NAME IMAGE AND LIKENESS

NIL is the new normal and UW leadership has invested heavily to aid their student athletes in realizing their marketability and potential

BY BOB SHERWIN • FOR GO HUSKIES MAGAZINE

When the NCAA passed its long debated NIL legislation last July, opening the door for student-athletes to receive compensation, the University of Washington quickly welcomed the opportunity to assist its athletes and, perhaps inadvertently, its athletics.

NIL stands for ‘Name, Image, and Likeness.’ The NCAA passed the legislation after years of pressure from students-athlete advocates who believed that colleges had unfairly exploited them. The legislation, made official on July 1, 2021, gave studentathletes the opportunity to be financially rewarded, previously disallowed under NCAA rules.

University officials across the U.S. have reacted with varying degrees of commitment. Some readily accepted the change and have attempted to engage and connect student-athletes with beneficial programs while some have had a slow embrace while voicing concerns. Some leading influential college coaches have shared that NIL is not a sustainable model and could lead to buying players.

UW Athletic Director Jen Cohen responded rapidly to the NCAA move, saying at the time, “our university community has been strategic and collaborative so that Husky student-athletes will be able to hit the ground running when it comes to NIL. Our department’s core purpose of providing holistic development opportunities for our students has always been why we exist, and this commitment is why the UW is a perfect environment for students to thrive in the NIL era.”

Since no federal laws or regulations were in place to safeguard the NCAA legislation, it was up to the member institutions to fill in the blanks as they built their NIL programs. In Washington state, there are no laws pertinent to the NIL regulations. The NCAA’s primary directive was that all studentathletes must disclose any NIL activities to the university overseers for approval.

“What we did is put together our own policy, working with campus, working with general counsel, providing guardrails to make sure they are set up for success,” said Jamaal Walton, UW’s Senior Associate Athletic Director for Sports Administration & Strategic Initiatives. “The biggest thing is education.”

Walton worked with Jay Hilbrands, Senior Associate AD for External Relations, to establish programs that inform and educate UW’s studentathletes. Three women with expertise in social media are an integral part of UW’s NIL program. Karen Ramming, formerly the social media director for the Golden State Warriors, is Director of Digital Strategy and NIL. Amber Bunch, who has a sports law background, is the Assistant Director of NIL Education. She works with Ramming and Erica Cenci, Assistant Athletic Director for Student- Athlete Education, to guide the students and help develop their leadership skills.

UW has incorporated a multitude of programs, both within the school’s curriculum as well as the business community. Its touchstone program is Boundless Futures, started in 2018, before NIL. The program is a “comprehensive personal, professional and leadership development program designed to provide student-athletes with tools, training and education needed to build leaders in life and in the workplace.” The program has adapted to provide additional programs to help student-athletes pursue new avenues created by NIL legislation.

“Every student-athlete has the opportunity to have a foundational walkthrough,” Walton said. “We offer specialized topics such as establishing your brand, entering contracts and utilizing social networks.”

Boundless Futures has partnered with the university’s Foster School of Business (and the Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship) for a four-credit course focusing on NIL issues. The course, as UW outlines, “explores the intersection of athletics and business, covering key NIL topics such as personal brand development and strategy, business and entrepreneurship, and opportunity evaluation.”

More than 40 students took the class last fall, taught by Betsy Sperry, who developed the One Degree Brand Chemistry.

One restriction placed on member institutions by the NCAA is that university personnel are not allowed to negotiate deals between students and potential sponsors. Students are essentially their own entrepreneurs and sales force. But universities can facilitate the process by involving private companies that specialize in NIL assistance such as Opendorse, a national outfit that claims to service more than 70,000 student-athletes.

“It provides the student-athletes with creative content to build their personal brands,” Walton said. “It gives them access to personalized graphics, videos and game photos.”

Another outside NIL program available to students is Altius Sports Partners, a national NIL educational consulting firm. It offers the students advice, counsel and demonstrates ways to maximize their brands.

UW alumni also found a way to support the school’s athletes through Montlake Futures, promoted by former Head Football Coach Chris Petersen, a Fritzky Chair in Leadership at the Foster School of Business. The program, not affiliated with the university, serves as a virtual NIL matchmaker.

Its mission statement is “it supports deals that create value for UW student-athletes, businesses, nonprofits, and our communities. . .we take no cut from the deals. We support and exist solely to benefit NIL at the University of Washington.”

Ramming said that she and her staff have taken numerous calls from other university representatives “looking to us for answers on how we do this. That’s a pretty good signal. I think we’re doing it the right way and we were early doing it the right way.”

Walton added, “You don’t find a lot of schools, maybe we’re the only school in the country, to have that investment in staff.”

Walton added that student-athletes are making ‘decent’ money from deals. He estimates the national average is between $900 to $1000. “Some student-athletes are above that average,” he said, “with multiple ones doing some unique things.”

Some athletes are not necessarily striking deals for themselves but raising funds and interest to benefit communities, local charities, and nonprofits. Ramming said it’s gratifying to see students enjoying success. “Something they are quickly learning is that the more you put into it, the more you get out of it,” she said.

With so much help from within and so many resources and programs outside the university in the Greater Seattle business community, there is also the unintended benefit to the UW athletic department, and its various sports programs. Prospective recruits and parents can just look around to see where the University of Washington is located. This is the 15th largest metro area in the U.S., the No. 11 economic market and the second largest tech hub. Some of the top Fortune 500 companies, such as Microsoft, Amazon, Starbucks, Costco, Nordstrom, T-Mobile, Eddie Bauer, Facebook, Google, Nintendo are headquartered or have major stakes in the region.

“Our coaches use it when NIL comes up in conversations,” Ramming said. Walton called it “our home field advantage.”

It’s a formidable lineup that makes it more difficult for other universities to compare and compete. It's not even a year old but it's thriving among students. As NIL continues to gain traction, the student-athletes' focus will be on where the opportunities are to help them not just on the playing field and in the classroom but the boardroom.

“They will see in their time at the UW where they’ve grown personally and professionally and become leaders in their own communities,” Walton added. “We don’t want to help our student-athletes just for the next four years but the next 40.”