Name, image and likeness – a person's right to control and profit from the commercial use of their identity: their name, image, likeness, voice and persona. It's the same thing lawyers call the 'right of publicity,' applied to endorsements and deals.

Can college athletes make money from NIL?

Yes – since July 2021, US college athletes can profit from their name, image and likeness (endorsements, social posts, appearances) while staying eligible. A 2025 legal settlement went further, letting schools pay athletes directly within a cap. It's a fast-moving area still being worked out.

Is there a federal NIL law?

No single federal right of publicity exists – it's mostly state law, so protection varies by state. There's an active push for federal rules on AI likeness specifically (the NO FAKES Act), but as of 2026 it hasn't passed.

Name, image and likeness (NIL), explained

NIL – name, image and likeness – is a person's right to control and profit from their own identity. It's the same thing as the 'right of publicity,' and it's become huge money, especially since US college athletes were allowed to profit from it. Here's the landscape, as of 2026. General education, not legal advice.

The right underneath it

NIL is a friendly name for the right of publicity – the right to control the commercial use of your name, image, likeness, voice and persona. When a brand pays an athlete or creator to endorse a product, they’re licensing that right. The important thing for a manager to know: in the US there is no single federal right of publicity – it’s mostly state law, so the strength of the protection, and whether it survives after death, varies by state (California, New York and Tennessee have strong ones; many states protect it for decades post-mortem).

The college-athlete earthquake

For decades, US college athletes couldn’t earn a cent from their fame. That changed in July 2021: following a Supreme Court antitrust ruling, the NCAA let athletes profit from their NIL – endorsements, social media, appearances, autographs – while staying eligible. It created an entire new market overnight, and a new kind of client for managers and agencies.

The 2025 settlement

It went further still. A major legal settlement approved in 2025 (House v. NCAA) now lets schools pay athletes directly, sharing revenue within a cap of roughly $20.5 million per school for the 2025-26 year. Third-party NIL deals over $600 have to be run through a clearinghouse that checks them for a real business purpose and fair market value. It’s genuinely new and still being fought over in court, so treat the specifics as current-for-now and changing – but the direction is clear: athlete NIL is a real, institutional money market.

NIL collectives

Much of the early athlete money flowed through collectives – booster- and donor-funded groups that pool money to pay athletes for NIL activity. After the 2025 settlement they have to fit the new fair-market-value rules, but they’re still operating alongside the direct school payments, and many are evolving into something closer to marketing agencies.

The AI frontier

The newest battle is over AI likeness and deepfakes – voice and face clones generated without permission. The old state right-of-publicity laws weren’t built for it, so new ones are appearing: Tennessee’s ELVIS Act (in force since 2024) explicitly protects a person’s voice from AI cloning, and a federal bill (the NO FAKES Act) has been proposed but, as of 2026, has not passed. For any artist or creator whose voice and face are the asset, this is the space to watch.

The manager's takeaway

NIL is real income and a real asset – the person’s identity, licensed. Know that the rules are state-specific and moving fast, treat NIL deals like the brand deals they are, and get a lawyer for anything specific, because this is general education, not legal advice. For protecting the brand name (as opposed to the person), that’s a trademark.

Common questions

What is NIL?: Name, image and likeness – a person's right to control and profit from the commercial use of their identity: their name, image, likeness, voice and persona. It's the same thing lawyers call the 'right of publicity,' applied to endorsements and deals.
Can college athletes make money from NIL?: Yes – since July 2021, US college athletes can profit from their name, image and likeness (endorsements, social posts, appearances) while staying eligible. A 2025 legal settlement went further, letting schools pay athletes directly within a cap. It's a fast-moving area still being worked out.
Is there a federal NIL law?: No single federal right of publicity exists – it's mostly state law, so protection varies by state. There's an active push for federal rules on AI likeness specifically (the NO FAKES Act), but as of 2026 it hasn't passed.