NCAA: "Name, Image, Likeness" — is it enough, though?

Student athletes might eligible to be paid for sponsorships and endorsement deals based on their NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) as early as 2021, but there's more to the story and that may not be enough?

The NCAA Board of Governors is moving toward allowing student athlete compensation to allow them to be paid for sponsorships and endorsement deals based on their NIL (name, image, likeness) as early as the 2021-22 academic year.

The Board of Governors announced their support after a working group proposed the changes at a meeting on Tuesday, which was announced and made public on Wednesday. The recommendations, if chosen, would allow student athletes to benefit from their name, image and likeness (NIL) from deals with third parties and businesses. The new rules would go into effect to begin the 2021-22 academic season if the NCAA passes legislation in January 2021.

“Throughout our efforts to enhance support for college athletes, the NCAA has relied upon considerable feedback from and the engagement of our members, including numerous student-athletes, from all three divisions,” Ohio State president Michael V. Drake said. “Allowing promotions and third-party endorsements is uncharted territory.”

You've got to hand it to the NCAA because on the surface it would appear that they have the student-athletes' best interests at heart, but lets make it clear, this is not a "pay to play" situation.

Part of the recommendations by the Board of Governors, athletes will be allowed to sell autographs and memorabilia and be paid for personal appearances at public or private events — but they are not allowed to wear school-branded apparel when appearing. If they chose this route, financial terms of each agreement/contract must be disclosed to their respective athletic departments and any relationships with parties involved. If the terms are not shared, it could potentially affect eligibility.

The recommendations also allow athletes to hire agents for the sole purpose of finding them marketing deals — but cannot in anyway seek information from professional sports opportunities. Athletes are also banned from endorsing products that are banned substances by the NCAA.

If you dive deeper you'll realize that this is nothing more than a hollow victory that should only benefit a handful of star athletes who are already going on to bigger and better things upon leaving. People will pay to go meet Zack Moss in public, but the backup midfielder on the soccer team won't be afforded those same luxuries more than likely.

Those multi-billion dollar television contracts, the multi-million dollar distribution from college conferences and the total revenue from tickets and merchandise sales, that's all being kept by the NCAA. So everyone who goes around wearing a No. 2 Utah jersey in honor of Zack Moss, Moss won't see a dime of those sales.

Simply put, this is a way for the NCAA to make it seem like it truly has the NCAA's best interests at heart but in reality, it's still looking out for itself and continuing to expose college athletes for its multi-billion dollar industry.