Stella Klaus

I am a freshman Journalism major.



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News Story

Not All Student Athletes Benefit from NIL

By Ali Brown, Stella Klaus, Michael McGrew and Jolie Goldstein

Sophomore Alec Cesare tees off at a recent golf tournament. This is Cesare’s first year golfing at Indiana University after a tough decision. Photo courtesy of Alec Cesare.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (Nov. 5, 2024) – The air was finally beginning to warm up after a rough transition into spring and the campus almost felt deserted, with no students making their way to classes. After the spring semester had wrapped up at Ball State University and students went home for the summer, Alec Cesare suddenly found himself no longer enrolled in his school or his sport. His first collegiate golf season was not what he had hoped it would be, so Cesare decided it was time for a change. He knew he wanted to stay in the state, but still the challenge of finding a new school was daunting. After an abundance of research, visits and practices Cesare finally decided on his next destination: Indiana University.

Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) started at the very beginning of collegiate athletics with a boat race between Harvard and Yale that was sponsored by a railroad executive to promote train travel to lake Winnipesaukee in 1852. At the beginning with no governing body regulating college athletics and not very many rules, payments of many different kinds to college athletes happened. 

The rise in popularity of football created lots of revenue. They would offer compensation to talented athletes which led to athletes jumping around to different colleges depending on which ones would pay them more. The sport of Football became increasingly more popular and dangerous, so Theodore Roosevelt met with colleges to review rules and from that meeting the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) was created to make the sport safer. 

Once it was created the NCAA advised against compensating college athletes. However, they found that this was still happening since football was a highly profitable sport. In 1948 the NCAA decided to do more than advise against it; they adopted a code that reiterated their opposition to payment of student athletes. Through the years the NCAA molded and formed new rules about scholarships and how much they can give athletes for being on their team. The rules of NIL are still being challenged to this day.

Alec Cesare attempts a chip shot to continue match play. Cesare finished in the top three at this match. Photo courtesy of Alec Cesare.

One of the biggest complaints about the structure of NIL is the vast difference in income between smaller, less-viewed sports and the larger, more popular sports. Alec Cesare, a sophomore golf player, has experienced this firsthand.

“We spend the same amount of hours practicing, competing and representing the university,” Cesare said. “I think we deserve the same opportunities even though we don’t bring in as much revenue as they do.” 

Financially this gap makes sense, the larger sports attract more views and in turn generate more revenue. However, smaller-sport athletes, like Cesare and his teammates, don’t benefit from this, and are expected to spend most of their free time dedicated to their sport without any compensation. 

While smaller sports may never get the same amount of money through NIL as sports like Football, NIL still impacted Cesare’s decision when he was transferring schools. He did not get NIL money at Ball State, but at a bigger school there are more opportunities.

“I knew if I went bigger there would be higher chances to get more money,” Cesare said. “The difference between mid-major D1 schools and Power 4 schools is crazy, especially when it comes to money.” 

Even with the large difference in sums of money, Cesare still voiced his complaints about the large deficit of money from sport to sport.

  “There is a lot of hypocrisy, a lack of clarity and a lack of consistency in a lot of what we’re seeing in these proposed settlements,” Dr. Galen Clavio, Director of the National Sports Journalism Center, said.

Dr. Clavio speaks about NIL to a C250 class. Clavio is a sports media professor at IU and an expert on the topic of NIL. Photo taken by Emma Pearce.

The lack of consistency is the same thing that many athletes are frustrated with. This difference in revenue between larger and smaller sports is creating a divide amongst athletes. 

“You’re never going to have a job where your coworker gets paid more and you don’t think you deserve to get paid more than them,” Jeremy Gray, Senior Associate Athletic Director for Strategic Communications, said. 

There are many different attitudes between experts on how NIL should work and how much athletes should get paid, that is why it is such an ongoing topic that has changed a lot through the years. However, smaller sports don’t make as much NIL money as more popular sports because they don’t get as much TV time, they get less advertising (billboards, posters, merchandise, etc.), they can’t ask brands for sponsorships because of the lack of TV time and they don’t get as much emotional support compared to other sports.

NIL continues to be a popular topic of discussion in collegiate athletics, and that is not going to stop anytime soon. Smaller sports will continue to make far less revenue than more popular sports, despite efforts from smaller sport athletes. Although there are many different facets of NIL that can be dissected, the deficit of funding between large and small sports is one of the most important to discuss to ensure all athletes are being treated fairly under NIL regulations. 

People on the streets of Bloomington share their opinions on NIL. Due to the recent supreme court case NCAA v. Alston NIL has been a growing topic with new opinions arising.

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Public Relations Story

“One More Thing…”, Apple Announces Newest Release.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contacts
Bailey Hawkesby-Mullins
Ava Boyd
Stella Klaus

CUPERTINO California (Spet. 9,2014) – CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, took to the stage to announce the release of the new apple watch Tuesday night in Cupertino California, where Apple’s headquarters are located. 

Cook excitedly introduced the new smart watch to an eager audience, telling them that they have one more thing. He finally unveiled the watch by showing a video that highlighted its elegant appearance and just some of its many innovative features. 

“We love to make technology more personal and allow our users to do things that they could have never imagined,” Cook said. “We believe this product will redefine what people expect from its category.”

Boy runs upstairs while looking down at Apple Watch
Jayden, a freshman at IU is pictured running up the stairs. He is using the Apple Watch’s fitness feature to track his steps throughout the day.

The first feature of the new Apple Watch that Cook described is what is called the digital crown. This feature helps you zoom and scroll on the tiny screen of the watch. The apple team incorporated as much functionality and style into this product as they could.

“The Apple Watch is made to be worn, and it can be worn all day for any occasion,” Cook said.  “It’s as much about personal technology as it is style and taste.”

The Apple Watch is made for everyone and is customizable to anyone’s taste. Senior vice president of design, Jony Ive, demonstrated the watches’ customizability in a video. You can choose from a wide range of watch faces, even personalizing what they look like and what they can do. In addition to this you can switch out the strap choosing from six different types of straps and sizes. They even created three different collections of watches to choose from; the Apple Watch, the Apple Watch Sport, and the Apple Watch Edition. 

“We designed Apple Watch as a whole range of products enabling millions of unique designs, and unparalleled personalization both in appearance and capability,” Ive said.

Woman speaking to apple watch
Marelna, a mom of an IU student is seen communicating through her new Apple Watch. The Apple Watch helps her stay in contact with her busy college students.

After Ive explained the personalization of the watch, Cook invited Vice President of technology at Apple, Kevin Lynch,  to do the very first live demonstration of the watch. 

Apple Watch pairs with your iPhone and by pressing the digital crown it can take you to an array of apps of your choosing on the home screen. Lynch first showed how to change your watch face to your liking. There are many options including the astronomy face, with this face it shows you where you are on the Earth, then you can fly to the moon and it will show you what phase the moon is in. They even scheduled the event on the full moon to show how great the astronomy watch face can look. 

Another very customizable part of the Apple Watch that Lynch demonstrated is glances. Glances is a way to look at other information of your choosing by swiping up from the bottom of your watch face. Glances can be anything you choose like calendar or reminders or even from third party apps.

Lynch then showed the notification and replying process of the Apple Watch. The watch has a very convenient way of receiving notifications and replying to them called Quick Word. Quick Word takes messages, then forms responses you can choose from and easily respond with one click. 

Communication is a huge part of the Apple Watch, and now you can use more than words to communicate with your friends. By just a simple tap of the screen you can reach your friends, you can even send something as unique as your heartbeat, which is read from your wrist. 

Smart watches have been integrating fitness into their watch design, so Apple did the same thing plus more. They added two new apps to the watch to help users with their health and fitness. One of these apps being the fitness app, which monitors all of your movement throughout the day. The other one being the workout app, which helps you set specific workout goals. 

“Apple builds great products that enrich people’s lives, and arguably we can take that to a whole new level with the Apple Watch,” Cook said.

Kevin Lynch, Apple’s senior vice president of design, demonstrates the new Apple Watches customizable features. Apple offers a wide variety of clock faces suitable for all users.

Tim Cook, surprisingly announces the new Apple product creating a positive response from the audience. The “one more thing” was later to be announced as the Apple Watch.

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