Luke Decock at the Raleigh News & Observer has written a good
column on the current state of the battle for Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) rights for NCAA athletes especially as it applies to schools in the state of North Carolina.
What's happening now is that state legislatures are rushing to adopt state laws allowing NIL rights for NCAA athletes but NOT the NC General Assembly. These state laws are not uniform. There's no sign of impending federal legislation. The NCAA itself seems paralyzed by a somewhat related case pending at the Supreme Court but the state laws may make it impossible for the NCAA to act even after the Supreme Court opinion comes down this summer.
I have sympathy for the athletes but I have a lot of concerns about the lack of uniformity in these state laws. I fear a competition among states to allow as much as possible to help their state universities recruit. I also fear that NIL will allow boosters to pay athletes. I certainly fear that Duke will be left behind unless the NC General Assembly adopts NIL legislation. Given the extremely high visibility of Duke basketball, our basketball players should be able to do very, very well if they're allowed to collect NIL money but I feel uneasy about recruiting being based in large part on NIL money. A few bad years after Coach K retires and Duke basketball could go into a death spiral as NIL money dries up. Large state schools have big alumni bases to sustain them. Duke doesn't.
Anyway, NIL is coming down the pike very rapidly even if it makes me uneasy.