Not surprisingly for a team coming off a Final Four that also happens to be located in a major entertainment capital, UCLA players are having a little NIL fun these days.
After the NCAA and a cascade of state laws enabled college athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness beginning on July 1, UCLA guards Jaylen Clark and Tyger Campbell launched their own cryptocurrencies.
Campbell has also signed on with the plant-based Honeybee Burger chain and has his own βFat Tygerβ sandwich at Fat Salβs deli (whose menu also contains a βFat Jaimeβ sandwich, even though UCLA guard Jaime Jaquez admits, βI tell people that itβs mine, but it was there before I got here.β)
During Pac-12 media day earlier this month, even bald-headed Bruins coach Mick Cronin got in on the fun.
βWe have a hair product line coming out, us three,β Cronin joked, sitting next to Jaquez and Pac-12 player-of-the-year candidate Johnny Juzang, βWeβve got a lot of stuff in the works. Itβs great for these guys and they deserve it. Iβm all for it. But look for our hair product line.β
Across town at USC, guard Drew Peterson says the Trojans get a lot of opportunities on social media and to promote things but that βwe know not to overstep our boundaries,β and make sure everything stays NCAA-complaint.
Except there really arenβt many boundaries β only the fuzzy definition that NIL deals are not to be meant as inducements for recruiting or as part of a pay-for-play scheme.
Last month, it was announced that all 13 of UNLVβs scholarship players would receive $500 monthly car allowances, essentially ensuring that anyone who plays there gets a free car. Is that an inducement?
And will Kentuckyβs future recruiting become even more formidable now that elite high school players saw UK freshman TyTy Washington of Laveen announce an endorsement deal with a Porsche dealership last week, posting a photo of himself driving a $70,000 Porsche Cayenne?
Meanwhile, what walk-on football player (and his parents) doesnβt want their tuition paid for, as Built Bar has arranged to for those at BYU?
βThereβs a lot of gray area,β Colorado coach Tad Boyle said. βBut the way the rule is written and the way NIL has been introduced, the players have to figure it out. And if coaches and institutions are part of the process, theyβre violating the intent of the rule.
βBut that doesnβt mean itβs not being violated,β he added with a chuckle.
The UNLV car arrangement may hit closest to home for Pac-12 coaches. The Rebels are smack within the conferenceβs geographic footprint and chase many of the same players that many Pac-12 schools do.
Boyle said the setup will have to be counteracted βor kids will just go to UNLV.β
How, exactly, remains unknown.
βWeβll see,β Boyle said. βI donβt know the answer to that.β
There could be other NIL deals that havenβt even become public, too, all potentially demanding some sort of response.
βTo be honest with you right now I think everybodyβs kind of guarding and protecting whatβs happening,β Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said. βYou really donβt know whatβs true, whatβs not true. Youβre hearing things that could be urban legend or could be true. So itβs hard to navigate right now.
βBut I think in the next little bit the dust will settle a little bit, and weβll start getting a better idea how itβs going to look for student-athletes.β
When asked about NIL earlier this month, Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff said the league is offering athletes free video βhighlight packagesβ to help promote themselves but also drawing a hard line against anything that could be used for inducement or pay-for-play.
βWeβve read about some of the deals, particularly in the Western United States, that look more like pay-for-play,β Kliavkoff said. βWeβre not in favor of those deals. Weβre very focused on making sure that we follow what we think will eventually be the national standard. No inducement. No pay-for-play.β
Right now, there isnβt a national standard, just a patchwork of state laws and a general ruling from the NCAA that athletes in states that donβt have NIL laws just need to stay within the NCAA rules.
βToday weβre in a little bit of the Wild West because we donβt have a fair playing field across all the United States,β Kliavkoff said. βBut weβre working with all of our schools. I would say weβre focused on making sure that eventually there is federal legislation and an even playing field.β
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown signed a state senate bill into law just two days before the interim NCAA NIL policy and various state laws went into effect on July 1, but Oregon coach Dana Altman said itβs still been tricky to navigate it all.
βIf the players have the ability to make some money, I think itβs great,β Altman said. βI think itβs a work in progress. People just donβt know how to respond. Our boosters donβt know how to respond. As coaches, we donβt know what the rules are. We donβt want to arrange anything because weβll get in trouble. So everybodyβs just kind of trying to figure it out.β
Another problem, Altman said, is the potential effect on team chemistry, no matter what rules are in play.
βItβs a team game still, and so weβre going to run into some of the problems that the professional ranks run into,β Altman said, as he sat next to Oregon standouts Will Richardson and Eric Williams on the Pac-12 media day stage. βIf Will gets something that Eric doesnβt and Ericβs upset about that, thereβs a whole new set of problems that coaches are gonna have to go through.β
But so far, at least, USCβs Peterson and ASU forward Marcus Bagley didnβt indicate that was a problem. Peterson said USC players are simply βhaving fun with it,β while Bagley said he doesnβt even talk with other players about it much.
After all, an NBA contract tends to pay a lot more than your everyday NIL deal does.
βI feel like it was a step in the right direction,β Bagley said of NIL. βBut youβve gotta stay focused on the task at hand, and thatβs winning and getting to the next level.β