As college sports prepare for a seismic shift under a $2.8 billion NCAA settlement that will allow schools to directly compensate athletes, changes are also coming to the world of name, image and likeness, or NIL, deals.
Among them: the introduction of stricter oversight, including an independent clearinghouse to vet larger deals for fairness and legitimacy.
For businesses that have embraced NIL partnerships, like Mercedes-Benz of Baton Rouge, the changes are a welcome sign of structure in what has long been an unpredictable space.One Baton Rouge business that has been active in the NIL space is Mercedes-Benz of Baton Rouge. The dealership has in recent years partnered with star LSU athletes like Garrett Nussmeier, Flau’jae Johnson and Angel Reese.
For its latest issue, Business Report asked Nick Pentas, the dealership’s general manager and co-owner, how he feels about the new NIL rules.
Pentas says he welcomes the changes with open arms. In his view, giving an independent clearinghouse the authority to approve or reject NIL deals worth more than $600 based on whether they serve a valid business purpose and whether compensation is in line with fair market value will bring much-needed stability to what has thus far been a chaotic marketplace.
“In the past, it was kind of a free-for-all,” Pentas says. “It was difficult to determine the value of a deal because there was really nothing to go off of.”
While Mercedes-Benz of Baton Rouge will continue partnering with athletes, Pentas says the business will be more selective going forward, focusing on athletes whose personal brands best align with the dealership’s.
“Before, it was just like rolling the dice,” he says. “We’d get approached by random athletes sometimes. No offense to the athletes—we just hadn’t heard of them yet. We were like, ‘Should we do this?’ It was just very haphazard and all over the place. Now, we’re kind of honing in on athletes whose brands align with ours.”
Read the full story, and check out Business Report’s full cover package on the evolving world of college athletics. Send comments to editor@businessreport.com.
