For Berkeley High School athletes, pursuing athletic goals beyond high school doesn’t just mean performance or earning a scholarship. Today, high school and college students can now earn compensation on behalf of their image, grow their brand value, and, beginning July 1, 2026, receive direct payments from universities.
In the sports world, name, image, and likeness (NIL) allows for college athletes to receive earnings for their athletics through sponsorships and deals with third party endorsements. This policy was enacted in July, 2021 and has transformed the world of sports, creating a system modernized with online media where individual young athletes are now encouraged to build their own brand and approach their potential marketability.
“I’ve seen these videos about like a day in the life of a college athlete, and these big brands working with this Division III basketball athlete in Portland,” Noah Miller, BHS senior and Bates College basketball commit, said, “Now because they’re promoting all this stuff, they’re receiving a lot more attention.”
Due to online media rapidly enveloping the sports scene, combined with the accessible opportunities to grow your name, young athletes are now incentivized to market their brand. “I think it sounds pretty interesting and I might try it. It would be worth a shot to try at least and I think that’s something I definitely want to get into,” Miller said about his goals for his upcoming first year competing at the collegiate level.
On June 6, 2025, a class action lawsuit was approved in the House v. NCAA settlement, resulting in a $2.8 billion agreement to pay back former Division I athletes for the monetary damages caused by the lack of NIL compensation. Coming into effect July 1, 2026, this settlement has led to a form of NIL called “revenue sharing compensation” which allows schools to directly pay the athlete with respect to the 2025-26 season cap of $20.5 million.
Beyond the budget, there are NIL Collectives. In schools, there are third party groups that contain no limit on how much money they can pool together to fund for the schools NIL athletics, causing a large disparity between bigger schools with higher income and stronger donor support. These three forms of NIL have led to top talent becoming concentrated in the schools with more funds to provide, and have created a reshaping of the high school recruitment system.
For many top athletes emerging out of high school, the opportunity of receiving NIL compensation in college can hold a heavy impact on their post-high school decisions. However, for lower ranked athletes or students competing in smaller broadcasted sports, the NIL opportunities do not often play a role in student athletes’ college decision making and are therefore negated when schools approach recruitment.
For Akanni Owodunni, University of San Diego (USD) Division I baseball commit and BHS senior, the direct money compensations attached to certain schools were not a prominent factor in his college decision making, but he is aware of the performance-based opportunities the NIL program provides to the athlete. “Some schools give money to go there directly. And then some schools will provide an incentive for doing well and performing and that’s what USD does,” Owodunni said, “I want to grow my name and my image, and just my media influence as a whole to support the school and the team ... If you can bring money along with it, that’ll be great.”
Phoebe Dedlow is a current rower at Washington State University (WSU) and 2025 BHS graduate. In her first year as part of a Division I athletics program, she’s been exposed to several NIL opportunities and has experienced teammates who have worked with varying third party companies. Like many Division I programs across the country, WSU offers support to their athletes through the help of an NIL coordinator. This position supports the athletes by helping students garner deals and offers by sharing information about sponsorship opportunities. For Dedlow, she has yet to pursue any of those options, but would be open to working with a local company seeking exposure. “NIL is rapidly growing right now, and I feel it’s becoming more accessible to different sports, as opposed to the mainstream sports,” Dedlow said, “I know that there’s a lot of different companies that are also emerging ... that can help you get (NIL) deals.”
While many athletes may not be receiving direct compensation from NIL, the mindset on high school and college sports has shifted. Today, young athletes at BHS and across the country have their sights set on their personal image and brand, altering the individual athlete experience and paving the way for a more complex recruitment landscape.