UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — WPSU invites viewers and listeners to send in their questions for a special conversation with guests Jay Paterno, author of BLITZED! The All-Out Pressure of College Football’s New Era and Penn State Professor Brett Christenson, coordinator for Smeal Sports Business Program.
The program will be moderated by Broadcast News Veteran Carolyn Donaldson and the conversation will center around Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) policies and the effects on the NCAA, student-athletes, coaches and universities.
Paterno said there are pros and cons.
“The positive is that the student-athletes will be able to monetize their name, image and likeness. The negative consequences are jumping from school to school destabilizes teams, and the academic progress for the athletes. It adds pressure of financial expectations on top of academic and athletic demands creating stress that can have a negative impact on mental health. It also professionalizes the athletes in the fans' minds and changes that dynamic with criticism and trolling on the same social media platforms these athletes use to promote things,” Paterno said. “In the near future there will be attempts by the schools and conferences to try to regulate NIL and bring it in house with the goal is to make the process more transparent to ensure that there is a fair market value being paid. Those attempts will likely face more litigation.”
Christenson added that protocols for NIL are still being developed.
“The NIL space is still a fairly new and emerging marketplace and there haven’t been clear and detailed mechanisms for ensuring stability across all stakeholders,” Christenson said. “The development of NIL over the next few years will hopefully bring out some agreed-upon patterns for doing business because the impact can be both positive and negative for student athletes, for their programs, for athletics departments and institutions, and for fans.”
Viewers and listeners can submit their own questions in advance by sending them to connect@wpsu.org before March 15.
A Conversation on the NIL and NCAA with Jay Paterno and Professor Brett Christenson will air at 8 p.m. on March 20, 2025, on WPSU-TV, WPSU-FM and live.wpsu.org.
WPSU-TV, a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member station, serves 24 counties in central Pennsylvania and reaches 515,000 households, and WPSU-FM is accessible to more than 450,000 listeners in 13 counties. The public media station also includes WPSU Digital Studios, which offers original web series that explore science, arts, and culture.
WPSU is a unit of Penn State Outreach.