Keith Carter weighs in on name, image, likeness issue facing Ole Miss, NCAA

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                                Ole Miss athletics director Keith Carter (Photo: OMA)

The issue of college athletes profiting from their name, image and likeness is on hold after the NCAA took the United States Department of Justice's advice last week and delayed a vote. It is, however, certainly not going away. The Justice Department's concerns arose from antitrust issues with the proposal. The NCAA also delayed a vote on proposed new transfer rules for Division I college athletes. As of now, it is unsure when another vote will be held on those issues by the NCAA Division I Council.

No matter the delay, it is widely thought that the issue of athletes being able to profit of off their own name, image and likeness will come to pass in the very near future. This legislation, when passed, will allow athletes to accept endorsements and sponsorship deals for cash or in-kind gains which are forbidden by current NCAA rules. States such as Florida and California have already passed legislation that allows athletes to hold full title to their own name, image and likeness set to take hold this summer, regardless of NCAA rules.

One concern, not discussed very often, is how the proposed legislation would affect athletic departments' advertising and marketing efforts. Under this proposed legislation, it appears commercial advertisers could dodge the university's marketing departments and go straight to the athletes, perhaps at a discounted cost. The one-time, free-transfer proposal would create a new era in roster management for all Division I sports teams.

Ole Miss vice-chancellor for intercollegiate athletics Keith Carter recently spoke to the Spirit about such concerns.

"Those were discussed this week at the D-I Council and they were tabled," Carter began. "That was something that we kind of anticipated might happen after the Department of Justice and all the variables that are surrounding it. To me those are two items that, if COVID was not a factor and we were not in a COVID year, those two items would just be inundating all of the media outlets. The one-time transfer is certainly going to change the dynamic of roster management and what all of that looks like. You're going to have to re-recruit your own team every single year. That's going to be a big one.

"The NIL, to me, is something that is going to change the landscape of college athletics maybe like anything in the last 40 or 50 years. I think it is going to totally shift the way we do things, depending on which route we go. It's going to be very interesting...It's daunting...some of the challenges that we're going to face over the next five or 10 years, for sure."

As far as missed revenue opportunities for colleges due to proposed name, image and likeness legislation, Carter admits he is concerned. For example, what if a major sponsor or game day advertiser chooses to bypass Ole Miss and go straight to the team's start quarterback from commercial endorsements?

"Absolutely," Carter said, when asked if that scenario was a concern. "It immediately raises two red flags. One is just from a compliance standpoint, making sure we are supporting. If we don't know about some of that stuff, then all of a sudden compliance can become a real issue. I do think, at the end of the day, when whatever decision is made, I do think that compliance will be a big part of it, so I don't have as much heartburn there.

"To your point, all of a sudden the local dealership decides we don't want to go through Learfield IMG to support the university anymore, we want to go straight to your star quarterback. I think there is definitely going to be some of that. We're going to see that they see there may be more value going straight to the player, rather than coming through the conventional channels. I think that's where, with NIL, there is just so many unintended consequences. There are just so many unknowns and variables. Even though there may be some legislation on this thing in the next six months or so, I'm not sure we're going to really know how this is going to shake out for another several years."

Some have suggested that name, image and likeness issues will be mostly regulated to the biggest names on a roster at any given time. Others, however, have pointed out that every player on a team's roster is a huge name in his hometown and will certainly have endorsement opportunities.

"I think whatever you do for the star quarterback or the soccer player or the tennis player, rifle person, they're all going to have to have the same opportunity. I come from a small town, and I think there are plenty of opportunities to go there, and whether it's to sign autographs for a couple of hours or whatever that looks like, to get paid 500 bucks. I think there is going to be a lot of opportunity for that. Again, another variable. How is that going to work? There is also a totally different side to this with group licensing to where a whole team or a whole department could have access to a percentage to some type of revenue. Then, obviously, your higher profile folks can get the market rate and those type of things...You ask one question and it leads to another question and it just seems like a never-ending cycle. It's going to take some time to figure all of this out," Carter related.


SOURCE: Johnson, David. "​Keith Carter weighs in on name, image, likeness issue facing Ole Miss, NCAA." OMSpirit.com, 20 January 2021, https://247sports.com/college/ole-miss/Article/Analysis-Kermit-Davis-tried-something-different-and-Ole-Miss-snapped-a-three-game-losing-streak-159608418/

Last edited by catfishboy (1/20/2021 3:09 pm)