The days are counting down until Aug. 28, when Missouri's new name, image and likeness law goes into effect, and the higher institutions in Callaway County are ready, even though they don't expect much change where they are.
The athletic directors at NCAA Division III Westminster College and NAIA William Woods University don't see much changing in areas like NIL activity, recruiting and involvement of boosters because of the smaller size of their respective schools, but each voiced their support for NIL legislation and think this is a big step for the future of college athletics.
Despite the NCAA having its own NIL policy in effect since July 1, Westminster athletic director and men's basketball head coach Matt Mitchell said the school hasn't had to take many steps in altering its policies because there hasn't been much activity in terms of NIL requests from its student-athletes. If there comes a time when Westminster student-athletes would seek more NIL opportunities, he said the school would follow policy set forth by the NCAA and eventually the state but feels not much needs to be addressed.
Mitchell said Westminster's student-athletes could already make money working jobs and helping at youth camps. They could sign autographs, he continued, but now can profit off of them and could also have a local business use their name, image and likeness with the recent NIL rules. He said, obviously, Westminster's student-athletes couldn't attach NIL to ventures against school policy, such as alcohol, and they have always had to ask permission to use the college's logo or trademarks in any way so that doesn't differ too much from the new rules.
These are such small changes, he said, he doesn't envision the NIL activity at Westminster ramping up much, if at all, in the future.
"I just don't foresee that happening to a great extent," Mitchell said. "We may end up getting caught off-guard, but I would be shocked if any Division III student-athlete is able to prosper from this."
The NCAA doesn't monitor Division III as closely as the higher levels, rather the student-athletes are governed by the institution, Mitchell said. From a competitive standpoint, like number of games, he said Westminster does have to follow NCAA rules more carefully, but eligibility issues are dealt with by the colleges.
All of the recent changes to NIL policy are mostly common sense and welcome, Mitchell said. While this could create some problems in the NCAA, the national organization hasn't had much problem profiting off student-athletes' NIL in the past and not sharing the profits with the players, he said.
Mitchell also pointed out this country has a system in place that says everyone should be allowed to make money.
"Within our society, I've always questioned how we could prevent someone from making money in a capitalistic society," he said. "If somebody is fortunate enough to use their name and image to make money, I've always felt that that should be granted and allowed."
While NIL has become more prevalent this year, William Woods athletic director Jason Vittone said NAIA institutions have been dealing with it for about a year now after the national small college body passed its own legislation in October after many months of discussion to more easily allow its student-athletes to profit from NIL. While William Woods hasn't seen any NIL activity, he said, its student-athletes are still aware those opportunities are available to them. He also said the college and all other NAIA colleges shouldn't be affected much when the Missouri law takes effect, as the institutions have become accustomed to it and the NAIA policy covers a lot of ground.
The NAIA policy is pretty open, Vittone said, because the organization wanted its policy to be easily applied to the more than 250 institutions across the nation. Notifying the colleges about NIL requests is an important step for student-athletes, he said, but NAIA student-athletes are able to take advantage of many opportunities, including all the ones allowed in the NCAA policy. NAIA student-athletes can even wear their school uniforms and school trademarks and logos in NIL opportunities.
"Anything that they work out on their own, in terms of branding, the only requirement they have to the NAIA is just to let us know that they are taking part in that opportunity," Vittone said.
Concerning William Woods athletes, they are still able to wear other athletic brands other than Nike, despite of the university's recent partnership with the brand, Vittone said. As long as the other brand is worn outside of in-game situations, then their student-athletes aren't limited by that.
When it comes to the types of NIL opportunities William Woods could see in the future, Vittone said partnerships with local businesses, autographs and youth camps are all possible at William Woods. He said he definitely can see some profiting from social media because an NAIA athlete has done so already.
Chloe Mitchell, a volleyball player from Aquinas College, has millions of followers on TikTok and has used her online platform and new NIL capabilities make money off DIY home improvement videos. She has also launched a platform called Playbooked, which is designed to help other athletes find NIL opportunities.
More can be done to improve the experience of the student-athlete, Vittone said. For instance, a college golfer can't keep any proceeds from winning a tournament, so he would like to see those them keep the winnings along with the trophy. Also, if a cross country runner wins a big event, like the Boston Marathon, he said it shouldn't matter if they're a college athlete and should be able to keep their winnings.
"I don't see the difference in the golfer can't keep money from the tournament they just won, but they can receive a sponsorship from the car dealership down the road to essentially do the same thing, which is make money off name, image and likeness," he said.
For a long time, Vittone said colleges, whether they be NCAA and NAIA, have been too restrictive on the experience of the college athlete but acknowledges NIL rules being relaxed is a big first step that will make a difference.
"This is a great first step in getting some opportunities to generate some revenue for themselves. I think it's great," he said. "This is just the first step for many things that can come down the road when it comes to student athletes having more say in their experience."