By Charlie Smith, Lucy Little, and Shayna Oppen.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (November 5, 2024)- Landon Gilmore was just 6 years old when he was first branded with the nickname “Happy”. The name has since stuck, making his NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) grow exponentially. 

Ever since Gilmore won the long drive competition, In which he was originally called “Happy”, he has been popular in the golf scene not just for his name but for his ability to play. On June 23, 2023 things truly changed, as Gilmore announced his commitment to Ball State University to play Golf In a Twitter post. The Twitter post went viral after Adam Sandler (The actor who created the character of Happy Gilmore for the Film.) commented on the commitment.

“Go get ’em Happy. Pulling for you.” Sandler said in the post. 

After the post went viral Ball State gained a lot more attention. 

“Between him and I, I want to say that we gained 23 million eyes on Ball State that haven’t been there before.” Gilmore said about himself and Sandler.

Since this, it has raised the question of how much do schools benefit from students like Gilmore? Dr. Galen Clavio, Director of the National Sports Journalism Center at IU, addressed students’ questions at a press conference about NIL. One student asked about schools choosing players based on popularity instead of skill.

 “This has been a question since the beginning of this, I’ve yet to see it happen… the coaches that control those teams want to win, and they have a limited amount of resources and whatever small positive effect you might have from a popular high school player  is just a drop in the bucket, compared to the effects of having a winning team.” Clavio said.

A lot of people have feared the possibility of favoritism when it comes to sports recruiting for college teams, creating some controversy with NIL. With that, people have also questioned whether or not it would start to affect high school students who are trying to get more attention. Some are wondering if it is going to create greater pressures and struggles for these students trying to get recruited. 

“There are two different aspects of NIL that we have to keep in mind. There’s the NIL that just comes from being a good athlete and ultimately the idea that you have intrinsic market value at the college level as an athlete in whatever sport and that value is not equal just because you happen to be an athlete… Now the other part of NIL is the athletes who are really good at media. Who understands how to utilize media, bring in a social media audience, if they are also good at their sport that’s awesome but for a lot of businesses that would like to contract with an athlete from an NIL perspective the question would be: what market do you bring to the table… So yes, if you are a high school athlete who is trying to gain a media presence that will carry over into college, then yes that can be an added pressure.” Clavio said in correspondence to being asked about the added pressure of NIL on high school athletes.

Ball State had already accepted Happy before he went viral, he was recruited for his skill. The Fame he brought to the school was just an added bonus for Ball State. 

With his NIL, Gilmore rarely has to buy his own equipment anymore because of equipment deals he has accepted, but NIL isn’t as simple as a lot of people seem to think. 

“It adds a lot of business into my life. A lot of people think that it’s really simple, but it’s quite complex because there are a lot of laws, and there are a lot of things that you have to do. But as far as it affects me financially, NIL definitely helps. I don’t have to worry about paying for equipment because I am lucky enough to have a few equipment deals.” Gilmore said when questioned about how NIL affects him personally. 

Popularity is a huge factor when it comes to NIL as well, especially if you participate in a sport other than Basketball and Football. This is relevant because the only two sports that generate significant revenue for the NCAA are Men’s Basketball and Football. Which causes a lot of the student athletes to have a hard time getting NIL money unless they are very popular.

 “Obviously in a sense I want it to be fair, But I don’t think that being fair would be fair… At the end of the day it is like a business right, and so if and so I feel like if everyone on the basketball team is getting paid the same amount, it’s not fair for the guy who is doing all the media stuff because he is the most popular. Or the guy who is head and shoulders better than everybody. Obviously those people should get more, and with our golf team, you’re never gonna see a billboard in Muncie of our golf team. It’s gonna be the Basketball team.” Gilmore said when asked if all athletes should be paid the same amount, or based on popularity and skill.

According to Sports Business journal, Social media equates to about 72% of all NIL activities. The three main categories being: Social media Influencers, Personal Brand, and selling content directly to fans. This is because if student athletes didn’t utilize social media platforms to boost their popularity all the money would go straight to the main Money makers: Men’s Basketball and Football. So to be “used” more they must have an outside presence besides just relying on their sport.

“I don’t feel like anyone can complain about making less when at the end of the day we are being used less.” Gilmore said adding on about the NIL pay system in college athletics.

Bloomington residents comment on why the believe college athletes should be paid. They go into detail about all of the pros and cons of how NIL pay currently works.

 Jason Ghandi, Assistant Director of Strategic Initiatives at IU, gives his insight into how NIL can be based on popularity.

“athletes are picked based on social media following for certain deals, unless the company is asking for a specific player.” Gandhi said.

Most of the athletes that are getting the mainstream deals, such as Powerade for example, are getting those deals based on how much reach they have on social media and sometimes that player isn’t always the most skilled on the team. A lot of times a company already has a player in mind. 

“it’s sort of like natural selection on how athletes are picked.” Gandhi said. 

Players aren’t necessarily competing against one another but they do have to sort of fight to get their name out there more than their teammates. It’s obvious the amount of money athletes get is going to be based on the popularity of their sport and IU for example “men’s and women’s basketball and football will always get the higher dollar value than a smaller sport like golf”, Gandhi said. But that then poses the question of do smaller sports like golf get any money? Gandhi was asked if all sports on campuses are reached by NIL deals. 

 “It’s common for at least one athlete from each sport to have a NIL deal of some form at most schools.” Gandhi said. 

So, although most sports are going to be reached with deals it’s obvious that the more popular sports are going to be getting the most attention from brand deals making it seem like a game of popularity.