Michigan Regent Jordan Acker on NIL: It's time to embrace NIL
There’s been plenty of criticism of the University of Michigan response to the recent Name, Image, and likeness boom. Yes, U-M appeared to be slow out of the gate … and yes, it’s very likely had an adverse affect on 2023 football recruiting.
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At the same time, Michigan fans should have known U-M wasn’t going to be all about pay for play out the gate. For one, head coach Jim Harbaugh truly believes in his “meritocracy” approach, and getting his players paid, first. Two, there are state laws preventing it (for now), and Michigan doesn’t want to venture into the “wild west” it’s avoided so long.
As Regent Jordan Acker noted in his guest article in Sportico recently, however, college football has been that way for some time.
“Trustees, as fiduciaries, are rightly concerned with the economic health and security of the institutions they serve,” he wrote. “So how do we live in a world where some of our biggest boosters are funneling those dollars to NIL deals?
“Quite simply, the long-term nature of trusteeship requires thinking about what happens three to five years from now if we don’t embrace NIL: a talent exodus in the student athlete and coaching ranks, winning less, less creativity in branding, and alumni/student/fan disinterest.”
In short, becoming an afterthought. And it appears Acker and others have no intention of letting that happen. In fact, the Michigan Regent suggested embracing revenue sharing as a future staple of a successful athletic department.
“Today’s college sports are a billion-dollar business, with athletes sacrificing time and turning down quintessential college experiences to practice and perform well,” Acker wrote. “With all of the money in college athletics, it was and is simply unsustainable for student athletes not to profit from their talents and contributions.
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“Schools essentially have two options: Work today with their current athletes and create a system that makes sure everyone is compensated fairly, or expect that it will be dictated by the courts, a future players association, or Congress, sooner rather than later.”
But the pay-for-play model, while giving schools a leg up in the short run, might not be the long-term play, Acker noted. The prospect of collectives and donors bundling money directly to student athletes has the potential for chaos, he noted, especially when many schools believe these dollars could go to development.
“Frankly, this short-term thinking will cause schools’ athletic departments (and eventually their fundraising) to nosedive,” he said. “Let’s be clear: The schools that embrace NIL and do this well are going to be the ones winning championships for the next 20 years.”
And he — and several others in the administration, it appears — seem determined to make sure Michigan is one of them.
