How OU, Oklahoma State are trying to control NIL chaos: 'It needs to come in house'
When it comes to the sweeping impact of name, image and likeness in college athletics, questions are many and answers are few, even for those in the highest positions on university campuses.
Those in the state of Oklahoma — athletic directors Joe Castiglione at OU and Chad Weiberg at Oklahoma State — are watching intently as the evolving world of NIL spins at an ever-increasing rate.
It has all happened so fast, particularly with the emergence of NIL coinciding with the unchaining of the transfer portal, that university leaders are fighting to keep up.
Officials at Tennessee and Virginia have gone to court to fight NCAA infraction investigations regarding the use of NIL as a recruiting inducement.
Both schools, along with a few others, are in the crosshairs of the NCAA for their use of NIL in recruiting. Attorneys for Tennessee and Virginia have filed injunctions, but the court case trudges on.
Even with the NCAA trying to flex its muscles on NIL enforcement, the information available to the public eye still suggests the NIL landscape is a mostly lawless world.
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“I can't say I feel good about anything related to the structure because there isn't one,” Castiglione told The Oklahoman. “I guess you could say by default, the market has filled the void created by the lack of forward thinking in this space.
“It's created the most chaotic and disruptive environment in the history of college athletics, period. That is indisputable.”
Step one, in Weiberg’s eyes, to bringing some control to the chaos, is giving the universities more power in NIL. As of now, the NIL collectives and other similar groups at each school must operate separately from the athletic department — though those lines might be blurred a bit at many places, too.
Still, giving the universities more involvement should help to add some transparency.
Weiberg serves on an NCAA committee of roughly 20 members that studies NIL and offers suggestions to the Division I Council on better methods for managing the new landscape.
“I think you’ll see some things in April along those lines that will give the university more ability to get involved, stopping short of bringing (NIL) in house at this point, but allowing us to get more involved as an institution,” Weiberg told The Oklahoman.
“I think there are advantages and disadvantages of it coming in house, but the longer we are in it, I think the more convinced I am that it needs to come in house.”
Weiberg and Castiglione are in their roles because they care about college athletics, and the people involved. So, even if they’re scared of what the future might hold — or at the very least, bracing for it — they certainly aren’t running from it.
“We've seen significant change at certain periods of time but all pale in comparison to what we're going through now,” Castiglione said “But … we're still big believers, proponents and representatives of what's best about college athletics.”
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Chad Weiberg part of committee making changes
Serving on the NCAA’s NIL committee — which Weiberg has done for a year now — might not ease all his fears of the flaccid structure for paying athletes, but Weiberg sees progress.
And the committee isn’t just working to make things easier on people in positions like Weiberg. In fact, the committee made suggestions to the D-I Council on proposals for a variety of protections for student-athletes.
Among the proposals made by the Council were:
A voluntary registry for agents and financial advisers to college athletes to help weed out illegitimate service providers.
Standardized contract terms, with the purpose of helping student-athletes and their families understand what is included and expected in specific transactions.
Disclosure and transparency guidelines to help limit disinformation regarding NIL agreements.
Other educational resources for athletes in the NIL space.
The most broadly impactful of these would be the disclosure and transparency guidelines, which could help to minimize the rampant rumors and speculation that can overinflate the NIL market, while also giving the NCAA a better knowledge base for understanding how to govern NIL.
The disclosures would not require the university to share the specifics of an individual athlete’s agreements, but the school would share with the NCAA or a designated third party the aggregate of its NIL arrangements, without athletes’ names attached.
Providing protections and information for the athletes was a high priority, because of the unknown nature of the NIL marketplace. From shady agents to poorly constructed contractual agreements, the dangers are many — and will continue to be.
The agent registry and standardized contracts are not mandatory, but provide a framework for some additional understanding on the part of the athlete and their family.
“It’s providing some protections for the student-athletes,” Weiberg said. “They can have more education about what kinds of questions they need to be asking.
“The reporting (of NIL deals) is intended to start to shed some light on what is going on in this space … so there starts to be an understanding of the market. By shedding light on the market, if there’s something that seems very different from that, it allows the student-athlete, again, to ask questions about why it is so different.
“Right now, we don’t have any of that. It’s just rumor and innuendo and nobody knows really what’s going on. That’s not good for anybody, including the student-athletes.”
The committee continues to meet and discuss further objectives, some of which Weiberg expects to be unveiled in April.
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Some notable OU/OSU NIL deals
OU
OU reserve quarterback General Booty has taken advantage of his memorable name by selling shirts with “Booty Call,” “I (heart) Booty,” and “General Booty Reporting for Duty,” donating a portion of proceeds to the Oklahoma Children’s Hospital. In August, Booty signed a deal with Rock ’Em Socks to sell boxer briefs and socks.
In September 2023, Hal Smith Restaurants agreed to team-wide deals for scholarship players for the Sooners’ basketball, football and softball teams providing each athlete $500 in restaurant credit.
OU softball star Tiare Jennings partnered with Oklahoma-based Resilient SFBL on a custom-designed glove. The glove is tan and brown, features Jennings’ flower logo and has an embroidered “God is Good” on the thumb side. The company also sells Jennings t-shirts.
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OSU
In August 2022, Seth Wadley Ford of Perry entered into an NIL partnership that benefited every player on the OSU softball roster, and included a community involvement element in which Cowgirl players made visits to meet with softball players at area high schools.
Ollie Gordon II’s emergence on his way to winning the Doak Walker Award as the nation’s top running back last season led to a variety of Gordon-centric memorabilia, like the “Ollie State University” and “Run Ollie Run” T-shirts as well as his “OG2” gear.
Multiple OSU athletes have received vehicles from NIL deals with Wilson Cadillac of Stillwater. Football players Ollie Gordon II, Collin Oliver, Kendal Daniels and Dalton Cooper, as well as star wrestler Daton Fix, announced deals with Wilson Cadillac. In a similar deal, men’s basketball player Bryce Thompson signed a deal for an orange Ford Mustang from Bill Knight Ford of Tulsa.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU, Oklahoma State trying to control name, image, likeness chaos
