Adidas announced a name, image and likeness network that will be accessible to every athlete at a Division I university the company has partnered with.
Adidas is the first major sports brand to offer this deal, which could include more than 50,000 athletes at the 109 schools the company sponsors. The adidas program allows athletes to be brand ambassadors, and the rollout will start with historically black colleges and universities and Power 5 schools in the fall.
The eligible athletes would have the opportunity to earn a percentage of the sales they drive at adidas.com or the adidas app, as well as be paid per social media post.
The company said by next April, every adidas school would have access to the program.The ability for athletes to get paid and still maintain their eligibility was not possible until the United States Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s decision in June 2021 that threw out the NCAA’s restrictions on “education-related benefits.” Now, nearly 30 states have passed legislation about NIL and its governance, despite being no federal law to oversee it.
