20 Reasons Why Student-Athletes Should Get Internship Credit for Starting Their NIL Businesses

As you know, student-athletes dedicate more time to their sport—between practice, weight training, video review time, strategy sessions, and games—than the average student spends in part-time jobs AND internships!

With NIL, their workload increases even more.

Student-athletes are now essentially running their own businesses. They’re learning branding strategies, mastering social media, building and engaging an audience, and marketing themselves to businesses, brands, sponsors, and advertisers—while managing their business cash flow and finances.

Isn’t this an internship?

NIL is still in its early stages, and many haven’t fully considered the fact that student-athletes are essentially creating their own internships by building their personal sports branding businesses. This isn’t just about posting on social media or wearing a brand’s logo—it's about managing all the responsibilities that come with running a business. These athletes are learning invaluable skills like marketing, negotiation, branding, and financial management, often with no formal training. They’re not just competing in their sport; they’re becoming entrepreneurs in their own right.

We think this deserves more attention.

But to fully recognize these efforts, we need to examine why athletic departments, career centers, recruiters, and student-athletes themselves should take this idea seriously. The entrepreneurial journey student-athletes embark on shares many of the same characteristics as traditional internships—if not more. They’re gaining real-world experience in business strategy, building partnerships, and managing public personas.

The industry stands at a pivotal moment, where it must reevaluate how it supports and values the distinctive learning experiences student-athletes acquire through their involvement in the NIL era, and determine if these experiences merit internship credit

To get us thinking about this, lets see if we all agree on what an internship is.

So what is an internship? ?

Internships were developed as a bridge between academic learning and real-world experience, providing students with the opportunity to apply their knowledge in professional settings. For companies, internships serve as a valuable recruitment tool, allowing them to assess potential talent while benefiting from fresh perspectives and energy that interns bring.

Meanwhile, students gain hands-on experience, develop critical workplace skills, and build professional networks that can help them secure future employment. Internships create a win-win situation where companies gain access to eager, developing professionals, and students enhance their resumes with relevant experience, making them more competitive in the job market.

Here are five generally agreed upon outcomes and expectations of an internship.

1. Learning Experience: Internships are intended to provide real-world experience in a professional field. Student-athletes developing their NIL businesses are gaining hands-on learning in marketing, sales, financial management, branding, and leadership.
2. Professional Skill Development: A hallmark of internships is the development of skills applicable to future careers. In building their NIL brands, student-athletes are learning communication, negotiation, digital marketing, and time management—transferable skills for a wide range of professions.
3. Mentorship and Feedback: In many internships, students receive guidance from professionals in the field. With NIL businesses, student-athletes often receive mentorship from coaches, advisors, and agents, while learning to network with sponsors and brands.
4. Practical Application of Theory: Internships allow students to apply academic knowledge to real-world scenarios. While student-athletes may not be directly applying their classwork, they’re practicing entrepreneurship, branding, and financial theory in their NIL efforts.
5. Evaluation and Reflection: Internships typically require participants to reflect on their experiences and receive evaluations. Similarly, NIL businesses require student-athletes to evaluate the success of their branding efforts, content strategies, and business partnerships.

Career Centers, College Recruiters, Athletic Departments, and Student-Athletes Benefit!

Granting internship credit for student-athletes who build and manage their NIL businesses offers a range of benefits across the entire college ecosystem. Lets drill into specific benefits for:

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Three Reasons Why Career Centers Should Support Giving Student-Athletes Internship Credit

1. Support Career Development Beyond Athletics: Career centers exist to help students prepare for life after college. The reality is that most student-athletes won’t go pro in their sport. By recognizing NIL as an internship, career centers can provide a pathway for athletes to demonstrate their professional development, giving them skills that are valuable beyond sports.
2. Bridge the Gap Between Academics and Athletics: Career centers can serve as a vital connection between the academic world and the athletic world, fostering the notion that what student-athletes do in NIL mirrors what non-athlete students experience in internships. Encouraging this could enhance the institution’s ability to support all students in their professional development.
3. Formalized Recognition: Offering credit for NIL activities would allow career centers to formalize what student-athletes are already learning. They can work with athletic departments and faculty to build a curriculum around NIL, offering workshops, mentorship, and evaluations that help student-athletes prove their achievements and growth in a structured way.

Three Reasons Why College Recruiters Should Support Giving Student-Athletes Internship Credit

1. Nurturing Entrepreneurial Talent: Student-athletes who successfully build their NIL brands demonstrate entrepreneurial instincts that can be of great value to businesses. Recruiters should recognize these skills as equivalent to or even exceeding those learned in traditional internships, as the challenges in entrepreneurship often surpass the typical scope of an internship.
2. Highlighting Soft Skills Development: The very nature of managing a personal brand requires athletes to cultivate skills like resilience, adaptability, creativity, and leadership. College recruiters looking for graduates with these qualities should support the idea of NIL as an internship, making it easier to quantify the value of these experiences in hiring decisions.
3. Diversity in Experience: Recruiters often seek candidates with diverse experiences. The NIL business world provides student-athletes with exposure to a variety of industries—sports, entertainment, media, and marketing. This well-rounded experience should appeal to employers who value candidates with unique perspectives and backgrounds.

Three Reasons Why Athletic Departments Should Support Giving Student-Athletes Internship Credit

1. Holistic Development of Athletes: Athletic departments are tasked with supporting the overall development of their student-athletes. By encouraging NIL activities to be seen as internships, they can help athletes grow in ways beyond their sport, enhancing their personal and professional skills.
2. Attracting Talent: In today’s competitive college sports landscape, athletes may be drawn to schools that support their NIL aspirations. Formalizing NIL work as an internship could become a recruitment tool, showing that the school is invested in the future success of its athletes.
3. Reducing Pressure to Go Pro: Many student-athletes feel immense pressure to pursue professional sports careers. Recognizing NIL efforts as internships would allow them to see tangible career pathways beyond athletics, reducing this pressure and improving their overall well-being.

Three Reasons Why Student-Athletes Should Support GETTING Internship Credit

1. Real-World Experience: Running an NIL business provides valuable hands-on experience in managing finances, branding, contracts, and negotiations. These skills will serve them well in any career path and will be a strong addition to their resumes.
2. Tangible Recognition: By formalizing NIL as an internship, student-athletes can earn recognition that they can present to future employers. This could come in the form of a certificate or college credit, offering a concrete way to show their professional growth during college.
3. Skill Development for Life Beyond Sports: Most athletes will not pursue professional sports careers. NIL gives them a unique opportunity to develop professional skills while still in college, helping them prepare for life after sports.

If everyone is in agreement, let's spend some time to determine how the industry can adopt this strategy?

While it's clear that student-athletes gain valuable skills through their participation in athletics, career centers and athletic departments may hesitate to offer blanket internship credit simply for being part of a sports team.

To ensure that credit is earned and that the experience truly mirrors the learning outcomes of a traditional internship, extra requirements could be introduced. These criteria would allow student-athletes to demonstrate the depth of their experiential learning and showcase the specific skills they’ve gained through their NIL ventures. By setting standards for evaluation and requiring athletes to reflect on and present their growth, colleges can maintain the integrity of the internship credit while rewarding student-athletes for their real-world business experiences.

To get us thinking out of the box, let’s look at five ways student-athletes could be “judged” as gaining the traditional internship experiences identified above.

To offer credit or formal recognition for NIL-related internships, career centers could implement the following assessment strategies:

1. Portfolio Review: Require student-athletes to submit a portfolio showcasing their work—such as branding strategies, content they’ve created, contracts they’ve negotiated, and partnerships they’ve secured.
2. Reflection Essays: Students could be asked to write reflective essays discussing the skills they’ve gained from running their NIL businesses and how these experiences will contribute to their future careers.
3. Presentations: Student-athletes could present their NIL business strategies and results to a panel of career center advisors, athletic department staff, or industry experts.
4. Mentorship Feedback: Obtain feedback from mentors, agents, sponsors, or others who have guided the student-athlete through their NIL journey. This evaluation could help quantify their learning and development.
5. Financial Performance Analysis: Students could provide a breakdown of their NIL business’s financial performance, demonstrating their understanding of revenue generation, expenses, and profit margins.

Conclusion: Team Sports and Creating an NIL Brand as a Legitimate Internship

Ultimately, student-athletes developing and managing their NIL brands are engaging in many of the same activities as students in formal internships.?

They’re gaining real-world experience, developing professional skills, and managing a “startup” business while still in school. By recognizing this as an internship, we not only validate the hard work and dedication of student-athletes but also ensure that they are adequately prepared for life after sports.

Given these realities, career centers, recruiters, athletic departments, and student-athletes themselves should see the immense value in formalizing NIL as an internship. By doing so, we bridge the gap between athletics and academics, offering student-athletes the recognition and opportunities they deserve for their entrepreneurial efforts.

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