Morehead State University athletics officials are sharing their thoughts on how college athletes will be best served by proposed NIL legislation. Since 2021, the NCAA has allowed college athletes to monetize and profit off their name, image, and likeness in what are known as NIL agreements. In that same year changes were also made to the transfer portal, which allows athletes to switch programs without having to sit out of games for a year at their new school.
Multiple MSU student athletes have NIL agreements. Kelly Wells, Director of Athletics at Morehead State University said the new rules of the transfer portal have led some student athletes to take risks with their current and potential future NIL offers.
“It’s really transformed really the whole outlook in terms of what athletics looks like on every level. And everything that happens at the NCAA level trickles down to all other levels. I think there was over 300 student-athletes left in the transfer portal that didn’t have a better offer or had a place to go to school that was at the same level,” Wells said.
West Virginia’s Joe Manchin and Alabama’s Tommy Tuberville put forth legislation that proposes NIL agreements include health insurance coverage for sports-related injuries. It states that insurance must cover student athletes for a period of eight years after graduation from a 4-year institution. Wells said he supports any proposal to help a student’s mental and physical well-being.
“I’m a big advocate for your health, physical health as well as your mental health and trying to find strategies to extend that past their eligibility stages, I think, is critically important. So, yes, I would say that there is a need for some of those things and it gets down to what your resources at your institution look like,” Wells said.
Some stakeholders believe an independent third-party, such as a sports agent, should have control over NIL agreements. Senator Ted Cruz proposed a bill that would give athletic associations like the NCAA the power to regulate NIL agreements and requires third parties to disclose potential conflicts of interest. Wells said regardless of who controls regulations, keeping the student-athlete the number one priority is most important.
“I don’t want to take the leverage away from the student-athlete because it is their name, their image, their likeness, so I don’t want to take that piece away from them,” said Wells. “But I think it’s healthy to have guidelines. While all of us have a different way of attacking things, we’ve got to stay within the boundaries too. So, I think having some boundaries and some structures is important. If it’s through the NCAA, so be it. If it’s through an outside party, so be it. ”
Wells added he would like to see future NIL agreements include more effective methods of providing information and guidance to athletes.
“You’re talking about students at a very impressionable age trying to make decisions about money and opportunities, and things of that nature, so I would love to see some guidance, some more hands-on approach for universities to be able to kind of guide people,” said Wells. “There’s nobody that’s going to care about our student-athletes more than the university and our coaches, and to be able to have some fingerprints on that will be very helpful.”
It’s possible the proposed NIL bills will be discussed within the next year.