Auburn has perfect approach to the NIL issue for its athletes

The NCAA, and surely some schools, don't love the idea of athletes being able to capitalize on their name, image and likeness. But Auburn is one school that's ready to fully embrace it.

Yes, there’s a broad issue, centered on equality as the buzzword, over how much money (as an example) Alabama’s starting quarterback could make off their name, image and likeness compared to (as an example) the third-string kicker. But there’s still no reason college athletes, who create the money machine for the NCAA and the schools they go to, shouldn’t be able to capitalize on their image while still in school.

As an example, though a bit of an outlier, Andrew Brandt of Sports Illustrated estimated former Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence lost no less than $3 to $5 million in possible NIL (name, image, likeness) earnings while in college. As states advance and approve NIL legislation, it was among the things chalked up to circumstance and timing that cost Lawrence a boatload of money over three years in college.

A lot of the bigger schools would surely rather athletes remained free labor, with no way to make money off their names. Alabama’s NIL bill is slated to take effect July 1.

Here’s what Auburn athletic director Allen Greene said this week (h/t to 247 Sports).

If anybody can pin down NIL, I’d like to know who that person is,” Auburn athletic director Allen Greene said this week before an alumni event in Birmingham. “Because it’s a little bit all over the place.”

We’re still learning interpretations from the state law,” Greene said. “Obviously, each state is different. They talk about it, it’s not supposed to impact recruiting, but we all know it will, and so what does that look like? None of us know that until we get in it and the dust settles around it. 

“But we want to provide an opportunity for our student-athletes, those who want to have an ability to make some money off of name, image, likeness, for them to be able to do so.

While acknowledging the uncertainty around NIL, the last line of Greene’s comments say it all in terms of how schools should be approaching it. Athletes being able to capitalize on their name, image and likeness is easy to see as a benefit to a school’s bottom line, with real value to any extra visibility that comes via social media, etc. So it is something to be embraced, and for athletes to be educated about.

Whether the NCAA should effectively be putting the matter of NIL in the hands of individual states is a different conversation. But Auburn has the right approach to athletes being able to make money, and any big schools who are resisting should get on board too.