With brand deals from Bubbl’r to Underdog Athletics, Hillsdale student athletes are taking advantage of 2021 NCAA regulations that now allow college athletes to profit from their Name, Image, and Likeness.

Senior linebacker Jacob Maloney said he didn’t receive any money from promoting the supplement company, “Get Shifted,” on his Instagram page. 

“I would just post here and there, and they would send me free supplements,” Maloney said. “It was super easy. They were always having me try new stuff.”

Maloney said he eventually stopped promoting the company’s products after the company started to require more promotion on his social media accounts. 

“We can do that type of stuff,” Maloney said. “There are just some requirements, like not having the Hillsdale logo in your post. You have to be representing your own Name, Image, and Likeness because if it’s the school, then they should be getting the product, not us.” 

Junior thrower Olivia Newsom said she promotes the sparkling water brand Bubbl’r because she had already been drinking the product for years before having a brand deal with the company. 

“They sent me Bubbl’rs just for me to promote them,” Newsom said. “To maintain the deal, I have to post on my Instagram story at least four times a month, or post one Instagram post with Bubbl’r and just tag them.” 

Freshman sprinter Anna Roessner said she has three brand deals — Bubble Skincare, Honey Stinger, and Underdog Athletics. 

“It’s super easy to apply, and it’s kind of fun to promote stuff,” Roessner said. “Mostly they’ll send you a product, and you’ll make a video or post about it. And then you complete little tasks for them, like commenting on their Instagram posts. Then you get points, and in turn they’ll send you products.” 

Roessner said she has a brand deal with Underdog Athletics, an athletic clothes company because of the company’s Christian message. 

“They promote Christian ideologies in sports and the fact that sports shouldn’t come before God,” Roessner said. “I thought that was a really cool mindset, and they sent me a shirt.” 

Roessner said it’s easy to have multiple brand deals so long as the products don’t compete with one another. 

Hillsdale Internal Operations and Compliance Manager Anike Stepke ’23 said there are a multitude of ways for athletes to get NIL deals. 

“It’s becoming quite easy,” Stepke said. “In the NCAA, there are a bunch of legal battles going on right now about it because it’s so unregulated, so we’ve put our own regulations in place.

Stepke said she supports NIL deals as long as they don’t step on students’ amateur status. 

“College sports generate a ton of revenue, and so I think the athletes getting a cut of that without violating their amateur status is a good thing,” Stepke said. “But I do think because it has been so unregulated that it has negatively impacted athletics at the highest level.”

Stepke said Hillsdale’s regulations prevent student-athletes from promoting products that go against the mission of the college or conflict with the athletic department’s brand deals. Stepke also said the size of Hillsdale allows the college to enforce regulations consistently.