Given the circumstances surrounding a very strange semester in Bloomington, on most days this fall, all is quiet on the IU Athletics campus. But inside the offices on the north end of Memorial Stadium, the work is only getting started.

Recently, the department announced the creation of a groundbreaking Name, Image, and Likeness Task Force, designed to help prepare student athletes for significant changes that could be coming to the college athletics landscape.

The launch of the task force comes on the heels of new legislation introduced which would once and for all allow NCAA athletes to profit from their own brands and social media.

“It’s about what we can do as a department,” task force co-chair Jeremy Gray said. “Positioning ourselves to be ahead of the game, regardless of the area, when things return to some semblance of normal.”

Designed with the aim of accurately expressing the desires of Indiana’s student athletes, the task force includes more than ten additional members, ranging from Indiana Basketball Associate Head Coach Tom Ostrom, to Assistant Director of Digital and Social Media, Lynnea Phillips.

Through a partnership with the sports marketing company Opendorse, the task force includes an educational component which, in just a short time, has already began to educate each IU athlete about social media literacy, and how athletes can best go about marketing themselves.

Via a mobile app, many IU athletes now communicate with Opendorse representatives, who help distribute social media content.

“They basically just told us how it works, and how they can send us stuff, and when the time comes, how they’ll be able to pay us, and what not,” senior guard Danielle Patterson said.

Over the last two months, the task force has met on a biweekly basis, emphasizing a different aspect of name, image, and likeness during each session, with athletes such as Mackenzie Holmes and Trayce Jackson-Davis joining in on the conversations.

With the NCAA expected to adopt new name, image, and likeness legislation as soon as January, in spite of the ongoing pandemic, Gray and the rest of the athletic department firmly believe this was the right time, while 23 of Indiana’s 24 Varsity sports remain sidelined this semester. The task force represents Indiana’s continued commitment to “fulfilling the promise,” and standing by all of its student athletes as the landscape evolves.

 

“You are what you emphasize,” Gray said. “So we’re publicly emphasizing that this is important to us.”

Perhaps most important of all, the benefits that will soon become available will not be exclusive to men’s basketball and football. According to Gray, the majority of top college athletes nationally compete in Olympic sports.

“You don’t have to be Lilly King or Victor Oladipo as an undergraduate for this to have some sort of positive impact on your life,” Gray said.

But that’s not where it stops for IU. From a public relations standpoint, the task force shows Indiana’s level of commitment to future Hoosiers who are currently being recruited. While Indiana University represents the third largest alumni base in the United States, it’s clear that the college athletes of today, as well as tomorrow, take a multitude of factors into account.

“It shows us as players that we’re really valued,” Patterson said. “Our brands are really valued as players.”

And for now, it’s that value which makes IU Athletics a leader in its field, as college athletics continues to break new ground.