On Thursday, July 1st, the NCAA Board passed an interim policy that would allow up-and-coming student-athletes and current student-athletes to make money using their names, photos, and portraits.
Under the NCAA rules changes, college athletes will be paid by social media accounts, broker advertising contracts, autographs, and other financial opportunities, and will do so using agents or representatives. In addition to the partnership, many student-athletes make some money using personal brands, which are mostly social media-based. University of Oregon basketball player Sedona Prince has already promised fans bespoke products. Prince has 2.5 million followers on TikTok, 240K Instagram followers, and 43.1K followers on Twitter. Similarly, LSU gymnast Olivia Dunne just launched a billboard in Times Square. Dunne has 3.9 million followers on TikTok and 1.1 million Instagram followers and is expected to be one of the highest-earning college athletes. Many High School players are reclassifying so they can sign endorsement deals to make big money in college. This is going to be a very interesting thing that could potentially be a bad thing in the future.