Name, Image and Likeness. A conversation with the founder of the NIL Network, Michelle Meyer

July 1, 2021 was a landmark day for NCAA student-athletes.

On that day the NCAA granted athletes permission to earn money or services for their Name, Image and Likeness – NIL.

Michelle Meyer played Division 1 volleyball at Cal-Santa Barbara and was an assistant volleyball coach at both the University of Hawaii and Pepperdine University. Eight months before NLI was born, Michelle created the NIL Network, a website to help athletes, parents, coaches and administrators navigate this recent addition to the college landscape.

I sat with Michelle after her presentation at the United Soccer Coaches convention in Kansas City in mid-January. We reviewed the first six months of NLI – the trends, the myths and the strategies for Olympic Sport athletes.

Here is my conversation with Michelle as heard on SiriusXM FC’s “The Coaching Academy.” It has been edited for length and clarity.

Glenn Crooks: We spoke in the early stages of the NIL. What is your update after six months?

Michelle Meyer: The updates just keep coming. It seems that every single week there is a new kind of massive headline. Three weeks into the year a couple of states are looking at repealing their NIL bill that they passed last year. Florida, Alabama and Oregon are all looking at either repealing or changing their NIL laws basically from the recruiting advantage standpoint. 

GC: Who is at the forefront of that? Is it college administrators, athletic directors, the coaches themselves?

MM: I'd say at Alabama it’s probably Nick Saban. They finished second this year. So that must be because the NIL bill was too restrictive.

GC: Saban and the winning coach at Georgia, Kirby Smart were both quoted as saying that the NIL was problematic.

MM: Yeah, they both are asking for a federal NIL bill to “level” the playing field and saying, “oh, if we don't have that, then it's going to have advantages for one institution over another.” And I'm going, “is this coming from two of the best football programs who have dominated the space in the last two decades?”

GC: They are the two football programs that spend more money on recruiting than any other program in the country.

MM: They’re rich programs that have built these massive crazy facilities and all the best things. And I'm going, “are you sure it's not just because Texas has put up a $10 million NIL fund and included $50,000 to their offensive linemen, and potentially Alabama donors can't quite match that?” I don't know.

GC: You put up a graphic indicating which states had laws or legislation, which states had them in progress, and then those that don't have anything in place. Can’t we have just one federal mandate as to how this should operate? Why is it state by state? And what's going on with the states that don't have anything

MM: California was the first one who passed their NIL law in the fall of 2019. Then Florida passed their bill to go into effect July 1st, 2021. At that point, we didn't know what the NCAA was going to do in terms of NIL. The schools in the Southeast like Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana are all going “if our athletes don't have the rights to monetize their NIL, come July 1, we are going to be at a disadvantage.” Their college coaches went and lobbied their senators and their state government to pass an NIL bill to go into effect on July 1. As we know, now the NCAA essentially just put their interim policy in place and scratched out their rules around Name, Image, Likeness on July 1. That gave the rights to all college athletes across the country of every state, regardless of a state NIL law or not, to monetize their NIL.

GC: So, any kid in any state can earn money under that rule? 

MM: Yes. A lot of the states passed it just so that it has something in place for their athletes on July 1. Then the states have put in more restrictive rules than what the NCAA policy says. Now many are saying, well, let's repeal that.

GC: What kind of restrictions would be called “recruiting disadvantages”?

MM: Mostly if a school, coach or employee of the university aren’t permitted to have any of their hands in facilitating deals with brands and companies on behalf of their athletes. 

GC: What exactly is a coach's involvement? What's permissible? 

MM: It differs state by state and with each institution. And that's what's making a lot of this such a headache for everyone to navigate. If they do not have a state NIL bill and their policy permits it, then a coach could go out and connect a brand with a specific athlete. It really comes down to education - talking to the athletes about all the different opportunities and educating the local community and your alumni boosters.

GC: The players, coaches and others must be diligent in understanding what's going on in their state and university. There's some work to be done to make sure that you're doing it the right way - you could get in trouble if you don't.

MM: Yeah, I think especially in these first couple years it's going to be those athletes with a bit more of the entrepreneurial spirit that are really getting after the NIL deals because it's not easy for them right now at all.

GC: For soccer players and other Olympic Sport athletes, how are they earning money for the most part?

MM: In soccer, it's mostly through social media endorsement deals which I do think is the easiest way for athletes to get started in NIL opportunities, because it really is just connecting with the brand, negotiating some of the terms and then whatever you’ve got to post on Instagram. It doesn’t have to be doing a ton of research, building a business plan like some of these other opportunities such as coaching a clinic or a camp where you're dealing with liability insurance and renting facilities and registration and those things.

GC: In your presentation, though, you encouraged the athletes to look at the camp possibilities. And I think every college coach or most have had summer camps within their university framework and there is money to be made there. If it's organized and they understand how to do it, athletes could make some pretty good cash.

MM: And I think that the reason I push the coaching elements is because I am the former coach, and I know that when I run camps and clinics, they're fun - plus you learn so much from a business standpoint. But college coaches - those are kind of their babies and their way to make some additional revenue during the summer months. And I think some are a little hesitant of saying, “what if my athlete pulls campers over to their camp instead of mine.” And that comes to leadership from a coach to talk to their athletes about the opportunity around the camp and tell them the week of their camp where they usually hire their athletes. I think it's a good opportunity for the athlete to even build the brand of the university - because if they're a college athlete, they're probably a big fish in a little pond. They go back and run a camp and say “hey, I'm an athlete at San Diego State soccer and so happy to be back running this camp.” 

GC: If someone's going to your website, what kind of information can they glean?

MM: The website is really geared towards athletes, coaches, administrators which I know are three wide buckets. The number one resource up there is my athlete Service Provider Directory, which is kind of the Yelp of NIL. It's got about 280 companies there that are working with athletes on some aspect of NIL.

GC: When you say service provider, can you define that? What's an example?

MM: I would say businesses that are focused on working with college athletes in the NIL space. The biggest kind of service provider that's listed on the website are what I'd call management agencies - the people who would represent athletes go get them brand deals and work with them on various aspects of their NIL.

GC: It sounds like an agent – how is that NCAA compliant?

MM: The NCAA has distinguished a sports agent from a marketing agent. College athletes can now sign with a marketing agent or a manager who's going out and only working on behalf of their NIL. That contract must end at the end of their eligibility.

GC: We're six months or so since NIL went into effect. What are some of the emerging trends?

MM: One of the top trends is the team and group deals. I think that for some of these bigger brands they got a better ROI and they got national publicity. For partnering with the entire team, it was potentially a safer choice because they didn't have to worry about signing a big deal with one athlete and maybe they get injured.

In the Olympic Sports like soccer, I think that's also a very good way for those athletes to get started - grab your teammates, go down to the local restaurant, see if you can figure out a partnership/sponsorship there. I think that it's a better pitch to local businesses, instead of saying, “Hey, I've got 1000 followers on Instagram” it could be 10 teammates each with 1,000 and now potentially 10,000 different people the business can reach.

The second trend are university specific platforms. There's so many now that have launched in the last two months and they are really working towards creating opportunities for athletes of all levels. Your top revenue generating sports athletes are going to have their management or marketing agency that's working on their behalf. But for the rest of the athletes, I think that some of these platforms are an easier way for local businesses to find them. 

GC: What are some myths about NIL?

MM: I think the one that always gets me the most is when I talk coaches who say their athletes aren’t interested. In my experience at San Diego State for the last two months I know that's not the case. I ran a poll with the athletes and over 90% of them said that they have an interest in doing NIL opportunities. 

GC: You’ve emphasized that the coaches, rather than trying to push NIL aside and ignore it, they need to engage in this and figure out the ways that they can help.

MM: One interesting piece that I've seen across the board is the interest from high school coaches and club coaches who are starting to get asked about it from their athletes. What that says to me is - even if athletes don't know enough about it - it's coming. So, what I keep trying to tell college coaches is to learn what you can about it, know your policy, know what other schools are offering and be able to talk about it. Because NIL is coming. And it's going to be part of a normal recruiting process in a few years.

GC: You’ve indicated how important is this in the recruiting process. What more can you suggest to college coaches?

MM: I think that for college coaches starting at the basics and learning about NIL. Find out about the benefits of NIL at your school. Do you have an entrepreneurship minor? What does your city look like? Are they big supporters of your school? And if not, are there a lot of local businesses that might look to engage with your athletes?