American Top Team will be offering Name, Image, Likeness contracts to every University of Miami scholarship football player according to the Sports Business Journal and Gary Ferman of Canesport.com.
At the beginning of the month, college student athletes were allowed to solicit their Name, Image and Likeness for monetary compensation. Previously, this was forbidden by the NCAA. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the NCAA in a case concerning the compensation of collegiate athletes. The Supreme Court affirmed lower courts decisions that restrictions on providing college athletes with non-cash compensation for academic-related purposes were a violation of antitrust law. These two happenings go hand-in-hand with the momentum that college student athletes should be afforded the opportunity to take advantage of their name, image and likeness for commercial purposes.
The 90 Miami Hurricanes football players “will be offered $500 a month for up to $6,000 to endorse American Top Team through their social media accounts, personal appearances and other marketing vehicles.” The total investment “could reach $540,000.”
Dan Lambert, head of ATT, created “Bring Back the U,” a marketing company that will handle the NILs. He will recruit other businesses to participate in NIL campaigns with Miami. Lambert also recruited Jorge Masvidal to “serve as an ambassador” for the company.
Payout Perspective:
This is a big deal for the University of Miami football team as many deals right off the bat will mainly affect stars on college teams. However, Lambert’s offer will go to many players that are not the stars of the Miami team. While $500 month is not a lot, its much more than what athletes had a year ago. In fact, if they received any money last year, they would be in violation of NCAA rules. The new era of NILs will be interesting and Lambert’s move into it helps his business as he gets to remain an involved booster and perhaps scout potential MMA crossovers from the football team.
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