Let's look at *** big change in the business of college sports. As college athletes now have the rights to earn sponsorship money and have more power over their own brands. It's reshaping the economy of college sports and beyond and providing new opportunities for the growth of women's sports. We'll look at how and why that came to be in the latest installment of our in the Loop series. Scoreboard july 1st marks one year since the National Collegiate Athletic Association, better known as the N. C double ***. Allowed college athletes to earn money off their name, Image and likeness. *** trio often collectively known as N I L. It's dramatically reshaped the landscape for college athletes. For many years, college athletes got scholarships, but that was it. Rules band scholarship athletes from making any money without putting their eligibility and scholarship at risk. But now that's changing. As the N C double ***. Changed its guidance and athletes are free to sign sponsorship deals with companies offer lessons or camps in their sports or fundraise for charitable causes. It's taken years of court fights in legislation to get here. One of the most pivotal cases involved, Ed O'Bannon, *** former basketball player at U. C. L. ***, abandoned soon and when he found out that years after he left the university was still making money by using his image and likeness in *** video game without paying him for it. Michael McCann, *** professor at the University of new Hampshire and legal writer for the publication sport. Echo is an expert in sports law and he co wrote *** book with O'Bannon about the legal fight. Yeah, he said, look, he made *** lot of money playing sports, but most of his teammates never made anything and he thought it was unfair that he's in this video game. He and his teammates, most of whom never made any money after college and sports, they were being, their identities were being sold in these games and he challenged it and he won. As the legal pressure came, states also joined in the fight putting pressure on the N. C. Double ***. By enacting their own laws, California passed the first N. I. L. Law in 20. It was not really about California. It was about forcing the CIA to change after they punted on this issue so many times. They had little committee group after committee group that just never came to any sort of resolution or conclusion. And also that if California did it, every other state would have to address the issue because it would become *** recruiting issue. By the time Hayley Hodson graduated high school in 2015, she had become the top volleyball recruit in the country and already played for the U. S. Women's national team. She played on scholarship at stanford Universe but had to retire after multiple concussions. It's left her with *** first hand look at the limitations of the old system and it led her to pushing California to put its N. I. L. Law in place, athletes need to have more agency. they need representation, they need economic opportunity because what we're looking at right now is not that. Um And so that really opened the door for that and I found myself testifying for *** topic that I'd long cared about and had never even really considered that legislation could play *** role in after California. 28 other states followed suit passing their own laws governing N. I. L. 15 of them took effect july 1st of 2021. Ahead of that date. The Supreme Court handed down *** ruling rejecting the N. C. Double argument in *** similar case challenging restrictions on academic benefits like computers or internships instead of fighting further, the quickly took *** different approach issuing loose guidelines allowing athletes to have N. I. L. Writes, it came about much quicker than they wanted it to and because of that, their committees also have not issued clear guidance and language. Um So it's *** little bit of the wild, wild West, you know, I think athletic administrators are really struggling as both athletes and universities try to navigate *** new set of rules. It can leave some unsure as to what's ok and what isn't allowed. I think the line is blurred at times And I think at times it's *** very thin line between what's permissible and what's not depending on how it's packaged, how it's positioned. So it is becoming *** issue for many athletic departments if you have *** booster who's willing to give *** student athlete $150,000 vehicle that that that that feels *** little untoward in in some regards, you know because of where the money came from. But even as the N. C. Double ***. Launches investigations into schools for potential abuse of the new N. I. L. Rules, there's been an effect that surprised industry experts. Although athletic departments and media outlets have often invested the vast majority of their money and attention into football and men's basketball. Women athletes are earning *** larger share of N. I. L. Deals than expected data from the N. I. L. Platform and marketplace. Open doors found that until May of this year women's basketball was the second biggest sport for athletes sponsorship trailing only college football. Even now, four of the top six sports for N. I. L. Compensation are women's sports. College football is an outlier. If you remove college football from the data set, women's sports student athletes are out earning the men's sports student athletes and I think that's an interesting trend to track as as women's sports student athletes for most of them this is the peak earning potential for college student athletes on the women's side athletes can take their brand into their own hands quicker. Now if you're at the top of your game or have *** large following. You could really cash in the Wall Street Journal reported that University of Connecticut basketball star and 2021 national player of the year page Beckers was on track to earn over $1 million in N. I. L. Deals annually. And L. S. U. Gymnast. Olivia Dunn is also set to earn *** similar amount owing that to her gymnastics success. And reached over five million followers on Tiktok and another 1.8 million followers on instagram products and companies and endorsers and advertisers. They want people who are relatable, they want people who are personable and relatable and will make their potential like tune in and dial in and engage and women have been doing that, you know, with with with the the personality and how relatable they are. All of the kinds of things that you know make celebrity endorsers, effective personality, likability, engaging those kinds of things. That's what we're seeing with many of the female athletes. Even if an athlete isn't on track to turn pro or go viral, N. I. L. Deals can make *** real difference. Open doors estimates that on average depending on whether they play at the top level or in lower divisions, athletes can bring in at least *** few 100 to *** few $1000 *** year through activities like social media posts, autograph signings and public appearances at the same time. Many of the folks we've talked to caution that N. I. L. ***. Law Alors won't fix all of the remaining gender gaps in college sports. Even as this month marks 50 years since title nine required colleges to offer at least as many athletic opportunities to women as to men. There's still work left to be done. We're still seeing instances where there's some facility disparities, there's some overall support disparities. Um, but we're also seeing it particularly at the leadership level. We know that women are still underpaid to women, coaches are still underpaid compared to their male counterparts. So we're still seeing salary inequities and things of that nature. But there's *** hope that having athletes who are putting in the work to market themselves could help raise interest in women's sports. Just by increasing their visibility to potential new fans, they can see an athlete do something and they turn around and go try it themselves. They can actually see clips where athletes will show them how, okay, here's how I do this right. Follow me, this is what I do that whole, see her be, her thing is so incredibly important. Little kid. *** lot of young people would never even think of participating in *** certain sport until then. They see somebody doing it and they're like, maybe I should try that