As summer turns to fall, football fans around the country are brimming with excitement for the 2022 college football season to kick off. This upcoming season is particularly notable as it marks the second year of what has now been dubbed the “NIL Era” of college football—referring to college athletes’ recently gained ability, following the Supreme Court’s 2021 decision in NCAA v. Alston, to profit off of their own “Name, Image and Likeness” while remaining eligible to play college sports. Shortly after the Alston decision was rendered, the NCAA adopted a new policy that allowed individual college athletes to engage in NIL activities, so long as those activities were consistent with applicable state law. This change led college football recruits and athletes around the country to sign NIL deals ranging from $500,000 to more than $1 million in just the last year. While the dawn of the NIL Era opened the floodgates for college athletes to profit off of their personal brands while they are still in college, college football players in particular remain wary about the all-too-real risk that one errant play could wreck their future earning potential in the professional leagues.
