Duke's vice president and director of athletics Kevin White expressed concerns over the potential ramifications that could stem from student-athletes profiting off their name, image, and likeness.
White posed the following questions in a portion of his statement released by the Blue Devils on Tuesday:
How will it (NIL legislation) impact recruiting? Will it create a wide-open marketplace in which institutions solicit businesses or boosters to offer ever-escalating endorsement deals to a star high school quarterback or point guard? Will resources from equipment, apparel, and shoe companies be redirected to a relatively few individuals rather than being shared equally among the lesser known, but no less valuable, Olympic sports? How will it affect the locker room in which the vast majority of student-athletes go uncompensated?
White's statement comes in support of a similar memo sent by North Carolina's athletic director Bubba Cunningham last week. Cunningham specifically cautioned that athletes would become professionalized if they were granted the ability to profit off NIL legislation.
"The NCAA student-athlete advisory committee, made up entirely of undergraduate athletes, has expressed its concern that 'there are a plethora of potential unintended consequences' to permitting the use of NIL," White's statement adds. "Among them, they identify 'unfair recruiting and competitive advantages, difficulty monitoring compensation and ethics, unequal treatment of female athletes, and exploiting of athletes.' These are the legitimate issues raised by the athletes themselves. This is their voice; it should be heard."
On April 29, the NCAA's board of governors announced it supported rule changes that would permit student-athletes to receive compensation from third-party endorsements for their name, image, and likeness.
