TEMPE, Ariz. — Thursday marked a historic day for college athletes across the country as new changes to the NCAA's name, image, and likeness policy took effect.
College athletes can now monetize their own value through sponsorships, advertisements, and brand deals. Under the new rule change, athletes need to notify their respective programs of any deals.
Experts say this rule change has been coming since California passed its own state law in 2019 allowing collegiate athletes to benefit financially from their names. Several states, including Arizona, have since followed suit.
The NCAA rushed to put a policy in place ahead of Thursday and landed on an interim green light for athletes. There is no federal law outlining guidelines yet so for now, athletes must rely on rules outlined by their state and university.
On Thursday, a number of athletes did not waste any time and were quick to announce the first brand deals in this new era of college sports.
Moments after midnight, Haley and Hanna Cavinder announced their brand deals with a billboard in New York's Times Square. So far, they've partnered with Boost Mobile and Six Star nutrition.
The twins, who went to high school at Gilbert High School, now play basketball at Fresno State. They've amassed a large social media following, earning millions of followers on Tik Tok and Instagram.
"There's going to be opportunities for all student-athletes out there and so I think this is going to be a great thing," said Patrick Stubblefield, an attorney specializing in sports law.
On Thursday, ASU quarterback Jayden Daniels released a video on social media featuring what appears to be his own logo and brand - JD5.
Stacey Marshall Jr., a tight end at the University of Arizona, announced his partnership on Twitter with delivery service Gopuff.
“It's definitely a space that student-athletes and campuses are going to have to monitor for a while. It's still fluid and the NCAA policy that got put in place is not intended to be a permanent solution," Stubblefield said.
Restrictions to the new rules, like prohibiting athletes from endorsing products like alcohol or tobacco, vary from state to state and college to college.
Arizona's law allows student-athletes to earn money through endorsements as long as it does not conflict with the athlete's team contract.
“It probably is going to lead to changes in some of the other compensation-related rules and then from there, it could even branch into some of the eligibility rules. There's no telling," Stubblefield said. "I think this is sort of the start to something bigger."
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