Redefining Fair Play: The Impact of NIL Rights and Employment Status on Collegiate Athletes

Let’s start with the basics. NIL rights allow collegiate athletes to profit from their name, image, and likeness. This could be through endorsements, social media promotions, personal appearances, and more. Before recent changes, such policies were forbidden, and athletes were strictly amateurs, at least in the eyes of the NCAA, which meant they couldn’t earn from their soaring popularity, unlike their institutions which profited immensely from their performances.