Schools are prohibited from being directly involved with the process of creating NIL opportunities for their student-athletes.
Players also aren’t allowed to receive any NIL payments until they’re enrolled in classes, and, in some states (South Carolina being one of them), it’s unlawful for NIL deals to be contingent on the recruit attending a certain school. There are workarounds for the latter, though, which has created concern that recruits could ultimately be lured to the highest bidder, especially for major college football programs competing for blue-chip prospects.
For example, a non-profit organization in Texas announced in December that it will pay every scholarship offensive lineman at the University of Texas $50,000 a year for the use of their name, image and likeness to support charitable causes. At Texas A&M, speculation has run rampant that boosters contributed approximately $30 million to an NIL fund that helped the Aggies sign the highest-ranked recruiting class in college football history this week, according to the 247Sports Composite.
Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher vehemently shot down those rumors during his signing day press conference earlier this week. But the perception is out there.
“I think there are a lot of good intentions with NIL, and I think any time you do something, there’s always unintended consequences,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said. “And there will be some unintended consequences.”
It’s brought into question whether or not everybody is playing by the rules, which has caught the attention of coaches and administrators across the country. Neff said his department needs to be “a little more aggressive” in educating Clemson’s boosters to make sure they’re aware of the what those rules are when it comes to offering NIL opportunities to athletes.
“We obviously are very active from just a compliance education, but those rules are changing,” Neff said. “So we want to make sure they are aware and educated on the do’s and don’ts and how that would look for Clemson.
“There are a lot of legs on that barstool of NIL. It’s still being built. As we continue to try to be aggressive with it for Clemson, it’s part of the totality.”
But once recruits turn into students at Clemson, that’s when the school needs to do its part to be more aggressive than it’s been to first educate athletes and then help them maximize whatever opportunities might come their way, Neff said. Working with the athletic department’s social and digital teams to assist in building athletes’ personal brands is part of that.
Another is a new on-campus facility that Swinney said will soon be built as a hub for all things NIL. Swinney said the football program will likely hire someone sometime this year to help with its athletes’ NIL opportunities.
“At the end of the day, that’s our responsibility,” Swinney said. “It doesn’t matter what your opinion is (of NIL). The rules are the rules, and our job is to make sure we equip them and help them navigate any opportunities and maximize this opportunity, and that’s what we’ve been doing and that’s what we’re trying to do moving forward.”
Said Neff, “I think just that maybe passive-to-active type of presence. What that exactly means, we’re working on. But that’s kind of maybe the mindset we’re trying to articulate. I think that’s an industry take, let alone at Clemson, and how we can become more aggressive and active within NIL the right way.”
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