Temple professor believes Owls are well-positioned for NIL

Temple professor Thilo Kunkel believes the university has some of the biggest strategic advantages in the nation when it comes to the changing legislation surrounding name, image and likeness in the NCAA.

Kunkel, who will be teaching a new online course this fall called Personal Branding: Name, Image and Likeness in Temple’s School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management, has been a valuable resource for Temple’s athletics department as it refines its plans to educate student athletes about how to maximize their brand. Much of his curriculum is derived from a paper he published back in March titled, “There is No Nil in NIL: Examining the Social Media Value of Student-Athletes’ Names, Images, and Likeness,” with research dating back to 2017.

“What we have is one of the biggest markets in the nation at our doorstep,” Kunkel said on this week’s episode of The Scoop, OwlScoop.com's podcast. “It’s certainly an advantage that we have at Temple, and it’s one that we shouldn’t underestimate.”

Temple’s North Philadelphia campus is in the fourth-largest media market in the country behind only New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, according to Nielsen’s 2021 Designated Market Area (DMA) rankings.

Kunkel said Temple’s athletics department has utilized his expertise with plans to roll out more courses and certificate programs in STHM.

The goal being to be well equipped for the start of the fall semester.

“When you look at the course content,” Kunkel said, “it’s really all about, how do I brand myself? What’s the importance of branding? But then also, what is the unique sports-specific ecosystem that we need to consider? How do they consider the university brand and the NCAA?”

Kunkel, now in his eighth year at Temple, didn’t go into great detail about the specifics of his ongoing conversations with the athletics department. He alluded to the fact that they will be prepared to educate student athletes this fall with ongoing workshops, along with hosting networking events to provide opportunities connecting companies and student athletes.

Although Temple coaches like Aaron McKie, Rod Carey and coach Tonya Cardoza, among others, are prohibited from brokering deals for student athletes or prospective student athletes, they can support their players and help facilitate opportunities that may lead to them monetizing their brands.

“That’s totally fair play to provide networking,” Kunkel said. “And if it happens that at these networking events there are companies that are interested in working with student athletes, well, that sounds like really good recruitment to me.”

One significant disadvantage among the legal jargon of NIL is the strict state bill. Schools in Pennsylvania are subject to notify their athletics compliance departments a week prior to joining into any deals. Student athletes attending universities in Georgia, Florida and California, for example, have the freedom to swiftly take a brand deal.

Kunkel gave the example of a company reaching out to a student athlete requesting a social media shoutout to be posted in the coming days. But at a school like Temple, a deal like that may not be cleared by compliance quickly enough for the company to take the deal.

An issue that may arise in the ever-evolving world of NIL is one school’s ability to recruit from other schools because wealthy boosters from large programs promise more money. According to Kunkel, the answer is the NCAA doesn’t quite have measures in place to prevent something like that from happening.

There are no boundaries in place preventing boosters from offering a student athlete a brand deal with their company if that student athlete transfers to the university the booster supports. It’s a bit of a gray area, but Kunkel said that “it will be part of the game.”

“The main thing that Temple can do is really provide a value statement to the student in terms of what’s the value of coming to Temple,” he said. “The big city is certainly a big advantage and the other aspect is the educational part around NIL and what we provide to the students in terms of educating, not to just make a quick dollar but how to do it properly and how to do it in a sustainable way.”