Tag: likeness

Notre Dame athletics announces new Name, Image and Likeness collective

It’s time to “RALLY”

While many schools across the nation were quick to push out Name, Image and Likeness collectives, Notre Dame wanted to wait to roll out its own that best suited the needs of the Irish’s student-athletes.

That day has finally come, as on Monday the Irish announced “[autotag]RALLY[/autotag],” described in a press release as “a collective and lifestyle agency for the next iteration of collegiate athletics dedicated to creating meaningful and market-based name, image and likeness (NIL) opportunities for Notre Dame student-athletes.”

RALLY is led by the Board of Directors chairman Jack Shields, who graduated in 1983, along with a few others most notably [autotag]Jordan Cornette[/autotag] and [autotag]Hannah Storm[/autotag]. Having two former Irish media stars in the group is a big deal, as they’ll help navigate through some potentially unknown waters within that industry.

You can learn more at ndrally.com, where they attempt to connect prospect student-athletes, businesses and fans of Notre Dame to help the cause.

While some students-athletes have already gotten themselves involved in NIL deals, this will open the doors for many more in the future.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes and opinions.

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Women’s History Month Spotlight: basketball star, entrepreneur, and activist Sedona Prince

Alex Sinatra next highlights Oregon Ducks star Sedona Prince for Women’s History Month.

This Women’s History Month, I will be spotlighting women athletes and their achievements in college, after college, and beyond. Athletes are Humans First and while I want to highlight their athletic ability and achievements, I also want to point a spotlight on what they are doing off their field of play.

Sedona Prince made headlines when she shared a TikTok video of the NCAA’s inequitable treatment of the women’s and men’s basketball tournaments. She helped usher in change and when rules allowed college athletes to monetize their NIL, Prince was well-poised to excel in the space. Since then she has inked deals with Crocs, Uninterrupted, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Champs to name a few. She is set to enter the 2023 WNBA draft which airs on ESPN on April 10.

@sedonerrr

it’s 2021 and we are still fighting for bits and pieces of equality. #ncaa #inequality #fightforchange

♬ original sound – Sedona Prince

Her athlete advocacy off the court is just as impressive as she continues to shed a spotlight on what it means to be More Than an Athlete. Prince enjoys merging her advocacy and entrepreneurship with brands that align with her core values.

“I’ve always been very passionate about activism and advocacy, so the fact that I’m able to do that now with such a large platform and actually make a difference is really, really cool,” Prince told Insider of her equity-driven partnership and role as Chief Community Officer for plat-powered energy drink company Riff . “It’s impactful. And, you know, I’m just happy that I have a space to do this and that people actually listen and respond to it because it’s how we’re making change.”

The way she navigates this NIL ecosystem shows that it is more than one-off deals. It is about building a future for yourself and your family.

In an interview with Boardroom, Prince shared her philosophy on what NIL did for her, “I guess I just became empowered. Like I have a voice to make change. I can partner with companies that I love. I’m making this money, to support my family, that I can have for the rest of my life to invest or to save.”

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Proposed changes to state NIL law could give Texas schools a recruiting advantage

A proposed amendment in Texas NIL law could give Lone Star schools an advantage.

The NCAA issued its first infraction related to name, image, and likeness and improper inducement and improper facilitation. This infraction centered around University of Miami booster John Ruiz, the head women’s basketball coach, and NIL superstars Hanna and Haley Cavinder, among others.

As per the negotiated resolution, “women’s basketball head coach violated NCAA rules when she facilitated impermissible contact between two prospects and a booster, according to an agreement released by the Division I Committee on Infractions. In facilitating the contact, the head coach also violated rules on publicity before signing and, because of her direct involvement, she violated head coach responsibility rules.”

While many speculated whether the NCAA should have been focusing on this area of their regulations, others surmised this might be a hint of things to come. While the negotiated settlement did not hand down a punishment to the athletes or the booster, many believed the move to punish the women’s basketball program made the NCAA look bad.

The NCAA looks to be cracking down on schools that are toeing the line between permissible and impermissible activities, but it is unclear who or where the NCAA might target next.

When a state doesn’t have a NIL law, they follow the NCAA interim policy which in some cases is broader than state laws. This has led to some states amending or totally repealing, as is the case in Alabama, their NIL laws. Will changing the laws in your state make you more valuable to prospective college athletes? Only time will tell, but it seems that creating more athlete-friendly laws would be more appealing to athletes.

In Texas, high school athletes are not allowed to monetize their NIL which puts the state at a disadvantage and has caused some high school athletes to graduate early and leave the state so they can pursue deals earlier, see Quinn Ewers. However, recently House Bill 1802 was introduced which would amend the Education Code and allow those athletes competing in University Interscholastic League (UIL) the ability to monetize their NIL if they meet certain requirements. Although, the requirements rule out a large majority of high school athletes.

The UIL “exists to provide educational extracurricular academic, athletic, and music contests.” It is strange that this sort of change to ostensibly allow high school athletes to monetize their NIL is a change to the Education Code and not a change to the Texas NIL laws. This act “takes effect immediately if it receives a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this Act takes effect September 1, 2023.”

In addition to this proposed change that could affect high school athletes, another House Bill was introduced into the Texas legislature to amend the NIL laws relating to college athletes. House Bill 2804 would make many notable changes in the law including allowing an “employee of the institution, may identify or otherwise assist with opportunities for a currently-enrolled student-athlete to earn compensation from a third party for the use of the student athlete ’s name, image, or likeness”, with some specific restrictions. Previously, employees of institutions could not assist with NIL deals for college athletes. If this bill receives the requisite votes then it will go into effect July 1, 2023, however, if it does not, then it will go into effect September 1, 2023.

We will see states begin to amend their laws related to NIL monetization and some even repeal those laws, but with everything in the space changing so fast, what is the best move? New Jersey, for instance, has NIL legislation known as the New Jersey Fair Play Act, but it does not go into effect until 2025. High school athletes in New Jersey can also monetize their NIL as of January 2022.

This sort of approach seems to be the most logical so a state can assess the landscape without limiting the athletes’ and schools’ ability to navigate the new ecosystem freely.

Ohio State lands in final four of star Ohio running back’s trimmed list

Will the Buckeyes be able to keep this star player home? #GoBucks

The Ohio State recruiting philosophy might be changing right before our eyes and it has a lot to do with [autotag]Name, Image Likeness[/autotag]. The Buckeyes will still continue to have a national reach, but we might see much more of a hometown flavor with recruits going forward.

A case in point is the recruitment of Ohio running back [autotag]Jordan Marshall[/autotag]. The in-state back has become a focus for [autotag]Ryan Day[/autotag] and the Buckeyes. That effort paid off today as the 6-foot, 190-pound Marshall dropped his final four schools with Ohio State, Wisconsin, Tennessee, and Michigan making the cut. He also held offers from Oregon, Michigan State, and others.

Marshall is a 4-star prospect out of Archbishop Moeller in Cincinnati and is ranked as the No. 12 running back in the country and fourth best talent in the state of Ohio. He is also a top 200 recruit in the 2024 class according to the 247Sports Composite rankings.

Proximity hopefully plays a part in Marshall’s final decision, as it would be much easier for his family to see him play in Columbus than his other three finalists. Expect Ohio State to be in the mix until the end of Marshall’s recruitment.

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Contact/Follow us @BuckeyesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes, and opinion. Follow Michael Chen on Twitter.

Two concerning videos regarding Ohio State and name, image and likeness

The issues could be fixed fairly easily but at some costs #GoBucks

The Buckeyes have one of the biggest athletic department budgets in the nation but it seems like there is a big disconnect between what [autotag]Ohio State[/autotag] Athletic Director [autotag]Gene Smith[/autotag] wants to do regarding Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) with his program.

He has gone on record to say that the university will not give money to players, it has to be through collectives, like the one former national championship-winning quarterback [autotag]Cardale Jones[/autotag] has a hand in, THE Foundation.

As we saw during the early signing period, prospects all across the country were lured by upfront payments and schools like Oregon and Alabama reaped the benefits of 5-star prospects and transfers.

As I scoured the Twittersphere today, I came across two separate videos that go over Ohio State’s NIL strategy or lack thereof, and I outline my takes from each of them.

Contact/Follow us @BuckeyesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes, and opinion. Follow Michael Chen on Twitter.

Let us know your thoughts, and comment on this story below. Join the conversation today

Dear Old Clemson launches NIL collective

Clemson, South Carolina – June 2, 2022 – Two Clemson graduates and area business owners have launched Dear Old Clemson, a name, image and likeness collective to bring Tiger fans, businesses and student-athletes together to make sure they all win …

Clemson, South Carolina – June 2, 2022 – Two Clemson graduates and area business owners have launched Dear Old Clemson, a name, image and likeness collective to bring Tiger fans, businesses and student-athletes together to make sure they all win together.

Robert MacRae, a 1987 Clemson graduate, and Jason Beaty, who graduated from Clemson with a bachelor’s degree in 1997 and an MBA in 2002, founded Dear Old Clemson, LLC. Jay Courie, a lawyer and longtime Clemson supporter, serves as the legal counsel and advisor for Dear Old Clemson.

“Our mission is to do NIL the ‘Clemson way’,” MacRae said. “Dear Old Clemson was created to benefit the student-athletes, the Clemson business community, and the best fans in the nation.”

For businesses and fans that just want to contribute to football, they can hop on the Roy Bus and have their contributions dedicated to football. Two club options will be available: the Clemson Athletic Club and the Lady Tiger Club. Contributions from subscriptions to the Lady Tiger Club will go exclusively to support the athletes of Clemson’s women’s sports. The Clemson Athletic Club will support football and other sports with a majority of the funds going to football.

Club members will have access to exclusive events with student-athletes, receive early access and discounts on collectibles and other exciting benefits. Dear Old Clemson has a road map of new benefits planned for club members in order to continue to add value to the memberships.

“Dear Old Clemson’s initial focus will be on football, baseball, softball and basketball but will extend to other sports in the future,” said MacRae, CEO of MacRae Consulting Corporation and owner of The Clemson Insider Media Group. “We believe we can be a game changer for the partial scholarship sports of baseball and softball.”

One of the goals of Dear Old Clemson is to help the Clemson business community. Some of the funds raised will be used to compensate student-athletes in exchange for appearances at Clemson area businesses. Dear Old Clemson will match portions of funds from local businesses that pay student-athletes to help promote their businesses.

“When the Tigers are successful on the field, it certainly helps the local business community. We plan to do our part to help,” said Beaty, owner of Clemson Variety & Frame in downtown Clemson.

A number of former Clemson athletes have already agreed to serve as advisors to Dear Old Clemson. These former Tigers will help determine the best way to raise and distribute funds for the sports they starred in at Clemson. Kyle Parker, Shaq Lawson, Adam Humphries and Sam Russ have all agreed to help in this capacity and several others will be announced in the near future.

“The Clemson community has always raised to the occasion to help the Tigers compete at the highest level,” MacRae said. “It will take a grassroots effort for the Tigers to compete in NIL. Dear Old Clemson will provide a platform to allow all fans to do their part and enjoy an experience that is sustainable and repeatable.”

About Dear Old Clemson

Dear Old Clemson, LLC was established in April 2022. The collective compensates Clemson student-athletes for attending events, promoting businesses, signing collectibles, sales of collectibles and interacting with members in person and virtually. Dear Old Clemson is fully compliant. The only athletes compensated for use of their name, image and likeness are ones that are currently enrolled at Clemson University.

Clemson fans and businesses are encouraged to visit DearOldClemson.com for more information.

Changes to NIL could be announced this week

Big changes are on the horizon for Name, Image, and Likeness!!

Multiple media outlets have reported that significant changes coming to Name, Image, and Likeness, known as NIL, could be announced as soon as Monday. Ross Dellenger of Sports Illustrated and Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic have reported in the last week that guidelines to clarify booster engagement related to recruiting and inducement are in the works. Ohio State AD Gene Smith and Colorado AD Rick George have been leading working groups on new guidelines for NIL. Smith told Auerbach that they “have to begin to crack down on bad actors and behavior that is inappropriate.” Those guidelines, according to Dellenger, could lead to retroactive punishments for schools found to violate NIL policy. Essentially, a NIL deal could have been made since the practice became legal in July of 2021, and if violations are found the NCAA could investigate those schools for possible sanctions.

Nebraska has been at the forefront of this new NIL movement. The athletic department has already launched a website that will allow individuals and businesses to send support directly to Nebraska athletes. Back in early April, we reported that the company behind the NIL website, Athlete Branding & Marketing, announced that since the company’s partnership with the University began in August of 2021, more than 90 Husker athletes in five different sports have received combined payments of $850,000. The Lincoln-based company also announced that they had raised an additional $3.5 million for NIL-related activities. There’s no evidence and talk that Nebraska would be at the center of any investigation or has done anything improper since NIL became legal. However, it’s clear that significant changes are coming to Name, Image, and Likeness, or the NCAA is attempting to make big changes. An announcement could happen as soon as Monday, and everyone is anxiously awaiting.

Contact/Follow us @CornhuskersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Nebraska news, notes and opinion.

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B.T. Potter signs NIL deal with The Clemson Insider

The Clemson Insider is excited to announce our first name, image and likeness endorsement deal. Clemson football senior kicker B.T. Potter has signed an advertising agreement with TCI. “I am happy to have B.T. signed as our first NIL deal. He comes …

The Clemson Insider is excited to announce our first name, image and likeness endorsement deal.

Clemson football senior kicker B.T. Potter has signed an advertising agreement with TCI.

“I am happy to have B.T. signed as our first NIL deal. He comes from a great family and has been a great representative of Clemson University,  I look forward to having B.T. help us promote The Clemson Insider,” said Robert MacRae.

The NCAA formally changed its policy to allow student-athletes to receive compensation in exchange for the use of their name, image and likeness on July 1.

“The world of college athletics changed on July 1,” MacRae said. “As soon as it became clear that players at Clemson would be able to be paid for the use of their name, image and likeness I began to investigate opportunities to promote TCI.  I look forward to announcing more advertising agreements in the near future.”

Potter has shown his gift of a big leg on kickoffs and scoring attempts. The senior enters the 2021 season with a 32-of-45 career mark on field goals and a 147-of-148 mark on PATs in 42 career games (27 starts). The Rock Hill, S.C., native also enters this season averaging 63.5 yards on 299 kickoffs with 231 touchbacks since 2018.

Potter opened his career converting his first 122 consecutive PATs, a school record, and holds the CFP National Championship Game record for longest field goal, which he converted on a 52-yarder against LSU. The kick was one of his Clemson record tying five field goals of 50 yards or more heading into the 2021 campaign.

In 2020, Potter earned an All-ACC Academic Team selection and was named a finalist for the Lou Groza Award for the nation’s top kicker. He made 18-of-23 field-goal attempts and 61-of-62 PATs in 12 games. And Potter was the only player in the nation with 15-plus field goals and 70-plus touchbacks.

Potter was also a highly touted recruit after a stellar career at South Pointe High School, S.C. As a Stallion he converted on 31-of-45 field goal attempts and made 211 PATs. His success earned him a top 10 ranking at his position by most recruiting services including a No. 1 kicker ranking by Chris Sailer.

Time to get the latest Clemson apparel to show your Tiger pride. Order your officially licensed Clemson gear right here!

Which Irish true freshman could benefit most from NIL?

Which Notre Dame incoming freshman could be in line for a payday when they can profit from their name, image and likeness?

When the NCAA made the decision that collegiate athletes would soon be able to profit off their name, image and likeness (NIL), it opened up a whole new world for football stars who have yet to make it to the highest level. Rivals took a guess at which incoming freshman would benefit the most from this and their choice of an Irish player might surprise you.

Mike Farrell, Rivals recruiting director, placed wide receiver Jordan Johnson one of the freshmen who could benefit the most from the NIL ruling. Johnson placed 8th on Farrell’s list, claiming that “the quarterback gets all the attention usually, but a five-star Midwest receiver having a huge career at Notre Dame could me him very valuable.”

Rivals ranked Johnson as the best prospect in the 2020 Irish recruiting class, in front of tight end Michael Mayer, offensive lineman Tosh Baker and speedy running back Chris Tyree. Farrell is right with his assessment that it’s usually a quarterback that gets all the hype, but skill position players can get plenty of love as well. I would expect Tyree to be a wanted man for his services as well and could possible rival what Farrell thinks Johnson could bring to the table.

No one really knows what could be in store for athletes when this ruling finally passes. August 30th is the next big date, as each NCAA division is expected to have a draft of what their NIL proposals will be. What we do know is this will usher in a new era for college football, and potentially keeping star players on campus for longer than expected.

NCAA takes step toward allowing athletes to earn income from endorsements, social media content

The NCAA announced Wednesday it is taking steps toward allowing athletes to earn income from endorsements, social media content.

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The NCAA took a dramatic step Wednesday toward allowing college athletes to earn income for things like product endorsements and social media content when its Board of Governors approved a broad set of recommendations to address an issue that has put college sports leaders under significant political pressure over the last year.

With state legislatures across the country passing or looking into laws that would allow for college athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness and members of Congress also sounding the alarm on the issue, what the NCAA announced Wednesday represents a significant change from prior NCAA policy.

“Allowing promotions and third-party endorsements is unchartered territory,” Ohio State president and Board of Governors chairman Michael Drake said in a release.

Still, it’s unclear whether the NCAA’s action to broaden name, image and likeness rights will be enough to get lawmakers to back down. Though the working group presented broad recommendations that would be seen as a significant win for college athletes’ rights, there are several details that remain unresolved on exactly how the new rules would be written and enforced.

The process of codifying those recommendations into NCAA legislation will occur over the course of 2020, with an expected vote happening at the next NCAA convention in January.

“While we wait optimistically for changes, we’ve been down this road before,” said state representative Chip LaMarca, who sponsored the Florida bill that passed in March and is waiting for a signature from Gov. Ron DeSantis. “It is my hope that this is not another hidden ball trick allowing the NCAA to punt this issue down the field. With this global pandemic challenging our economy, now more than ever we must give flexibility to all students to both continue their education and provide for themselves and their families.”

As revolutionary as they are within the college sports ecosystem, the NCAA’s recommendations will not come without critics.

One of the major points of contention will be regulation of potential marketing deals for college athletes. The NCAA working group has recommended that any financial transactions be disclosed to the schools and that the fees for those activities should be within an established range of market values.

In other words, if an average commercial for a car dealership is worth $50,000, a college athlete being offered $500,000 would potentially raise a red flag. How those issues are adjudicated will be watched closely, and some NCAA critics will argue it shouldn’t be regulated at all. From the beginning, the NCAA has maintained that it does not want money associated with name, image and likeness rights to be a proxy for recruiting athletes to a particular school.

The recommendations also do not deal with the notion of group licensing rights, which would be key to a revival of the EA Sports college football video game, for instance.

The NCAA’s release Wednesday calls on Congress to pass a law that would “ensure federal preemption over state name, image and likeness laws” and established a “safe harbor” for protection against lawsuits filed against the NCAA over name, image and likeness rules.

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