--- title: A Brand New World date: 2022-02-23T05:30:00-05:00 author: University of Maryland canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/a-brand-new-world" section: Articles --- # A Brand New World *February 23, 2022* — by [Liam Farrell](/author/liam-farrell) > Student-Athletes Can Now Pursue Endorsement Deals, and UMD Is Creating a Playbook to Support Them *Football silo 2 flat 1920x1080 — The University of Maryland has sought to be ahead of the curve on issues related to name, image and likeness. It secured an early partnership with sports branding company Opendorse to help individual athletes see their fair market value and help companies identify potential clients.* **SLIPPERY, SPEEDY WIDE RECEIVER** [Rakim Jarrett](https://umterps.com/sports/football/roster/rakim-jarrett/9462) was ranked among the nation’s top 100 high school players in late 2019 when the five-star Washington, D.C., prospect surprised the college football recruiting world by flipping his commitment from Louisiana State to the hometown Terps. Now a sophomore, Jarrett has shown flashes of his potential, racking up 144 yards and two touchdowns against Penn State in 2020 and a crucial 60-yard score against West Virginia last season. But his off-the-field activities—signing an agent from marketing powerhouse Creative Arts Agency, selling personalized T-shirts and endorsing Jimmy’s Famous Seafood—might be even more game-changing. Until last July, any of those deals would have been major NCAA violations for both the player and program. Now, Jarrett and other Terp athletes are members of the first generation that can capitalize on their fame while still in college following the NCAA’s suspension of rules preventing athletes from profiting off their own “name, image and likeness,” a landmark shift in the governing body’s history. The “NIL” decision followed more than a century of debates and lawsuits over educational and financial benefits for college athletes, as well as a more recent burst of state-by-state legislation ending restrictions on earning money from their popularity. The University of Maryland has sought to be a national leader in this new marketplace, but navigating it has required constant vigilance: Should athletes be allowed to use their schools’ official marks and logos? What are the pitfalls if a player endorses beer or liquor? What happens when sponsors and agents are added to the chorus of voices in a student’s ear? So far, the only certain answer is that it will take years to fully grasp how NIL will shift foundational practices. “It’s like a perfect storm right now for those who have been pushing change,” says Damon Evans, the Barry P. Gossett Director of Athletics for the University of Maryland. “We need to embrace all this stuff and figure out how best we adjust and adapt.” For Jarrett, UMD’s biggest earner so far, it most immediately means he could see up to $60,000 from endorsement deals during his sophomore year. The NFL hopeful, who is currently squirrelling away his earnings, sees his increasingly lucrative personal brand as validation for making his name seven miles from home rather than banking on traditional football bluebloods. “It shows that it can be done,” he says. --- **THE FIGHT OVER** what students should earn for athletic achievements was already well underway by 1852, when a railroad company tried to spur tourism by paying for Harvard and Yale to row against each other on a New Hampshire lake—the first intercollegiate contest in the United States. American collegiate athletics were born out of the British “amateur ideal,” a philosophy that, even if never completely honored, prized schoolboy recreation over results. But disapproval of salaries, coaching and even practice also doubled as a way to keep lower socioeconomic classes off the pitch, an uneasy fit in a New World that prided itself on self-made success and moral development through fierce competition. So the lofty stated principles of the NCAA, founded in 1906, were always in tension with how colleges chased success in high-stakes sports. From cushy dorms and exotic vacations to outright salaries and commissions from local cigarette sales, early 20th-century benefits constantly raised worries that amateur competition had been breached by professionalism. In 1929, a landmark report from the Carnegie Foundation denounced perks of the era from “costly sweaters and extensive journeys in special Pullman cars” to broader practices including high school recruiting and admissions offices prioritizing athletic skill over scholastic aptitude. Yet inch by inch, allowances that would have once horrified proponents of amateurism were integrated into college sports. The so-called Sanity Code of 1948 let schools pay athletes’ tuition, but an effort to expel a targeted “Sinful Seven” schools, including the University of Maryland, for going beyond that failed two years later—a tacit acknowledgment that everyone else was just as guilty. In 1957, the NCAA allowed members to add room, board and fees, essentially covering athletes’ living and educational expenses. But another clause was approved as well, stating “a student-athlete’s picture may not be associated with a commercial product in such a way as to imply endorsement, nor may he receive remuneration.” Not surprisingly, tensions increased between the NCAA, universities, athletes and advocates when licensing revenue exploded in the 1980s and 1990s. While the sanctioned money available to students remained largely limited to scholarships, the television deals, stadium gate receipts and coaches’ salaries continued on a far steeper climb. Video games proved the modern flashpoint. Former UCLA basketball star Ed O’Bannon filed an antitrust lawsuit over his digital likeness being used without permission in the 2009 edition of Electronic Arts’ NCAA Basketball franchise. The qualified successes of his and additional legal challenges amplified the NIL conversation in media, government and player circles. Then in 2019, California became the first state to allow college athletes to earn endorsement money. With no competing federal or NCAA policy, the opening whistle had blown for states to run their own NIL race. --- *Silhouette of a runner with collage of student-athlete products/ads* --- *NIL at a Glance: Here's how name, image and likeness activity played out for Terp athletes from July through early December: 145 disclosed deals. Disclosures per sport: 54% from Olympic sports, 46% from football and men's and women's basketball. Average value per deal: $780. 69% cash deals. 31% in-kind. Breaking down the deals: 59% social media activities. 17% rights/endorsements. 8% appearances/events. 8% content creations. 6% merchandise. 2% autograph sessions. Percentage of deals worth $1,000 or more: 12%. Percentage of deals worth $10,000 or more: 2%. UMD teams represented: 17 of 20 programs. Highest UMD earner: Rakim Jarrett, football wide receiver.* --- *Silhouette of field hockey player with collage of student-athlete products/ads* **Sidebar note:** This story is featured on the cover of the Winter 2022 issue of *Terp* magazine. Find all the stories online at [terp.umd.edu](https://terp.umd.edu/). **Topics:** [Athletics](https://today.umd.edu/tags/athletics) **Tags:** [Field Hockey](https://today.umd.edu/topic/field-hockey), [Football](https://today.umd.edu/topic/football), [Men's Basketball](https://today.umd.edu/topic/mens-basketball), [Women's Basketball](https://today.umd.edu/topic/womens-basketball) **Units:** [Department of Intercollegiate Athletics](https://today.umd.edu/topic/department-intercollegiate-athletics)