Clemson football: Prohibited NIL activities for Tiger athletes

Clemson football players, and athletes all across the nation regardless of sport, can now benefit from their name, image and likeness (NIL) according to the NCAA’s interim NIL policy that went into effect on Thursday, July 1st.

Because the NCAA offered no national direction, it has left up to the discretion of the university as to what policies to implement in terms of how to monitor and track NIL. While Clemson football players will likely benefit the most, NIL opportunities abound for athletes across many other sports.

Clemson athletes who ink NIL endorsements will have a list of guidelines to adhere to, according to the release by Clemson Athletics. 

Here’s the list of prohibited NIL categories for Clemson athletes:

• Tobacco
• Alcohol
• Illegal substances or activities
• Banned athletic substances
• Gambling, including, but not limited to, sports betting.

Clemson athletes will not be able to sign deals with companies in these categories.

In addition, Clemson University employees may not directly or indirectly facilitate NIL opportunities for athletes and Clemson University cannot use IPTAY members as a way to create compensation opportunities for athletes as a recruiting inducement or pay-for-play.

Are IPTAY members allowed to sign NIL deals with Clemson athletes?

IPTAY members are allowed to be involved in approved NIL activities as long as it is independent of the University and isn’t used as a recruiting inducement. What does that mean? It means that boosters who have companies can sign NIL deals with Clemson athletes, but they can’t attempt to breach the recruiting process by getting involved in that respect.

What is the role of the Clemson student-athlete in NIL?

Clemson athletes aren’t allowed to receive compensation from the university. According to the release, NIL activity may not take place during the intercollegiate athlete’s participation in academic, athletic, or team-mandated activities.

Athletes still must meet the academic requirements of the NCAA and ACC to remain eligible in their sport and must abide by Clemson’s policies in relation to class absences.

Athletes will use COMPASS to disclose their NIL activity to the university and generally must disclose the terms of their NIL agreement to Clemson prior to signing the contract.

Clemson football players have a solid outline for what is required of them as they pursue NIL ventures

As we look ahead to what the future of NIL might hold specifically with the Clemson football program, the one thing we can say is that Clemson University has done an excellent job outlining how to go about NIL appropriately while maintaining order.

Athletes understand that they still have responsibilities as a student and they must still attend team function, but they’ve also been given some free rein to go explore what options may be viable for themselves as they look to potentially build a brand.

It will be interesting to see what endorsement deals come out of Clemson in the coming weeks and what they look like, but it’s good for the university to have an outline in place to answer questions and to make sure all athletes remain in compliance with the NCAA.