What Shane Beamer said on how South Carolina is adjusting to changing NIL landscape
The name, image and likeness era is evolving at a breakneck pace. South Carolina is adjusting as best it can.
In a two-year window that has seen NCAA rules shift to allow players to profit off their personal brands and to transfer once without penalty, head coach Shane Beamer noted on Monday that the Gamecocks’ football program is doing everything it can to stay in compliance with and adjust to the moving targets of the rapidly developing spaces.
“The name, image and likeness kind of is what it is, and we’ve been dealing with it for the last almost year now,” Beamer said prior to a Gamecock club event Tuesday in Anderson. “And then the transfer portal, we’ve been dealing with it. So, to me, nothing’s really changed. It’s just the intensity of it has increased since then.”
Beamer and USC have been on top of incorporating NIL conversations and educational programs into the current setup of the athletic department since the NCAA passed legislation allowing players to profit off their likenesses.
Gamecocks athletes such as running back Kevin Harris (Bojangles) and Aliyah Boston (Beats and Under Armour) are among the many players who have taken advantage of the rules over the last year.
The school previously announced a partnership with Altius Sports Partners to provide education and other tools for Gamecocks student-athletes to help manage the emerging space.
The state of South Carolina’s own NIL law currently restricts universities from coordinating deals between potential businesses and student-athletes. However, it’s expected that law will be suspended July 1 in order to work toward more permanent and/or flexible legislation to adjust with how NIL evolves over time.
“Currently, with our state law being what it is right now — until that changes on July 1 — we as an athletic department cannot facilitate deals,” USC senior deputy athletic director Chance Miller explained during a Q&A session at Monday’s event in Anderson. “We cannot take donations and turn around and pass that to our student-athletes.”
On Monday, the NCAA announced new NIL guidance that offered a specific response to schools using third-party organizations branded as “collectives.” Those groups functionally pool money from boosters under the premise of NIL deals and direct it one of two places: to current athletes through endorsements or appearances — or to prospects in the form of financial promises if they sign with that university.
NCAA rules, while now allowing student-athletes to profit, still bars those who fall under its definition of “boosters” from being involved in recruiting.
Included in the NCAA’s press release on the matter was a suggestion that only “the most severe violations or recruiting rules or payment for athletics performance” from the time prior to Monday’s announcement would be pursued in terms of an investigation or possible crackdowns from the organization’s enforcement staff.
“While the NCAA may pursue the most outrageous violations that were clearly contrary to the interim policy adopted last summer, our focus is on the future,” University of Georgia President and Chair of the NCAA Division I Board of Directors Jere Morehead said in the news release. “The new guidance establishes a common set of expectations for the Division I institutions moving forward, and the board expects all Division I institutions to follow our recruiting rules and operate within these reasonable expectations.”
The guidance — which is just that, guidance — isn’t slotted to be much more than suggestions as to how schools should operate within the NIL space in order to stay in compliance with NCAA rules. However, it opens the door for college sports’ governing body to theoretically look to regulate how schools are potentially funneling money to potential prospects through independent collectives and third-party organizations.
Any potential legislation would likely come with a litany of legal issues and could setup a showdown between lawyers at the NCAA and representatives of players and businesses nationwide.
“It’s day to day,” Beamer said of dealing with the constant change in what is and isn’t allowed under NCAA rules as it relates to NIL. “I wouldn’t say anything’s changed. I mean, it’s crazy.”
This story was originally published May 12, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
