Name, image, likeness: Marketers help college athletes learn new landscape for revenue

Athletes at the University of Akron, Kent State, Ohio State and colleges around the country have been able to monetize the use of their names, images and likenesses for the last three years — but they're still new to navigating the nuances of this "NIL" landscape.

Two representatives of Learfield, a sports marketing company that handles tickets sales, NIL representation and more for UA and other universities, told an Akron Roundtable audience Thursday that students must take into account a broad range of opportunities including marketing deals on social media, commercials, athletic camps, fundraisers and more as they compete in the most lucrative country for collegiate sports.

"This is the only country in the world where such a high level of athletics is tied to such a high revenue-generating enterprise, where we have against significant dollars being associated with higher education," said Chris Bloomfield, Learfield's vice President of multimedia rights. "Learfield has been a thought leader for our university partners, and we're here to help them navigate these uncharted waters."

And barriers continue to fall; as of this year, the NCAA began allowing players to transfer schools and play immediately, eliminating the previous rule that they must sit out a season after switching teams.

Before the Supreme Court in June 2021 that college athletes could make money through various marketing avenues, players could not receive any non-scholarship funding. Even today, they still cannot be paid based on performance or accept deals related based on their attendance at a certain school.

Since April, college athletes have had the ability to work with third-party agents like Learfield to gain sponsorship and brand deals in compliance with their states' laws. A settlement between the NCAA and the Power 5 conferences that would allow universities to directly pay athletes for their name, image and likeness, is pending approval. Currently, athletes are paid by fundraising organizations called collectives.

Learfield, which works with over 150 universities for NIL, made 500 brand partner deals involving NIL last year, according to the company's 2023-23 NIL Stats. The median deal amount per athlete was $3,000.

"The role that we're playing in the space is providing authentic and real brand deals to our student athletes and allowing them to market for local and national companies out into the community, to make charitable appearances and be compensated for their time associated with that," said Matt Heichemer, Learfield's manager of NIL business development and operations who works with the company's Ohio State Sports Properties.

Bloomfield said football, men's basketball, women's basketball, baseball and softball are the five sports with the most NIL deals currently, in that order. Learfield recently worked with State Farm to set up the appearance of Caitlin Clark, former Iowa women's basketball star and current player for Indiana Fever WNBA team, in a commercial.

Bloomfield stressed his company is focused on authenticity in its partnerships and creating connections between their athletes, brands and the community.

"The University of Alabama baseball player who we found out through our team in Alabama was a big strawberry fan and loved to eat strawberries prior to every game, and through their relationship with Sweet Grown Alabama, which promoted fruits and vegetables for the state of Alabama, they connected the dots, and he became an endorser or spokesperson for Sweet Grown Alabama," he said. "Those are the types of connections we're looking to make."

Since NIL deals may now come into the minds of local high school athletes looking to play in college, Heichemer said it's important for these future stars to keep in mind their "main thing" is still their athletic performance.

When growing an online platform, high school and college players should remember to reflect on what their posts and messages say about them, he said.

"Pay attention to your image online, the same things that we've always talked about it," Heichemer said. "You just have now financial incentives in order to promote yourself better online, not to misrepresent yourself, your university, your community or your family. A piece of advice my dad always gave me growing up, he said, 'Someone's always watching.' No matter what, someone's always paying attention. That's never ever more present than right now."

Reporter Isabella Schreck can be contacted at ischreck@gannett.com.