Clemson football: Understanding what interim NIL policy means for Tigers

Things are about to change in a big way for Clemson football players in terms of their ability to profit off their name, image and likeness.

Eight states across the country are set to have NIL bills go into effect this July and the NCAA was put in its place in a unanimous loss in the U.S. Supreme Court that basically deemed ‘amateurism was dead.’

The state of South Carolina has an NIL bill signed and set to go into effect in July of 2022, but that doesn’t mean Clemson football players will have to wait that long to benefit.

Because of the pressure being applied, the NCAA has adopted an “interim policy” that will “suspend amateurism rules related to name, image and likeness.” That policy will be adopted by the NCAA Division 1 Board of Directors on Wednesday, just a day before the individual state’s policies are set to go into effect.

According to reports from The Washington Post, here’s a look at what the interim policy will allow:

• College athletes can engage in NIL activities that are consistent with the law of the state where the school is located. Colleges and universities are responsible for determining whether those activities are consistent with state law.
• Student-athletes who attend a school in a state without a NIL law can engage in this type of activity without violating NCAA rules related to name, image and likeness.
• College athletes can use a professional services provider for NIL activities.

The policy states that the athletes are responsible for reporting their NIL activities to their school and that the policy still prohibits “pay-for-play” and “improper inducements tied to choosing to attend a particular school.”

What does the new NIL policy mean for Clemson football players?

In short the new NIL policy means that Clemson players- and college athletes all across the country regardless of sport or location, for that matter- can make money based off their name, image and likeness.

A few examples of what might be entailed in this:

• Companies could pay the athlete for a ‘social media shoutout’
• The athlete could generate revenue from social media (ie. Youtube or TikTok) subscribers due to their own creative content
• A company could pay for an athlete to endorse their product in traditional forms of advertisement (ie. billboard, TV commercial)
• Perhaps the return of the NCAA Football video game franchise could yield money to athletes for their likeness in the game

There are multitudes of ways that athletes could potentially earn money through NIL, but the important thing to remember here is that it’s not *technically* paying them to play football or basketball or baseball or volleyball, etc. Of course, we all know that the athletes have their platform- in most cases- because of the sport they play.

Athletes will be able to hire professional agencies to help manage those NIL opportunities.

An interesting portion that not many have talked about is the fact that college athletes who benefit from NIL will now have to pay taxes on their profit. There’s no doubt the IRS is going to have its eyes focused heavily upon this new development and that means student-athletes have to be careful in documentation so that they do not face tax troubles in the future.

In all of this, the NCAA has passed the buck to the individual athletes and to their schools. That means, unless something changes, there will be very little monitoring by the organization to police it, which could lead to troubles down the road, as well.

So, yes. In short, Clemson football players and athletes across the nation can now make money from their NIL. In long, this is a complex issue when many open-ended questions that have yet to be answered.

Ready or not, welcome to the new world of College Athletics.