NIL nonprofits can’t lose in College Football Playoff championship

By THALIA BEATY and GLENN GAMBOA
Associated Press

No matter who takes home the College Football Playoff championship Monday night in Houston, a rare nonprofit from the murky, still-developing world of Name, Image, Likeness programs is set to come out on top. Numerous NIL organizations have sprung up since a Supreme Court decision in 2021 allowed the National Collegiate Athletic Association to pay student athletes for use of their brands. Many are for-profit organizations that funnel donations they receive to college athletes in return for work they do for the organizations, like signing autographs. But both Hail! Impact, an NIL organization for the University of Michigan’s Wolverines, and Montlake Futures, which supports athletes at the University of Washington, have philanthropy at their cores.