Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel has long been a proponent of Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) rules for college student-athletes.
He’s on record as supporting them nearly two years ago, when the NCAA overturned its original policy and begin to allow players the ability to cash in.
“It’s something that I’ve never felt as an administrator (that we should be restricting) — that we controlled the name, image and likeness of our student-athletes,” Manuel said last week on the school-produced “Conqur’ing Heroes” podcast.
“Why not allow them to benefit from jersey sales, benefit from the ability to go out and do endorsements, to do signings of autographs and get revenue from that, and many other things that they do.”
The issue for Manuel, and other schools trying to abide by the rules, is inducements. Under Michigan state law and NCAA policy, schools and affiliated groups are not permitted to promise any prospective student-athlete money for attending. In theory, those deals should be taking place after the player enrolls.
But various reports and even Manuel himself, through direct communication with his coaches on the recruiting trail, tell a different story.
“Schools telling kids that ‘we will pay you X if you come to our institution,’” Manuel said. “That’s not a part of where intercollegiate athletics should be, but it is something that we have to deal with.”
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There have been attempts by school administrators, conference commissioners and new NCAA president Charlie Baker to push for federal legislation evening the playing field. But until Congress decides to act, NIL remains an ever-evolving issue in college sports.
As a result, individual fundraising groups known as “collectives” have sprouted up in recent months, all with a similar goal of finding ways to support their affiliated school’s student-athletes.
Currently, Michigan has five collectives — Valiant Management’s Champions Circle, MGoDAO, Ann Arbor NIL Club, Stadium & Main, and Hail! Impact — all endorsed by Manuel and the athletic department.
“I’ve had several meetings with collectives that are supporting our student-athletes, and what I ask them to do is do things the right way,” Manuel said. “If student-athletes are going to benefit from a collective and what they decide to do, that they benefit from actually doing what you’re providing, that there are no inducements, that we don’t get into a situation where we’re talking to recruits and they get to some of our recruits and promise them money if they to come to Michigan.”
Michigan football Jim Harbaugh is on record as supporting Name, Image and Likeness for players, but described his philosophy last summer as “transformative, not transactional.” In other words, Harbaugh doesn’t seem to believe in inducements either.
“What we promise students at Michigan is that we’re going to support you with NIL and your ability to make money off NIL,” Manuel said. “But we’re also promising is that we’re going to teach you how to use NIL for life. This is not just about the money you get now — but educating them so that for the rest of their lives, they can make money off their name and who they are, they can understand contracts, they can understand how to market themselves, they can understand how to get jobs and use that to their benefit and benefit of their family, how they can network and use that connection to do the things that they need to do.”
Sounds great, right? Well, Michigan has struggled at times in landing high-profile recruits, and in some cases NIL has been blamed. Star basketball player Hunter Dickinson left the program this spring and suggested that NIL was a reason. Former starting quarterback Cade McNamara, who transferred to Big Ten foe Iowa in December, criticized Michigan’s NIL approach after departing.
Earlier this month, Michigan launched its own program, “M Power,” as a front-facing conduit to help drum up financial support and link student-athletes to NIL opportunities.
“For me, it’s really about working with our collectives, connecting to them, and having our student-athletes from collectives that are doing it the right way, that are taking kids once they get here and helping them secure resources for themselves off their Name, Image and Likeness,” Manuel said. “And I believe the ones that I’ve talked to have that value for our student-athletes; I just emphasize to them to do it the right way.”
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Michigan AD updates school policy on NIL, collectives: ‘Do it the right way’ - MLive.com
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