NIL: What’s happening at the U as big changes rock college sports?

It started with a unanimous 2021 Supreme Court decision in National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Alston, which ruled that the NCAA had violated antitrust laws by "restricting the education-related benefits that student athletes may receive." Those 10 words have shaken the foundation of college athletics by creating the name, image, likeness (NIL) era — a still evolving, heavily litigated concept that has given student-athletes agency to earn money off their athletic performance in a way that was impossible to imagine under old NCAA rules.

Our ongoing series of stories will tackle the topic by examining how the NIL revolution is making an impact at the University of Minnesota. The entire series will be published here.