Accomplishing Equity Under Amateurism: The Name, Image, and Likeness Stipend

There are approximately 160,000 student-athletes participating in NCAA-sanctioned sports. In order to preserve their status as amateurs, the NCAA has historically prohibited student-athletes from earning certain forms of compensation during college. Demand for college sports has grown exponentially over the last fifty years, and it has become a billion-dollar industry. Despite large revenues, student-athletes still face industry-wide limits on compensation. Considering recent precedent and the NCAA’s Interim Name, Image, and Likeness Policy of 2021, this Comment proposes a rule change permitting a college to provide student-athletes a stipend for its use of their name, image, and likeness in sports broadcasts. This would create a more equitable revenue distribution system while maintaining the amateurism principle that the NCAA was founded on