COLUMBIA, Mo. — Mizzou Athletic Director Jim Sterk has an analogy for NIL.
"It was like the Christmas gift no one knew exactly what it was going to be," Sterk said Thursday during a Zoom call with the press.
It's turned out to be a windfall for student athletes, at least in the early returns, as athletes from all sports and all levels have been branding themselves, signing deals and starting the process of profiting off their name, image and likeness.
"I felt like it was something that we needed to get to," Sterk said. "I wasn't quite sure how we would get there and we're still not totally sure on all that."
Missouri reports that upwards of 50 Tiger student-athletes have recorded agreements under NIL.
"I think there are going to be some student-athletes that are going to be disappointed that they thought they were worth this (amount)," Sterk said. "But they're coming to the real world that they may not be the next Patrick Mahomes and able to get deals with everyone."
Sterk joked that they were "COVID administrators" last year and "NIL administrators" this year. But Sterk knows they're not out of the woods yet when it comes to COVID-19.
He said they're monitoring rising numbers in the state of Missouri. MU has announced full fan capacity at football games this fall and doesn't want to have to go back on that.
"We're all going to be encouraging people to get vaccinated so that we don't have that kind of situation," Sterk said. "If we have to pivot, we know how to do that but it would be terrible to have to do that again."
Mizzou reports that six of its programs have over 60% of their athletes vaccinated so far.
