NCAA approves new NIL rules to help athletes 'protect themselves'

PHOENIX — The NCAA Division I Council voted Wednesday to adopt new rules designed to help athletes avoid unscrupulous agents and unfavorable terms in name, image and likeness contracts.

Beginning in August, the NCAA will provide athletes with standardized contract recommendations for NIL deals and aggregated data to help schools and athletes get a more realistic picture of the going rates for endorsement deals. The federation also plans to create a voluntary registry of trusted and trusted agents which will be based largely on feedback from athletes who have worked with them in the past.

“We don't want to do anything to stand in the way of student-athletes trying to activate their NIL rights, but we want to help them basically protect themselves,” said John Steinbrecher, MAC commissioner and vice chair of the Division I Council. The board voted on the new rules during the NCAA's annual conference this week.

Additionally, the board has formally proposed new rules that, if passed, would be able to help facilitate deals between athletes and NIL groups — a move that would likely return some degree of control over roster management to campus athletic departments and teams. Schools and any associations associated with the NIL will remain prohibited from negotiating deals with recruits or transfers prior to enrolling.

The board is expected to vote on these proposed changes before the start of the next school year after gathering feedback from school leaders.

While these changes represent a major shift in policy for the NIL, which has previously tried to keep schools at arm's length from endorsement activity, they could quickly become moot if the NCAA decides to adopt more progressive rule changes next year. Last month, NCAA President Charlie Baker proposed a new, more dramatic policy shift that would, among other changes, allow schools to pay athletes directly to promote their universities through name, image and likeness deals.

Baker's proposal was intended to start a conversation rather than set specific policies. The NCAA Division I Board of Governors is expected to vote later this week on whether to formally begin discussing these changes. If they decide to move forward, these changes could be implemented as soon as the fall of 2024.

“We just had some conversations [about Baker’s proposal]”I don't know why I would feel scared about any of this,” Steinbrecher said. Let's focus on that. Let's think about what that means to us and how we want to help shape that. But let's move forward.”

Council members are optimistic that the rules put in place this week will remove some of the bad actors from the nothing market. There is currently no comprehensive source of public data to provide a clear picture of how much athletes earn from their deals. The aggregated, anonymized data shared by all NCAA members — there is no plan to share details of specific deals signed by athletes — can help schools and athletes get a more realistic picture of what to expect when negotiating deals with NIL companies and groups.

Standardized contract forms have not yet been finalized, but will likely include suggestions for terms of NIL deals, such as ensuring that contracts do not last longer than an athlete's college career or that the agent does not take an exorbitant percentage of the proceeds.

Morgen Winn, an Oklahoma State softball player and one of two athletes on the Division I council, said the rules adopted Wednesday are “absolutely necessary” to help athletes navigate their endorsement options.

“We were very supportive of the things that were put in place to protect student-athletes,” Wynn said. “I don't think there's really any concerns that should follow any of this.”

Among other items, the board also voted Wednesday to adopt more stringent penalties for individuals who violate NCAA rules. Going forward, suspended coaches will be required to stay away from their teams on days between games in addition to missing games themselves. Schools that hire coaches with incidental penalties for prior violations could receive penalties, and the NCAA plans to create a public database of individuals with a history of Level 1 or Level 2 violations.

Baker, who took over as union president in March, is expected to address the proposed changes and other key issues in college sports in his first annual State of the Union-style address to the conference on Wednesday night.