Syracuse lacrosse player Morgan Alexander is intrigued by what new NIL legislation could meanMARC BRYAN-BROWN
A panel of five D-I student-athletes all agreed that the issue of name, image and likeness is not often discussed in locker rooms, but they noted that teammates whom the legislation could impact more directly are certainly taking an interest. Speaking on Day 1 of the '19 Learfield IMG College Intercollegiate Athletics Forum, Stanford LB Casey Toohill said a conversation about NIL “needs to be had, and I’m happy that it's being pushed forward.” However, Toohill said he worries the legislation is “coming through a little bit quickly.” He said, “There can be a lot of consequences for that.” Virginia LB Jordan Mack said it will be “interesting to see if student-athletes benefit and get paid off their likeness in terms of how other students are able to,” like receiving fees for “having their own YouTube channels or just things like what normal students can do.” UConn women’s lacrosse player Kiera Dalmass, who sits on the NCAA D-I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, said there are a number of complexities to consider: “How does it affect our international student-athletes? How does it affect the internet, the student-athletes who are from minority groups, like women? How do you differentiate between that? What about state lines? If I'm from a state university and somebody else is from a private institution from somewhere else, how do we differentiate that type?”
ROOM FOR CHANGE: Dalmass offered a thorough take on what she would change about the current college model: “I've been able to see how much the student-athlete development people work with the athletes,” she said. “And how much time that they put into everything, as well as the athletic advisors. So, my first thing would be that they deserve better pay than what they get. The time and effort they put into all their student-athletes is very valuable. And I don't see it necessarily reciprocated all the time.” Dalmass believes more holistic resources for student athletes is also important. She said, “Having financial literacy, professional development, family, consumer sciences types of classes -- that would be really beneficial for a lot of our student-athletes, especially because some of them don't have the time to have a job where they could learn these types of qualities outside of the student-athlete experience.” She also questions why there is “not enough scrutiny toward the student-athletes who may have sexual misconduct violations or sexual assault or previous history of convicted domestic violence.”
