NCAA Athletic Scholarships & Entrepreneurship
Well, nobody promised this stuff would make sense. The NCAA allows scholarship athletes to pursue
entrepreneurship in the off-season. So far,
so good. However, scholarship athletes may
not use their “name, photograph, or appearance” to promote the business. Not so good.
This conflict shows why student athletes must work closely
with the university’s athletic compliance department. The NCAA rules are complex and don’t make a
lot of sense sometimes. For example, if
an athlete wants to sell real estate in the summer, they will set up a website
and agent bio. This will include their
name and photograph for branding and marketing.
Before setting up the website the athlete should contact the school’s compliance
department. The compliance department
will then seek an NCAA waiver allowing the athlete to set up a real estate
agent website showing their name and photo. Good times.
NCAA “Self-Employment” rule below.
12.4.4 Self-Employment. A student-athlete may establish his
or her own business, provided the student-athlete’s name, photograph,
appearance or athletics reputation are not used to promote the business.
