There are a lot of college athletes in the United States who have NIL (Name. Image. Likeness.) deals. Many people in America believe that college students/athletes shouldn’t get paid to attend school and play sports, but I believe they deserve to make the money they make.
They deserve to make money for themselves because the university they attend can make money off their likeness. When a college has an excellent player and everyone wants to see him, that increases ticket sales. Those players also tend to have a social media platform that they could easily make money off of, but the NCAA used to keep them from doing this. There are many cases of people who were great athletes but were punished by the NCAA for receiving special benefits and/or making money off of their likenesses on social media platforms.
Multiple players have gotten in trouble for trying to make money while being in college. Some of these players accepted deals from colleges/companies and others made it from their social media platforms. I will go over some of the players who have gotten in trouble with the NCAA.
Former NFL star Reggie Bush was a running back for the USC Trojans in the early 2000s. In 2005, Reggie won the Heisman Award for being the most outstanding player in college football. He got his Heisman award taken away after the NCAA investigated him for accepting special benefits. Since August of 2021, when NIL deals became legal, people believed that Reggie Bush deserves to get his Heisman award back.
Famous influencer Donald De La Haye Jr. or “Deestroying” is a YouTuber and former college athlete. De La Haye Jr. was the University of Central Florida (UCF) kicker. He was told by the NCAA that he would have to choose between college football and YouTube. He has made a very successful platform and he still has a very good ability to kick and many people think he should be in the NFL.
Many athletes can make millions of dollars per year while still being able to play sports in college. A lot of people like this and a lot of people disagree with this.
One of the biggest NIL deal stars is Livvy Dunne. She is a gymnast for the LSU Tigers. She has a really big TikTok platform of 7.8 million followers and she makes 3.5 million dollars annually. Livvy is a very skilled gymnast and has even competed against other famous gymnasts such as Simone Biles.
The biggest NIL deal star is Bronny James. He is a freshman basketball player at the University of Southern California (USC). Bronny is also the son of NBA star LeBron James. He makes over 7.1 million dollars annually. Because Bronny is the son of LeBron he is likely to have a big platform on whatever he uses so he has lots of NIL deals. Bronny is also a part of the FAZE Clan which is an esports group.
All in all, I am glad that athletes can earn the money they deserve. These men and women put just as much work in as the pros so they should be able to reap the benefits. They all have a platform to earn their money and advertise sponsors who want to pay them for advertisement. I am glad the NCAA finally allowed NIL deals to happen.