For the Business Alabama August 2023 cover story on the evolving name, image and likeness rules for college athletics, Bill Lawrence was quoted offering perspective the opportunities for athletes under the NIL regime.

“Since its inception (in 1906), the NCAA has always had an amateurism rule, which prevented college athletes from accepting compensation, including to promote any kind of product,” Lawrence said. “But ultimately, the NCAA caved to the realities of our modern world.”

Despite the many questions to be answers in these modern NIL times, Lawrence is an advocate for the ability of collegiate athletes to finally earn money off of their likeness. “I hear people say this is going to ruin college athletics,” Lawrence said. “My response is always the same. Give me a good reason why college athletes should not be able to exploit their NIL like everyone else? The only reason has been the NCAA amateurism rule.”

“I’m sure there will be some good, some bad and some ugly come out of all this. But that’s not the real issue. The real issue is, shouldn’t college athletes be able to take advantage of their NIL, especially at a time when the value of their NIL may be higher than it will ever be?”

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