By Addie Parker, Lauren Miranda and Goldi Baranovsky

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (Nov. 5, 2024)     The crowd fills the football stadium weekly, Mia Fox and the Indiana University RedStepper dancers take the field for a performance. An exhilarating moment supporting Hoosiers’ best football program in history. 

Withstanding the pressure from fans to maintain a standard of talent and polished presentation as a dance team, athletes that find social media and apps hold increasing opportunities. In interview, Fox an IU Junior on the team, revealed the developments of the 2021 NCAA v. Alston Supreme Court ruling allowing name, image, and likeness (NIL) benefits for college athletes, has had minimal effects for her and teammates. “They don’t allow our team, even though it is funded by the athletics department, to receive NIL directly,” Fox said, “any NIL type deals that we might get have been from like a private NIL company that has nothing to do with Indiana University.” 

College dancers train regularly to perform technical, entertaining choreography to thousands of people who may not understand the dedication it takes. “Dance teams right now, in just the cultural context, nationwide not really included in athletics departments because of simply closed-mindedness,” Fox explained. While many dance teams are not being recognized and have yet to directly benefit from NIL, college football players face saturated social media competition. Denzel Dorn, Florida International University football player, is also working towards direct gains since the ruling, but highlighted how strategic social media NIL deals are to get. “I’d say, though, that with that saturation, you have to be unique and kind of stand out. So, you need your own way, your own skills to navigate yourself through social media.” Dorn said, adding that he is learning unique posting skills from teammates who post consistently on social media platforms on Instagram and TikTok. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously against the NCAA, deciding its restrictions on education benefits for student-athletes were unfair under antitrust laws. Although Indiana University dancers cannot gain the same benefits with these social media platforms, third party NIL collectives do hold optimism.

Dr. Galen Clavio, director of the National Sports Journalism Center at Indiana University, held an insightful “news conference” about the developments of NIL opportunities, since the 2021 Supreme Court ruling. He discussed that every University could set up direct and indirect NIL collectives while adhering to NCAA regulations and university polices. Fox, highlighted third-party NIL promotional opportunities that she has taken advantage of to collect donations from friends and family. She feels that these private deals, independent of Indiana University, offer minimal benefits for the RedSteppers. Being under the Jacobs School of Music and partially funded by athletics, the dancers do not get recognized as athletes. “The NCAA, dealing with financial control over college athletics, has been desperately trying to fight against external parties, like that, being able to make direct payments to players…” Clavio said. The NCAA can no longer restrict these gains for athletes, however the challenge of stabilizing income through third-party NIL collectives and social media remains unknown for dancers. 

As Fox and Dorn navigate managing their time as a student-athlete, they supported avoiding NIL as a distraction. “I get really stressed out, any free time that I have outside of dance, I’m mainly dedicating it to my schoolwork,” Fox said, describing her challenges balancing love for dance and her hobbies. “…so it’s definitely hard, because I’m not given any of the academic opportunities athletes are, like the tutoring sessions that they have and career coaching appointments through the football academic center.” This lack of opportunities makes it difficult for IU RedSteppers to work towards NIL deals because of stress. “It’s the added pressure, obviously, but you just have to manage your time more carefully. And since I haven’t gotten that many NIL opportunities yet, I haven’t let it distract me too much, I’d say, but some teammates do struggle.” Dorn said, not allowing himself to focus more on NIL than working towards being the best teammate. He hopes to keep a consistent, positive attitude as he manages these distractions while also working towards scholarship opportunities. 

These benefits do not come consistently for collegiate dancers and football players, but there appears to be hope for more NIL opportunities. The constant rise of social media and web use is already causing a constant increase in the amount of NIL options available for athletes. “I would strongly recommend that we start teaching about social media branding and the utilization of social media and digital media at the high school level for everybody,” Clavio stated. He emphasizes all the ethical possibilities that NIL collectives can provide athletes, and how it is each athlete’s choice how much effort they want to put into growing their brand. Social media in specific, can completely alter how an athlete is perceived and make or break how quickly their brand grows.  

Though athletes like Fox and Dorn are not currently benefiting much from NIL deals, this could always change in the future with a continued effort to support all athletes’ rights to benefit from their brand. It is important to inform others about the current collectives and social media opportunities regarding NIL, so that athletes can better access resources and greater recognition.  

https://youtu.be/LioWgMscibA

During class, we got the opportunity to interview three students about NIL. All of the interviewees were non-student athletes. The students opinions were around the same consensus. They believe that athletes should be able to profit off of their name, image, and likeness.