NCAA Issues New Name, Image, Likeness Guidelines

The NCAA is hoping to contain the scope of NIL deals amid widespread reports that boosters have been tampering with players at other schools.

PITTSBURGH -- The NCAA issued new guidelines regarding "the intersection of recruiting activities and the name, image and likeness environment," amid widespread reports that boosters at certain schools are misusing the existing rules and turning NIL deals into "pay-for-play" schemes. 

DI Board of Directors issues name, image and likeness guidance to schools: https://t.co/rClph1mEIu pic.twitter.com/pL4U6MwAPR

— NCAA News (@NCAA_PR) May 9, 2022

These new guidelines reiterate a key existing part of previous rules handed down by the NCAA -- that "boosters" or any third party are prohibited from offering players money in the form of NIL deals in exchange for playing at a certain school. This includes NIL collectives, which many schools are setting up to can funnel their boosters' vast wealth into the pockets of their players. 

One of the most notable parts of the NCAA's Monday afternoon statement was that they will empower enforcement staff to look into the past and retroactively punish schools who commit violations that occurred prior to May 9, 2022 and "clearly are contrary to the published interim policy, including the most severe violations of recruiting rules or payment for athletic performance."

But Georgia president Jere Morehead said that while these guidelines allow the NCAA to look backward, they are focused on future violations. 

"While the NCAA may pursue the most outrageous violations that were clearly contrary to the interim policy adopted last summer, our focus is on the future," Morehead said. "The new guidance establishes a common set of expectations for the Division I institutions moving forward, and the board expects all Division I institutions to follow our recruiting rules and operate within these reasonable expectations."

These guidelines come on the heels of a chaotic two weeks in college athletics, that began when rumors that Pitt receiver Jordan Addison, the 2021 Biletnikoff Award winner, was being recruited by USC before entering the transfer portal. Reports in the following days claimed that Addison was being offered multi-million dollar NIL deals in exchange for entering the transfer portal and enrolling at USC. 

That incident sparked a national conversation about the use of NIL rights in college athletics. Critics fear that the current NIL regulations only exacerbate the power imbalance that already exists between the richest and poorest in college athletics, particularly college football and men's basketball. 

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