As college and university athletics departments continue to increase their spending, Rutgers University has found a new source of funding for name, image and likeness efforts: the state of New Jersey.
According to WDHA, the school will receive $5 million toward NIL infrastructure as a part of governor Mikie Sherrill’s $60.7 billion spending plan passed this summer. This marks the first time that state lawmakers will send taxpayer money directly to a school’s athletics department.
Related: Rutgers Athletics Has Lost $517M in Decade-Plus Since Joining Big Ten Conference
The spending plan stipulates that the money must be used for “events attraction and marketing” as well as salaries for NIL staff, in-house media production, recruiting events and compliance.
While the $5 million will not go directly to paying student-athletes, it is a drop in the bucket compared to Rutgers’ $78 million deficit racked up in a single academic year.
The move is similar to one deployed by Wisconsin earlier this year. Wisconsin governor Tony Evers has signed a bill in April that provides the University of Wisconsin with $15 million annually for facility debt services. The goal of that bill was to shift facilities costs and debts, so Wisconsin universities can use athletics dollars on other rising costs, like revenue-sharing and NIL.
Related: Wisconsin Governor Signs $15M Athletics Facilities Debt, NIL Bill Into Law
Officials at Rutgers hope that the $5 million boost will keep the Knights competitive in the Big Ten NIL arms race. They estimate that the football team requires $6 to 7 million of NIL funding each year, and the basketball team would be competitive with $2 million of NIL funding.
Dan Furman, an NIL executive, told Essentially Sports, “I expect 20 or more major state universities to run this exact same play by 2027.” Meaning, additional schools could seek to use taxpayer funds to bolster athletics department operating budgets.
