On July 1, twins Hanna and Haley Cavinder walked up a few stairs, held hands and — with a synchronized turn — pointed to a digital billboard in New York City’s Times Square that featured their image and an announcement of the first high-profile name, image and likeness (NIL) deal in college basketball.
Click here to read the story at espn.com.
Discussion Questions:
- What is NIL?
- Why do you think the NCAA previously refused to allow its athletes to profit from their NIL?
- Based on what we have seen thus far, how do you think the NIL rules have impacted college athletes?
- Based on what we have seen thus far, how do you think the NIL rules have impacted the NCAA?
- Do you think some of the concerns about NIL still exist? Why or why not?
- Why would a brand want to align with a college athlete?
- What is the difference between a regional market and national market? Why does that matter when looking at NIL deals?
- What types of characteristics do you think brands look for when determining which athletes they want to align with?
- Based on information from this story, how important is social media following when determining which athletes are most marketable?
- How do you think college athletes can build a social media following?
- According to this story, which NCAA basketball players are most marketable? Why do you think that is?