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News Story

Three years after NIL ruling, College athletic departments tackle changes

Story by Alex Spielman, Emma Pearce and Lily Hagedorn

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (Nov. 5, 2024) – The crowd screams. Beer cans are airborne, sprinkling the student section with alcohol. Everyone is on their feet. The Indiana Hoosiers just beat Nebraska with a score of 56 to 7. The win against the Cornhuskers was the Hoosiers’ seventh of the season. They have not lost a game. 

The 2024 game against Nebraska was the first IU football game to sell out since the Ohio State game in 2021. Indiana would go on to sell out the rest of their home games. The Hoosiers’ winning season was drawing national attention, bringing the FOX “Big Noon Kickoff” show one weekend and ESPN’s “College Gameday” the next. Indiana became a nationally ranked football team. 

Director of the National Sports Journalism Center and Indiana University Associate Dean Galen Clavio calls on a student during a press conference on NIL deals.
Director of the National Sports Journalism Center and Indiana University Associate Dean Galen Clavio calls on a student while answering questions during a press conference on the 2021 NIL ruling. As an expert in Sports Media, Clavio has witnessed changes across athletic departments over the past few years. Photo by Emma Pearce

“At the end of the day college athletic departments and their teams and the coaches that control those teams, they want to win, and they have a limited amount of resources,” Director of the National Sports Journalism Center Galen Clavio said. “Whatever small positive effect you might have from a really popular high school athlete coming in is going to be a drop in the bucket compared to the effects of having a winning team. I mean, look at IU football. Look at the attention on IU football. They’re going to sell out maybe four games this year. They’re not doing it because they have popular NIL players on their team, they’re doing it because they’ve got good players that are winning games.”   

In 2021 the Supreme Court ruled that college athletes could hold NIL (name, image and likeness) deals, which would allow them to profit off the use of their name or photo. After the ruling went into effect, the amount of money a university could offer an athlete started to affect the recruiting process, changing collegiate athletic departments.  

Logan Krzykowski looks into the camera while doing a segment for the IU Media School YouTube page.
Indiana University student Logan Krzykowski hosts the IU Fast Five segment on the IU Media School YouTube page. Krzykowski is an intern for the Indiana University Athletics Department, and works closely with many basketball players. Photo courtesy of Logan Krzykowski

“What recruitment revolves around now is NIL. If you go to a big school like Indiana, there are going to be a lot of NIL deals, and it doesn’t really matter if you’re the most talented on the team or not…Most players don’t even look at the system that best fits them, they look at the amount of money that they’re going to get. It’s kind of a sad change, but it’s a change that we have to make,” Indiana University Athletics Intern Logan Krzykowski said. 

The transfer portal is being used more often for athletes who are not satisfied with their current deal or team. To convince athletes to transfer, schools can offer NIL deals. Eight players on the 2024-25 Indiana University men’s basketball team roster transferred from other schools.  

Jeremy Gray looks into camera for headshot.
Indiana University Senior Associate Athletic Director and Cuban Center Director Jeremy Gray smiles for a headshot for the Cuban Center. Gray works in communications for IU athletics, and has become an expert on NIL. Photo courtesy of Jeremy Gray

“I think NIL has impacted mid to major transfers more than anywhere else. It also kind of shortens the patience of the backup. A lot of people were willing to stick it out to wait for their chance to break into the starting lineup before. Now it’s like ‘it’s been a year. You haven’t started me. I’m transferring, and I can get paid to do it. I might transfer to a school that’s not as good at this sport as yours, but they’re going to let me play right away, so, I’m going to go do that,’” Indiana University Senior Associate Athletic Director and Cuban Center Director Jeremy Gray said. 

Sometimes, the transfer portal does not work out for athletes. In 2024, the University of Nevada Las Vegas verbally offered quarterback Matthew Sluka $100,000 to transfer from Holy Cross. The agreement was not in writing, however, and UNLV did not have the promised NIL money for Sluka. 

“Right now colleges and universities have been steadfast above all else in arguing that athletes aren’t employees, that they can’t be considered employees, and there’s a longstanding set of legislative approaches that the NCAA has taken that have tried to make that commonplace. I would have told the quarterback who ended up transferring this is why you don’t take a verbal promise about anything involving money,” Clavio said.  

The rise in NIL deals is causing large financial effects for athletic departments. In recruiting players this past year, IU men’s basketball reportedly spent around $4 million Indiana University Men’s Basketball allegedly spent around $4 million in NIL money to recruit players this past year. Other schools are struggling to keep up, and their programs are starting to show it.  

“I think one of the problems with the NCAA circumstance that we have right now is that there are too many teams in the mix who don’t have the financial resources to compete… I do think that college athletics has had a gradual separation financially between the universities that are fully invested in their athletics programs and the ones that, for whatever reason, just can’t hit that level. I think we’re seeing that in higher education in general,” Clavio said. 

Athletes are drawn to better programs, especially with the influx of money that programs can now offer players. The ruling has made it possible for athletes to be rewarded for their contributions to their schools. 

“This is not a case of new rights being granted to college athletes, it is instead the removal of restrictions that were being imposed by college athletic departments upon college athletes, essentially telling those people ‘You do not get the same rights as the other people that are college students,’” Clavio said.   

 

https://youtu.be/JKraVa6PAyw

Bloomington residents speak on how the 2021 NIL ruling has affected college athletic departments. The ruling made it legal for college athletes to profit off of the use of their name, image, and likeness.

Featured image by Emma Pearce

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Public Relations Story

Tim Cook, Apple CEO, Unveils New Apple Watch

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contacts
Alex Speilman
Elizabeth Conley

CUPERTINO, California (Sept. 9, 2014) – CEO Tim Cook unveils new electronic watch, a customizable device that allows the user to track
health, stay connected, and access apps on their wrist at the Apple convention last Tuesday. The watch was shown off with an innovative video and showed off its features to launch into the future. The highly anticipated Apple Watch has been released, and it will change how we interact and use technology for years and years to come. This product can track fitness and health and is an overall new piece of technology to enhance lives. The Apple Watch can pair with iPhones and other devices and send you notifications on the screen for the ultimate luxury. The Apple Watch featured the Digital Crown, a tool enabling people to zoom, scroll, or navigate. The watch has various materials like stainless steel, aluminum, and, most notably, 18-karat Gold. The Apple Watch has a whopping 18 hours of battery before charging. The watch has several sensors, including a heart rate sensor, accelerometer, and a gyro corpse. The Apple watch creates a whole new way of connecting and building; it offers the ability to send and receive text messages and the opportunity to send and receive calls.

Young female student at IUB uses her Apple Watch
Kyushu Patel, a student at Indiana University, checks her step count on her new Apple Watch. The fitness feature on the Apple Watch allows Patel to be aware of her health no matter where she is.

“Apple has introduced the world to several category-defining products, the Mac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. The watch is a revolutionary device meant to do more on a smaller, more situated device. The Digital Crown, another new feature, can be used to zoom, scroll, and get through the Apple watch in a straightforward way that is friendly to the user. The watch also comes with 11 intriguing faces ranging from more routine and traditional to very new and updated faces. The dynamic timelapse face is an astronomy face with an interactive 3d model of the entire Earth, moon, sun, and planets. The Apple Watch will notify you when something like an eclipse or a special event happens with our solar system. The device will be open and available in 2015, beginning at a starting price of $349. Apple has always been at the forefront of technology since the Macintosh computer was released in 1984.

“Apple has a history of revolutionizing industries, and with the Apple Watch, were poised to do it again. This is the most personal device we’ve ever created, and it’s not just with you, it’s on you. We believe Apple Watch will become an essential part of people’s lives” (Cook). The watch is designed to work well with the iPhone and team up to help you with whatever needs to be successful in customers’ lives. It is wearable any time of day, all day, any day.

A man on the IUB campus uses his Apple Watch
Walking on campus at IU, Russel checks his text messages linked to his Apple Watch. The iMessage app gives him easy access to contact any people he needs to in seconds.

“It’s as much about personal technology, as it is style and taste” (Cook). The Crown is a great and helpful tool used as the watch’s home button, as it can quickly get users in and out of apps to support a user-friendly system. When using the watch, there is always an idea of comfort; the watch guarantees all ideas of comfort when you look at our user-friendly tools like the Digital Crown, interactive 3d Model, an easy and efficient way to track fitness, etc. But, when you clip that Apple watch on you want a sense of even more comfort, and with that we mean the leather buckle, there are six different shades to the leather and it is made from a sweat and chemical resistant high performance elastoma. The leather loop comes in a soft and fuzzy quilted leather. This leather is designed for the ultimate comfort when working out so you are comfortable in whatever task you complete on the watch.

 

 

 

Cook, dressed in humble attire, presents the new Apple Watch to an eager crowd. The room erupts in applause as he says his signature line, “One more thing…”

 

Tim Cook presents a video showing the watch’s close-up details, from the aluminum structure to the sleek glass screen. The Apple Watch is advertised as a second choice for the iPhone for any occasion.

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