UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Sandy Barbour, former vice president for Intercollegiate Athletics at Penn State, said there are far too many stories about student-athletes signing away rights to their likeness for perpetuity because they didn’t understand the terms of the contracts they signed, or didn’t have the means to seek the proper advice.
“Protecting student-athletes must be the number one priority and this begins by educating them about how to protect themselves,” Barbour said.
Barbour spent more than 40 years in college athletics as a student-athlete, coach and administrator at Wake Forest, the University of Massachusetts, Northwestern, Tulane, Notre Dame, the University of California–Berkley, and Penn State before retiring in July 2022. She will take a closer look at the policy the NCAA adopted in 2021 that opened opportunities for student-athletes to take advantage of name, image and likeness (NIL) and the reasons she feels the decision was necessary during “College Athletics in the Name, Image and Likeness Era,” a pop-up course hosted by OLLI at Penn State.
“The basic roots of the NCAA NIL policy are to give student-athletes the same opportunities other students have to leverage their name, image and likeness to earn money during their college career,” Barbour said. “Before this policy existed, student-athletes had minimal opportunities to earn money by appearing in commercial opportunities, working with nonprofit organizations, or giving lessons to youth in the community for fear they would jeopardize their eligibility in a collegiate athletic program.”
The policy has not been enacted without controversy. The NIL era has been referred to by some as the “Wild West” of recruiting.
“The NCAA dragged its feet about modernizing terms surrounding the career of a student-athlete and the result was a policy that could go from one extreme to another,” Barbour said. “The members are partially to blame for this and I’m hoping new leadership in the NCAA will adjust it, while continuing to find ways to empower students and build competitive athletic programs while protecting the students involved.”
To learn more, members of the community are invited to attend the OLLI at Penn State pop-up course “College Athletics in the Name, Image and Likeness Era” from 9:30 to 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 26, in Rooms 121 G and H of the Outreach Building, located at 100 Innovation Blvd. in State College, or online via Zoom.
The cost for OLLI at Penn State members is $15; the cost for nonmembers is $30. Register to attend in-person here; register to attend online here.
OLLI at Penn State is a service of Penn State Outreach and offers community members aged 50 or better the opportunity to learn, explore and connect through educational experiences, travel, social and volunteer opportunities. For more information about OLLI at Penn State contact olli@psu.edu or call 814-867-4278.