How NIL Will Affect LSU Football in Recruiting

Tigers trying to set the standard for name, image and likeness as new era of college athletics begins

LSU football wants to benefit from NIL with recruiting, and the plans have already begun to take shape.

New regulations began to unfold with name, image and likeness (NIL). College athletes can now make money without being penalized by the NCAA and lose their amateur status. With this legislation comes an opportunity for the LSU football program to distinguish itself as a top-notch NIL institution that promotes its athletes to profit themselves, as well as use the LSU logos as part of a football player’s ability to be marketable in the first place.

This is the NIL document that #LSU distributed to its athletes.

It will allow them to use school marks AND facilities if approved, as its law states.

This is a notable difference in the NIL patchwork. Several schools are outright prohibiting these.

Hello, recruiting advantage. pic.twitter.com/grq9ZSFMJe

— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) July 1, 2021

The above piece of literature was handed out to LSU athletes. It truly identifies how LSU athletes can and will use LSU as a bargaining tool when negotiating with a restaurant, sports memorabilia company, or other type of business. Further, a LSU player could start a business and utilize the same LSU logos and that would be fine as well.

What does this mean? NIL will benefit not only LSU football players, but it should be a recruiting tool for LSU Head Coach Ed Orgeron and his coaching staff. In fact, the inside scuttlebutt is that LSU does indeed want NIL to be a big recruiting tool.

LSU Attempting to Set the Standard

This is a brilliant move. By staying ahead of many of the other college football programs with how NIL is promoted to recruits, the Tigers stand a good chance to land more top talent. While this groundbreaking legislation has no past history to research, it’s not difficult to assume top-notch high school football recruits would prefer to make more money by using LSU as a major endorsement opportunity.

For instance, with all of the top recruits the Tigers go after within Louisiana and around the country, there could be a few more recruiting wins because Coach Orgeron and his staff lay out to a recruit and his family how LSU will promote that young man’s business opportunities. It’s legal. Now LSU stands to capitalize along the recruiting trail. There will still be some interesting issues that need to be resolved from a legal standpoint, however.

More Legislation to Come

This ongoing NIL legislation could take many turns, as LSU Country already wrote on Thursday, July 1, “In other words, while LSU is one of the most prepared schools in pushing NIL forward, a lot of unknown situations will keep the administration on its toes as it learns more and more about what is and what isn’t allowed.”

You can read the entirety of the article here: LSU Athletes Begin Announcing Endorsement Deals as Louisiana is Set to Sign NIL Policy.

There will be state policies that differ (that’s an entire recruiting issue within itself), school policies that differ, and of course the federal government will eventually try to pass national legislation. While the last point is almost impossible as many states quite frankly do not agree on many laws, let’s focus on the first two points.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards passed NIL into effect on July 1, which is important. LSU had to wait for the policy to be passed before officially allowing its athletes to use the LSU logo or any other form of LSU intellectual property for their own personal profit. With that passed, now the LSU brand will be monetized by football players and athletes alike.

The Recruiting Wars

As for schools, this is where the new war in recruiting begins to take shape, and it’s endless as to how a program such as LSU can pitch a recruit because of NIL. Take this photo from Twitter as an example:

Where my LSU fans at? #GeauxTigers pic.twitter.com/ckKUIeCrJq

— Kelvin Banks Jr🎸 (@Kelvinbanksjr12) July 2, 2021

Within the tweet at the lower right right side it states:

“Maximize your personal brand on college football’s greatest stage.”

LSU already began to utilize NIL with recruiting. Imagine all the possible selling points as time passes by and LSU’s coaches and recruiting administrative staff brainstorm about ways to use NIL.

“If you earn the right to wear the No. 7 jersey, imagine how much money you will earn from endorsements prior to even going to the NFL.”

That statement could be Coach Orgeron or any LSU Head Coach thereafter. A similar statement to solidify a recruiting commitment could be:

“Come to LSU and play football for the Tigers because you can profit more with our logos and branding than what other schools will allow you to do.”

At this point, we honestly do not know how far LSU football or any other college football program will allow their football players to go, but the above statements do hold some potential for actually taking place.

Final Thoughts

Before going too far, just know that NIL will be used as a recruiting tool by the football program. The LSU coaching staff is projected to really take advantage of the opportunities the LSU administration is allowing with logos and branding. It appears to be working, too. Banks is a great example as that tweet did not just happen out of thin air.

If LSU wins even two or three more recruiting battles per year because of its own NIL policy with football players, those two or three recruits could be why the Tigers end up winning the SEC West and holding a chance to advance to the college football playoffs. The Tigers are off and running with NIL as a recruiting tool.