I want to know what kind of sponsorship the student-athletes at the University of Richmond are seeking. Through this research, I will be able to produce information tools, which may include brochures or information videos, which will be able to help athletes finalize the sponsorship agreement they want in a more specific way. I believe that research and analysis is the first step in understanding the changes in the rules, and the development of tools for athletes is a separate project.
The questions I will be seeking to answer are the following:
- What type of sponsorships are University of Richmond athletes receiving?
- What type of sponsorships do University of Richmond student-athletes want?
- What are they doing to get these sponsorships?
The target audience for my research is the sports teams at the University of Richmond. I will inquire about the Name, Image, and Likeness interim rule, and collect data about the status of the male and female athletes’ sponsorships at the University of Richmond. I am answering these questions to gain more information on how to help student-athletes score the opportunity with the NIL interim rule. This research will also help athletes understand what opportunities their class and teammates are receiving.
The NIL is a new rule that has a lot of unknown components. This NCAA interim rule has followed a “learn as you go” type of philosophy. Research is important for the school and compliance to get a better sense of how the student-athletes at Richmond are taking advantage of the rule change. This research will be the first step in the development of specific information guidelines for the sponsorship that athletes are seeking. When I use the term “profit” what I mean is to pay for advertising services through monetary compensation and/or through free items. I will be asking athletes to determine what is beneficial to them in order to be able to better tailor the informational deliverables to their needs.
These questions are quite clear and specific. However, I sense that they are being asked in order to answer a bigger, but unstated, question: how can student athletes in smaller D1 programs like UR take best advantage of the NIL rule in wresting profit from the NCAA and the school? I think you and AJ probably have very close research interests, and I’d encourage you to discuss your projects with each for clarity as you seek to determine what you want to learn. In my mind, the questions you’re asking are answerable through a survey, but they are merely preludes to the larger questions of whether NIL will actually benefit students in smaller programs, and especially if more harm than good might come from the NIL rule for such student athletes, as especially as their use of NIL for profit follows them outside the sport into professional work in fields unrelated, or only tangentially related, to college athletics.
Dr. Hocutt – I am going to change the research questions I proposed to one overarching question of: How can student athletes at UR take advantage of the NIL rule? And what implications does it have for smaller D1 programs around the country?