NIL Contracts Need Answers.

Here’s Ours:

How PlainVanilla is Working to Create a Transparent and Data Driven Contracts Process for All Student Athletes

Two years after Name, Image, and Likeness (aka NIL) became legal the space remains the Wild West. States have a hodgepodge of rules and regulations. The NCAA has yet to release a finalized set of rules. Congress has taken no action. Some student athletes are cashing in, but most are left wondering what is going on.

In that vacuum, many companies have appeared with the goal of creating a marketplace for student athletes and businesses to connect. The vast majority of these companies have tried to simplify their operations. Instead of helping student athletes sign fair and balanced contracts, they force you to sign their terms of service. This oversimplification comes because most of these marketplaces are NIL companies approaching a legal problem. We are a legal solution approaching an NIL problem.

PlainVanilla offers a standardized NIL contract that is simple, balanced, and fair. We give students a uniform starting point to enter a conversation with a business or collective. Yet we also recognize that not all contracts are going to be the same. Everyone has slightly different needs. For that reason, our platform will let you create, edit, negotiate, and sign all in one place. But that is just the start.

In a recent tweet , NCAA president Charlie Baker wrote “NIL is a powerful vehicle that rightfully allows student athletes the ability to earn compensation from their unique market value. At the same time, the lack of transparency in today’s NIL marketplace puts student athletes in jeopardy of exploitation by bad actors.” He couldn’t be more correct.

That lack of transparency extends beyond mere monetary agreement. Student athletes don’t know if what they’re signing-if they’re signing anything at all-is normal or very unusual. Terms can be essential. Take for example, a limitation of liability clause that states a collective is not liable for any willful misconduct or negligence. That means that a collective could do something as extreme as commit crimes or as benign as ignore you. In both cases the odds of the student athlete being paid their fair market value decrease dramatically and because of this clause they have no recourse.

Student athletes deserve two things. First, they deserve a contract not a terms of service. Second, they deserve the data to make NIL decisions. Student athletes should know if the clauses in their contract are normal or not. In the case of a limitation of liability clause, it shouldn’t be but that doesn’t mean a collective won’t try to put it in your contract. Student athletes cannot assume everyone has their best interests at heart.

Without the context or data to make decisions, student athletes could be left in a word-screwed. PlainVanilla takes the guesswork out. We make it easy to know what’s in your contract. We make it easy to negotiate your contract. We make it easy to analyze your contract. We make it easy to sign your contract. And we make it easy to keep track of your contracts. In sum we work to simplify the process but more importantly we work to clarify it. The current landscape leaves student athletes out to dry. Even the NCAA president recognizes it. We’re trying to do something about it.