It’s called NIL: Name, Image and Likeness. 

Effective July 1, 2021, the rule allows collegiate athletes to make money off their brand. 

This is not being paid to play or anything by the university, but student athletes can be paid for their autograph, developing and/or modeling clothing, promoting products and services and making personal appearances.  

The rule comes from the “right of publicity” which protects athletes against misuse of their NIL for commercial promotion. For years, big schools have made a vast amount of funds off athletes with no compensation to the athletes, which is what this aims to prevent. 

“When the legislation passed, there were some department requirements that we have to follow,” Athletic Director Eric Schoh said. “We can’t set up deals for our student athletes, we can’t tell them yes or no, we’re not contract experts. But student athletes, if they have an NIL deal, they have to report it to us.” 

These deals look very different across the NCAA (national collegiate athletic association), from DI all the way down to DIII.  

In Division I, there are athletes who have begun to make millions of dollars due to this, such as Bryce Young, a quarterback at University of Alabama who won the 2021 Heisman Trophy and $3.5 million in deals.  

Young’s brand endorsements include Dr. Pepper, Nissan, Beats by Dre, Celsius, Fanatics, Dollar Shave Club and NOBULL.  

While this is the highest end of the spectrum, the Division III athletes tend to get neglected.  

That is where MOGL comes in. MOGL is a platform that provides student-athletes with NIL opportunities conveniently on their app with a focus on Division II and III athletes. 

“I felt like we owed an obligation to our student athletes, that they got some education and were in a trusted environment,” Schoh said. “To be looking at these name image and likeness opportunities so that they weren’t getting taken advantage of.” 

MOGL had an informational and educational meeting for Winona State coaches and administration, as well as a separate meeting that was mandatory for all athletes to attend, even though signing up for the platform was completely voluntary.  

“We’re actively creating and facilitating NIL opportunities for all athletes regardless of sport, school, division or conference,” MOGL CEO Ayden Syal said. “So it makes athletes’ lives a lot easier. They don’t have to manually fill out disclosures and they can rest assured that their payment is being securely processed through the mobile platform as well.” 

With over 4,000 partners on the platform, it makes the process seamless in between athletes and administration by automatically reporting the partnerships which normally students would have to manually fill out a form on WarriorSpace. 

“We’re extremely excited to be working Winona State, NIL is for all athletes, not just Division I or Power 5,” Syal said. “And Winona State is a great example of that.” 

The future of NIL deals at Winona State may be unclear right now, but with MOGL it is exciting to see what will come of it, even if it is not at the same level as Young.