NCAA approves new NIL rules to help athletes 'protect themselves' - ESPN

PHOENIX — The NCAA Division I Council voted Wednesday to adopt new rules designed to help athletes avoid unscrupulous agents and unfavorable terms in name, image and likeness contracts.

Starting in August, the NCAA will provide athletes with standardized contract recommendations for NIL deals and aggregated data to help schools and athletes have a more realistic picture of the going rates for endorsement deals. The association also plans to create a voluntary registry of credible and trusted agents that will be based largely on feedback from the athletes who have worked with them in the past.

«We don't want to do anything to get into the way of student-athletes trying to activate their NIL rights, but we do want to assist them in essentially protecting themselves,» said MAC commissioner Jon Steinbrecher, the vice-chair of the Division I Council, which voted on the new rules during the NCAA's annual convention this week.

In addition, the council formally proposed new rules that, if passed, will be able to help facilitate deals between athletes and NIL collectives — a move that would likely return some degree of control over roster management back to athletic departments and teams on campus. The schools, and any associated NIL collectives, will still be prohibited from negotiating deals with recruits or transfers before they enroll.

The council is expected to vote on those proposed changes before the start of the next academic year after gathering feedback from school leaders.

While these changes represent a significant shift in NIL policy that previously tried to keep schools at a lengthy distance from endorsement activity, they may quickly become moot if the NCAA decides to adopt even more progressive rule changes in the