Money Matters
Money Matters
Money Talks: NIL Deals in College Sports
The world of college athletics transformed when Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deals became permissible for student-athletes in 2021, creating unprecedented opportunities for young athletes to monetize their personal brands. Taylor Jacobs, Associate Athletic Director of NIL and Strategic Initiatives at LSU, shares insights on how student-athletes can prepare for and navigate the complex NIL landscape.
• Parents should help student-athletes identify their passions and strengths early to build marketable personal brands
• Social media presence is crucial - 99% of NIL deals include at least one social media component
• Student-athletes must treat their social media profiles as business platforms representing their personal brand
• Financial literacy is essential - LSU implements comprehensive programs to help athletes manage sudden wealth
• Athletes should use a three-bucket approach to money management: general savings, tax savings, and goal-specific savings
• Consistency in NIL regulations across states would create a more equitable environment for all student-athletes
• The collegiate sports landscape continues to evolve rapidly with the recent implementation of revenue sharing
Ask your athlete what they know about NIL and how it might impact them. Check their social media to ensure it's professional and brand-safe for future opportunities. Discuss posts, attitudes, and behaviors that could hurt their brand. Practice money management by asking how they would handle sudden income.
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Welcome to Money Matters, the podcast that focuses on how to use the money you have, make the money you need and save the money you want. Now here is your host, ms Kim.
Speaker 2:Chapman, welcome to another edition of Money Matters. I am your host, kim Chapman, and today we're going to be talking about something that I love football. But we're going to segue and really make it about NIL deals. As a parent of two student athletes that didn't make it to get an NIL deal, hopefully we'll learn, if you have a student athlete, what you might need to do to be able to get them that big fat contract. So joining me today is Ms Taylor Jacobs. I'm sorry, joining me today is Taylor Jacobs and I'm going to have to read this title. She is the Associate Athletic Director for NIL and Strategic Initiatives at LSU. Welcome, taylor, thank you.
Speaker 3:That is quite a mouthful. It is a mouthful, yes.
Speaker 2:So maybe just start out telling us what exactly do you do?
Speaker 3:Basically it's just a fancy title, for I oversee the chaos that is NIL no-transcript went on.
Speaker 2:We were talking about football and you she was like don't ask me any questions about football. So tell us how did you get into this field? What is your background?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I am from Dallas, texas. Originally. I was a tennis player. I played at the collegiate level at another SEC school we won't talk about it, but I played college tennis and when I was playing as an athlete I really fell in love with the athletic administration side of things in the collegiate athletic space. I had a mentor at the time who was our senior women administrator at our institution and was just really passionate about developing student athletes and that was where kind of my love for the administrative side came in. I started working upon graduation there, spent about two and a half years there and then my husband moved to Baton Rouge. So I followed after we got married and had made a lot of connections, you know, within the collegiate athletic space, reached out to some people I knew at LSU and was fortunate enough to be able. Some people I knew at LSU and was fortunate enough to be able to start in compliance at LSU, and so I was helping with recruiting rules and initial eligibility, but definitely staying within the NCAA rules and regulation side of things.
Speaker 3:I would say it was probably two years into being in Baton Rouge. We were new to the area, didn't know a ton of people. I wasn't playing tennis anymore. I needed a hobby and so I picked up social media. I have a very creative side to me and I love photography, I love design, so I started doing that on the side.
Speaker 3:So then fast forward to like 2019, early 2020, when we started having conversations about NIL and what that would look like at LSU. My boss at the time said you know, I think that you could be really good for this, because it is obviously a large piece of the compliance rules and monitoring. But then there is that social media and creative side, to name image and likeness. So I kind of started sitting in on I guess it was a leadership group that we formed, kind of a working committee, if you will, to start brainstorming how to prepare for NIL. And then, right around the time that NIL passed July 1 of 2021, you know, one of our senior leaders at the time said I think you should take this on. And I did. And here we are.
Speaker 2:So you mentioned when it passed 2021, it seems that there was such a taboo about this beforehand. Why do you think that is so?
Speaker 3:I think that you have a lot of traditional thinking within the world of college sports and there's obviously college sports have been around for years. I mean, I was a collegiate athlete and Instagram wasn't a thing when I was an athlete, right. So I have my way of thinking and my understanding of how my collegiate experience was and you see a lot of that from former athletes and what their experiences were to the fan base and what they know college athletics to be. So that amateurism conversation and that protection of amateurism I feel like was always so important to everybody, whether it be former athletes, current athletes or or the fans. So when NIL passed, I think honestly, I think it was a lack of education and understanding the true intent of NIL to be able to sell an athlete's jersey in the sports shop and allow them to profit off of that. Like what? Why would that be harmful to them? You know like if you have someone Joe Burrow is a great example. He was a student athlete at LSU before NIL had passed. Had we been able to sell Joe Burrow jerseys? Yeah, it would have been beneficial to LSU, but we could have obviously provided compensate or not we but he could have earned compensation from that as well, which would have been beneficial to him as well. So I think that there was just this misunderstanding.
Speaker 3:I also think the world in which we live in now, with social media and the ease that really any generation has to make money on social media that kind of I guess threw a wrench in a lot of the conversation. So that really sparked a lot of this. Right? Because you look at Libby Dunn, she's a great example. She had millions of followers back in 2021. She's quadrupled now, but at the time she had millions of followers and she was coming to us saying there's things that I could be doing on social media that I'm not allowed to capitalize on and generationally, I wouldn't have understood that, because Instagram wasn't a thing, tiktok wasn't a thing when I was an athlete, and I think that was a big part of the problem is that people don't fully understand social media and the ability that athletes would have to make money and that is a major component of NIL and name, image and likeness and, you know, using their platform to sell a product or a brand.
Speaker 3:So I think it was just a lot of misunderstanding, miseducated, you know, I don't know. I think again, with anything, whether it's athletics, whether it's how you've grown up and how you always do your daughter's hair, whatever it is. I feel like that we get into a constant and we don't like change people generally I think it's. You know, we're just not used to change and the implementation of NIL really just rocked college athletics, so I think that that was a big thing as well.
Speaker 2:It most definitely did, because, I tell you, it's almost like day and night, whereas now NIL is just seemingly like a household name, right, and so you have the college athletes making the money, but then you also have it at the high school level. In terms of where does it really start? When do you start preparing your student athlete so that they can put themselves in a position to get one of these NIL bills?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean I think there's a couple of different ways to answer that question right, as a collegiate administrator, I unfortunately really only get to start with them at the collegiate level. I will meet with recruits when they're in high school, and so they'll ask general questions about how can I prepare, what can I be doing, and we can, you know, have our general educational answers. I think, though, as a parent I mean, I'm a parent now my kids are little, so by the time they get to be collegiate age, who knows if we're even going to have college sports anymore. But bite your tongue, I know, I know. You just never know, though. I have a five-year-old and an almost two-year-old, so we have a while to go. But I think, if you're a parent of a high school athlete right now, there's a lot of things to look at. There is obviously the projected performance and where you think your athlete could be, and if you have a talented son or daughter who really, truthfully, has the ability to play at the Division I level, you really should start thinking strategically about what that will look like. But also, if you have a child who's active on social media or who has a great personality and is great with kids. You know what are those areas in which your son or daughter is truly passionate about and let them find those areas that they can hopefully then capitalize on when the time comes.
Speaker 3:I think what a lot of people. You know a ton of our athletes. They truly are passionate about being with the next generation and kids and with NIL it opened up a lot of doors to camps. You know they were able to do camps previously but it was hard to promote. There were just a lot more restrictions around camps, whereas now, now with NIL, they have a little bit more freedom. So we have a ton of student athletes who've gotten into that space because they're passionate about helping kids.
Speaker 3:So that would be something that, if I'm talking to a parent of a high schooler right now, like, start to think about what are those things that your son or daughter is passionate about. If they're on social media and active and passionate about it which I know that's a touchy subject because not everyone wants their young, you know, 15, 16, 17-year-old to be on social media, and I respect that but if they're on it and they're active, maybe start to think about it as a business and start to think about the brand that they're building, because, ultimately, the brand is what's being sold in NIL, so that's something that we'll talk to recruits about all the time is. I mean, yes, being a collegiate athlete at LSU is a selling point, but there are so many facets of you and who you are that a brand or a business wants to know about and would want you know, to be thinking about when they decide whether or not they're going to enter into an NIL deal with you. So how are you portraying those different sides of your story?
Speaker 2:And you mentioned the brand and of course, it seems like social media is at the heart of all of this and so, like you said, some parents may not even want their kids on social media. But what are those things? Maybe you know, especially, we have some young listeners that they should know to stay away from in terms of social media so that they don't do something foolish at 16 and 17. Media, so that they don't do something foolish at 16 and 17, and then they kill their opportunities for that great brand, that great NIL deal, when they do reach the collegiate level. What mistakes have you?
Speaker 3:seen athletes make. I mean, I say this all the time, but I feel like now there's such a belief in if you don't post pictures about it, it didn't happen. That is a mindset that, honestly, I'm like you should probably be. You know that maybe not think fully in that realm. Yes, you want to be active on the space and you want to show that you're active and create the content because that's gaining your followers and your engagement and your views. However, there's going to be moments in your life that don't need to be shared. Right, you're going to have very personal moments that you probably don't need to share too much information, and you are going to walk through phases of life where you might not need to be so vulnerable on social media. Or maybe you are comfortable being vulnerable but, like, how are you sharing that message and are you sharing it in a way that's you know gonna be detrimental to you and who you are, or is it gonna be a positive spin on how you overcame something? So I think it's careful being careful about that.
Speaker 3:I say all the time to our athletes, to my you know, my friends, kids, but don't post anything on social media you wouldn't want grandma to see. And it's funny because I have one of my friends uh, sons is like, well, my grandma's really cool, she's cool with everything. I'm like, okay, well, let's think about that realistically. Like, once it's out on social media, it's out. I don't care if it's Snapchat, I don't care if it's something that says, oh, it disappears and no, it doesn't. It does not disappear. People can take screenshots, things happen. So you just have to be conscious and be thinking about that and you know what we tell our athletes all the time is your social media is your business, is your business?
Speaker 3:I mean, if you look at me individually, taylor Jacobs is a business of my own, and how I present myself, whether it be at LSU, whether it be at home with my family, whether it be at the grocery store, like that is a business and you have to think about that. You have to be aware all the time. You know there's going to be moments when someone approaches you in the grocery store because they recognize you and they know who you are. So are you going to be polite and kind and shake their hand and give them a hug, even though you've had a terrible day and you just got a speeding ticket and you're really upset about a fight that you had with your boyfriend or girlfriend. You know, like you just kind of have to be on all the time, and so that's something that I say too is like within social media, you can share those on moments, but be aware that you know when you meet people in real life like you've got to continue to be on or you've got to learn how to share that vulnerability appropriately.
Speaker 2:So what are the most common NIA deals?
Speaker 3:Social media for sure. So every of the past almost we're a little over four years now in, I would say, 99% of deals that have been disclosed include at least one social media component. So it might be a social media post and an appearance, or it's social media posts, creation of content for the brand, but social media is by far where we see the most and get the most requests. I would say locally, we get a lot of appearance requests as well, and athletes, you know, coming to do an autograph signing at this event, but I would definitely say social media is the driving force of most of it so I know one name that would probably stick out if we were doing a pop quiz would be Angel Reese.
Speaker 2:Yeah, can you talk about Angel Reese and maybe some of the other athletes, just maybe names of other LSU athletes that have NIL deals.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean Angel's a great example If you look at athletes that have come through LSU. Right, you know Livvy was on campus before NIL passed. She had a major brand, a major following before it was really permissible for her to engage in NIL, agent NIL. So we got to watch her really live through the transition of no, you can't do this to. Okay, now you can go sign with an agent and you can go get all of these deals. So her brand was kind of established and then she had to figure out okay, now how do I go from this one life as a collegiate athlete that I've learned and come to know to now add this massive NIL component to it? That was a really cool and unique story to kind of watch her go through that. Angel is a great example of. She was known and she had a very good brand in the collegiate basketball world. But then when she got to LSU it was like she really popped off and I my breaking moment for Angel was the shoe block, when she was holding the shoe and she blocked the ball and just that moment of she's like I'm really good at what I do, so please don't mess with me, type thing. I feel like. We saw this dramatic escalation of Angel's brand throughout the basketball season, and so you really got to see her brand grow through what she was doing on the court. And then she was exposed to so many deals because there are so many eyes now on women's sports, which is really cool, and so her story looks a little bit different. And then you have Aflaje Johnson, who came in with a really really known brand both in basketball and in music, and she's been able to grow both of those things while she's been competing at LSU. So it's been a ton of really cool stories.
Speaker 3:I think the biggest thing for me when working with athletes obviously student athlete development is my passion and that's truly what like why I got into this space. I love working with athletes. I love helping them grow their brand, develop their brand. I got into this space. I love working with athletes. I love helping them grow their brand, develop their brand, but I think it's just really cool to see them get that first deal and see it come to fruition and they're like, wow, this is really cool and this is something that I can grow on.
Speaker 3:And we've seen athletes go on and continue to be influencers after college because they've built such a great following. But then we've also seen athletes take the NIL opportunities that they had and turn them into more careers. You know whether they've gotten a job at a business where they had an NIL partnership or you know they've turned it into some kind of marketing and we have a couple of athletes who've gone on to be like at marketing firms where they're now helping other athletes get NIL deals. So it's just really cool to see. You know all the different stories. What we say at NILSU all the time is no two tigers have the same stripes, so everyone's story is different. The story that you're broadcasting and selling is different. The story that you're going to leave here with is different, and so how are you capitalizing on your story?
Speaker 2:And so, of course, I spent a great deal of my time in the high schools talking about money, financial literacy, and that common theme is that we want to know more. We need to know more about money. So what happens when you take a college freshman that gets an NIL deal for millions of dollars, that has maybe never even had a bank account? How is that handled?
Speaker 3:Well, I can speak specifically to LSU. I can't speak to everyone else, but the state of Louisiana. In our state law it actually has a financial literacy requirement for collegiate athletes. I will say there has been more conversation at bringing that down to the high school level. Hopefully. I would love to see that there is, but it's still a work in progress.
Speaker 3:It's a work in progress, but hey, you've always got to be working on it for change to happen. So for the collegiate space specifically and for LSU specifically, we have a pretty elaborate financial literacy program. We've partnered with an individual who does a ton of work within the NFL and the NBA, so she's really familiar with athletes and kind of that money management side of things from the professional side. So she got into the NIL side. We were connected with her through our football program actually, and now she works with all of our sports. She comes to campus multiple times a year. We make it a requirement that each team has to have a session at least in the fall and in the spring, but she's here multiple times and so now our coaches and our athletes have gotten so comfortable with her that they request more sessions. So we have kind of a basic foundation when they get to school.
Speaker 3:If they haven't met with her yet, we have a kind of like a one pager 101 when we do our beginning of the year meetings, like hey, these are things that you need to be thinking about, questions, you need to be asking all of the things that you just need to have awareness of, and then, if you want to connect with her now you can, otherwise she'll be on campus in the next month, so they get to connect with her. So that's how we've approached it just making really the resources available to them and making it known. That's a lot of what we do is just making sure the athletes know hey, we're here to help you and you have a whole staff of NIL individuals where we're providing resources and support. I think that's the biggest thing. Right is? We just need to make sure they know the resources that they have available and that they know the questions to ask.
Speaker 2:What are some common mistakes that you've seen these student athletes make? Because, of course, they're still kids. They like to believe that they're adults at 18. But to put them in that position and have access to such large amounts of money, what are some common mistakes you've seen you?
Speaker 3:know, without a doubt you're going to see I'm going to go purchase the item that I want instead of saving my money. We've seen that it can be a variety of things right, and some not as detrimental necessarily, other than when, you know, a couple years later when the athlete says I wish I didn't buy that thing right at the beginning, like I wish I had saved more. And we do talk to them a lot about goals. Like we try to tell them we have a certain savings percentage. We talk to them about a tax savings we talk to them about and then a goal savings that we talk to them about. It's kind of how we in our financial literacy partner approach a lot of things.
Speaker 3:So don't just blow that first NIL deal, but start creating those little savings buckets so you'll have your savings that you can have, you'll have your tax savings so that you can pay your taxes and then you have your goal savings. So that's like you save for that item that you want and then the other money you can kind of figure out. You can live off of it, you can figure out what you want to do with it. If you don't need to live off of it, put it all in savings or you know, like pick a bucket. So we try to help them with that, because I do think that that's the initial. You know, the very first time they get a check it's like oh, look at me and I'm like, nope, it doesn't come back. It doesn't just keep coming necessarily. Like just because you got this deal doesn't necessarily mean you're getting that paycheck next month.
Speaker 3:So it can be, it can be. I think they oftentimes confuse you know, oh look, I'm making NIL money with, like just looking at any employee. No, no, no, I have a consistent salary, like I'm salaried With being an influencer and doing these NIL deals. It's not necessarily consistent. You could have a month where you've got 10 NIL deals and you're making a ton of money and then the next two months are completely dry because you sign no deals. So that's why we kind of teach them about the buckets of savings. Is you? You might have to stretch your money if this is your play money or your fun money.
Speaker 2:So NIL still new, of course. So what changes do you would you like to see happen in the future?
Speaker 3:of course. So what changes do you would you like to see happen in the future? I really would love to see education in the high school space, not even just about financial literacy, but about NIL in general. It's shocking to me when we meet with recruits, the little that they do know, and I'm just every time when they ask questions I'm just kind of mind blown because I'm like why, why do y'all know so little? But then I put myself in their shoes and why would they know a lot?
Speaker 3:You know like not a lot of people, even in the collegiate, I think a more consistent set of rules across the country when it comes to colleges and how we're doing things. And I think that's been one of the most difficult things for me as an administrator, someone who works with our coaches, I mean, in my role I have to provide support and resources to our coaches to make sure they are my role. I have to provide support and resources to our coaches to make sure they are comfortable in the space. I provide support and resources to our student athletes to make sure they are thriving in the space. We're trying to make sure our administration and LSU is at the forefront and thriving. And the hardest thing for me is, naturally, we want to do everything within the rules, but it's difficult when a coach comes to me and says, well, I heard that this coach at this school is doing X and I'm like, well, their state law doesn't prohibit it, but ours does.
Speaker 3:So I think just consistency is something that I really hope for one day, and you know that's probably going to have to come at the federal level, not necessarily state level, so we'll see what happens there. But yeah, I mean we just, july 1 of 2025, started the new era of NIL that we referenced with revenue sharing. So now we have this additional layer where we are revenue sharing and we as an institution, can enter into an agreement with student athletes on top of the NIL era, which athletes really are still learning to navigate. So now they're having to navigate both and you know it's just a lot, I think, for an 18, 19, 20 year old LSU, and our senior leadership has really bought into the education and the staff that we have within ILSU. We truly are able to do a lot and provide a lot of resources, but that's not the same everywhere across the country. So I think, just consistency and being able to provide the support and resources.
Speaker 2:And so I talked about a lot about support for the athletes. So what about for the parents? Are there resources or support from the university for the parents?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean I would say right now, the way my day is broken down, I probably I'm like a I spend, you know, 75% with athletes, probably 75, or I'm probably 25% athletes, 25% agents, 25% agents, probably 20% parents, and the rest is like navigating our internal staff. So for us again, when we're meeting with an athlete on a recruiting presentation, nine times out of 10, their parents are with them. So we get that first introduction with their parents. So we already become the point of contact that they're like oh, we got this NIL deal I need to call NILSU, which is great because at least they know they can call us and that's the biggest thing we want. So, yeah, we are always trying in the same way. We create resources for our athletes, we try to create a version that would be digestible for the parents as well. Sending parent emails, having parent resources, is very important. I think you know, again, even at the high school level, when I talk about this education that I want the high school student athletes to receive. It would be something that I would want parents to watch as well.
Speaker 3:There's just a lot of moving parts. There's a lot of different people in the game. Whether you're talking to an agent. You're talking to an advisor. You're talking to a financial management company. You're talking to a company. You're talking to a financial management company. You're talking to a company. You're talking to a lawyer. You're talking to a school. There's just a lot of moving parts, and so best piece of advice I could give a parent is go be educated on the topic. Do your research, call who you need to call. Don't be afraid to ask questions, because at the end of the day, it's your son or daughter, and you need to feel good about these decisions that they're entering into and these contracts they're entering into.
Speaker 2:That is truly, truly awesome. Well, it seems like you gave that good advice for them. What do you think is next for the NIL?
Speaker 3:Well, like I said, we are fresh into revenue sharing, which has been good so far. I mean a month and a half in. I think you'll see some shift and some change in that, because it's obviously going to take. You know, we're going to learn a lot in these first six months to a year as to those revenue share contracts and what that looks like for an institution, how it plays into recruiting. There's just a lot of things that we will learn as we go.
Speaker 3:We often say in the NIL space we are quite literally building the plane as we fly it. So I think you'll see a lot of change and shift in that, you know. I do think you're starting to see more of an emphasis placed on these types of roles at institutions across the country. I see more and more NIL jobs being posted, which I love because I have an army of students and graduate assistants and so I can't hire them all and I love to make sure they go out and get NIL jobs and stay in the industry. So you're seeing more and more of that pop up and I think you're just kind of seeing that in the collegiate athletic space, that NIL revenue sharing area is just growing so much. So you'll see a lot of that in the college athletic space.
Speaker 3:I don't know. I mean, I'm sure in a few years I guarantee you, in like two years we'll probably have another major shift to athletics and it could be a million things, I don't know. But just as fast as it's gone I remember in 2021, we were sitting around the table talking about NIL and the well. Well, in five to eight years, we'll be revenue sharing. Well, it really took four for us to implement it. So it's just, things are happening a lot faster than I think anyone truly anticipated at the beginning of it all.
Speaker 2:So Well, I definitely can't wait to see where it's going and I'm going to make sure that next time I'm at a high school that I go by the gym and tell the coach and is it okay that I said that Taylor said you need to make sure your athletes are getting this financial education? Because, you're right, it is so important really at every level, but the earlier you can get them the financial education, the better it is. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us.
Speaker 2:This was great. I think I'm going to schedule a little shadowing day with you thank you so much of Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:It's time for Blueprint Building Blocks Small changes that lead to big financial wins. Let's stack up for success.
Speaker 2:Ask your athlete what do you know about NIL and how might it impact? You Be sure to check their social media, make sure it's professional and brand safe for those future opportunities. And of course you want to avoid those common mistakes Discuss their posts, their attitudes, their behaviors and things that can hurt their brand. You never know when something might come back to bite them. And then practice a money plan hey, if you got $5,000 tomorrow, how would you spend or save it?
Speaker 1:That's a wrap on today's Blueprint Building Blocks. Stay on track with your financial journey. Subscribe to the Money Matters podcast and visit neighborsfcuorg. Slash financial wellness no-transcript.
