How NIL money is affecting the 2024 NFL draft. ‘I would have went pro’

TAMPA — For college football fans trying to understand the evolving impact of murky name, image and likeness (NIL) deals, pay attention to this week’s NFL draft.

The players drafted (and, as importantly, not drafted) will provide the clearest view yet of what indirect payments to college athletes have done for the sport as a whole.

Just ask former Florida State defenders Akeem Dent and Fabien Lovett.

Both considered going pro after the 2022 season. Both had good shots at ending up on NFL rosters.

But both remained with the Seminoles and were starters for the ACC champions.

“If it weren’t for NIL and the chances of us being able to win this season, I probably wouldn’t have come back,” Lovett said.

Dent was even more direct. Without name, image and likeness, he said during a recent workout at Tampa’s Athlete Innovations, “I would have went pro.”

The numbers suggest Dent and Lovett aren’t alone. Five years ago — before players could start making NIL money in college — 135 underclassmen left school to enter the draft. Last year, there were 69. This year, the number is down to 58.

Every player’s situation is different, so it’s unfair to assume name, image and likeness deals are the only reason for the trend. But it is, at minimum, a driving factor.

“It gave people an opportunity to make money before they actually got to the next stage (the NFL) to make money,” said former Oregon State running back Deshaun Fenwick, a Bradenton native and NFL hopeful.

The previous amateurism model indirectly pushed players to that next stage. Because NCAA rules limited athletes to free tuition, room and board and cost-of-living stipends, players who needed money now — perhaps to help their family back home — had an incentive to turn pro early. A shot at an immediate paycheck outweighed the potential long-term benefit of another year of development.

Name, image and likeness has changed the equation. Established prospects like FSU defensive end Jared Verse and Tampa Bay Tech alumnus Michael Penix Jr. didn’t have to choose between progressing in college and making money. They could do both last season and are expected to be early-round picks this week. If name, image and likeness deals kept quarterback Graham Mertz at Florida for another year instead of pursuing the NFL, the Gators, not the NFL, stand to benefit.

“Everybody plays football to make life better for them,” said Dent, a Day 3 defensive back prospect from Pahokee. “NIL could help that. It’s not the final straw; professional’s the final straw. But NIL can help with the at-home stresses.”

The at-home stresses vary by person, but they’re real. For some players, it’s the difference between eating ramen noodles or chicken and rice. For others, it’s family. Fenwick used the money to help support his nieces and nephews. Dent said he made enough to take care of his two young children.

“People don’t understand,” said Lovett, a defensive lineman expected to go on Day 3. “Being able to take in the NIL and being able to pay things off and not have to be worried about money problems at home — it helps you be able to lock in more on football.”

“Being able to help people out at home and help your mom and take care of things at home so you’re not stressing about things off the field as much as you are on the field. It makes everything calmer, and you can lock in better when it’s time to play football.”

Lovett’s point cuts against a common concern about name, image and likeness: that money distracts players from the game.

That notion, Dent said, comes from people who haven’t been in his cleats.

“Right now, I’m not stressing. I’m not hurting,” Dent said. “My family, my kids (aren’t) hungry.

“For the people out there that are saying NIL’s bad, they’re just delusional. They’ve never had that amount of money before, and they don’t really understand the significant that it could bring to a family, whether the family’s wealth or not. NIL’s just a blessing, and for anybody who’s living through NIL, they’ll say the same thing.”

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