When Illini enter draft, transfer portal, how does NIL factor in?

Ethan Simmons, The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.
·2 min read

Mar. 30—CHAMPAIGN — A goofy commercial featuring Illinois basketball forwards Coleman Hawkins and Ty Rodgers in a Serra Champaign car dealership made the rounds during televised March Madness games.

Now that junior Hawkins has declared for the NBA Draft while maintaining his college eligibility, what happens to this business arrangement and others that use his name, image or likeness? How about for students that enter the transfer portal?

The NCAA prohibits businesses from using name, image, likeness deals as inducement for an athlete to continue enrollment at a university. For example, a NIL contract could not call for payments to a student-athlete contingent on him or her staying an extra year, UI Assistant Athletic Director for Strategic Initiatives Kam Cox said.

"But at the same time, a student-athlete's image value, particularly for basketball, does go up right around the end of the season during the tournament," Cox said Wednesday.

It's highly uncommon, though not unprecedented, for businesses to continue working with an athlete after they leave town.

Serra Champaign Executive Manager Ben Quattrone said he designed Rodgers' and Hawkins' endorsement deals to expire at the end of the academic year to prepare for any summer decisions.

"I told Coleman: 'If you stay, I'll renew the deal again,'" Quattrone said. "If Coleman doesn't get a great deal (for the NBA), I would hope he would stay."

Quattrone said he spent the latter summer months last year getting to know both Illinois basketball players. Both players apparently needed some wheels and offered to let the business use their likenesses in ad campaigns and social media posts.

Quattrone ended up loaning Hawkins one of the dealership's first 2023 BMW X3s.

"Coleman's on everything when you see promotional pics for U of I athletics. He's kind of an iconic person," he said. "Whatever he does, he's probably going to keep the car. He's just going to buy it from me."

The Serra dealerships of Champaign have close ties with Illinois athletics: Basketball coaches Brad Underwood and Shauna Green both drive Serra-provided vehicles, Quattrone said, as do many other athletics administrators. The dealership reserves the right to swap out the cars at any time, he said.

Serra Champaign hired a firm to film the ad with Rodgers and Hawkins, going for a "SportsCenter-like" televised skit. The response has been "phenomenal," Quattrone said, apart from a few trolling comments who went for the players' acting chops after the team's NCAA tournament loss.

Professional money almost always outweighs what a student-athlete can make with NIL, Cox said. But when it comes to staying or going, "I do think NIL now is one of the pillars of that decision, whereas before, it wasn't a part of that," he said.