NIL is challenging – but not impossible – for international student-athletes

By Sam Covone

There are 84 international student athletes on Temple University’s Division I teams from 39 different countries. Profiting from their name, image and likeness (NIL) is more of a challenge than it would be for a domestic student athlete, but it is not impossible.

“The challenge we face is their visa and what that requirement is,” Justin Miller, Temple University’s executive senior associate athletics director and chief of staff, explained. “None of this is an NCAA issue. It’s just that international students are bound by different rules due to their F-1 visa.”

With the F-1 Visa, students are allowed to earn revenue, but only if it is passive, meaning the athlete does not have to do anything. For football players, a passive option would include something like opting into the EA Sports College Football 25 video game. 

When it comes to social media posts, that is more of a challenge, as it is considered active, where the athlete does have to put in work.

“If Cheez-Its wants to do a deal with Renee, she can do that deal,” Miller said. “The restrictions are, if she looks down and is not on the soil of her home country, she needs to pause.”

When social media deals occur, international student athletes have to make sure that they have all of their documents in order, such as flight information and details about where the ad was originally posted. This is in case the federal government was to come question them about it since it is a government issue, not an NCAA issue. 

Even though student athletes are able to earn revenue, the F-1 visa does not allow international student athletes to work anywhere off campus. Therefore, more communication is needed to guide and educate athletes throughout the NIL process. 

This process could end up being extremely time consuming for an athlete who already has so much on their plate.

“I tried to look into it a little bit, and I found out that it was much harder for me as an international student. So I didn’t really put in the time afterwards because I thought, ‘OK, maybe it is too much of an effort,’” said Renee Oymann, a junior from Germany on the Temple Fencing team. “Everything is already so time consuming with practice, school and work, so I didn’t have the time to pursue it.”

In order to educate international athletes on NIL, Temple Athletics provides open houses, informational sessions with lawyers, and even mentions ways to find out more in classes. There have not been any recent informational sessions and open houses, but it is something Miller thinks would be beneficial to start back up. Not everyone wants to find these NIL deals and attend these sessions, but those who are interested go for it, no matter the extent.

Temple men’s tennis player Adam Kresina originally did not care about NIL, until one opportunity came when  someone reached out to him directly. Kresina is an ambassador for the Wells Fargo Center. In this role, he is able to receive tickets for certain Flyers and Wings games. 

While he is only eligible for it if it is unpaid, he still is grateful for the opportunity.

“I used to play hockey, and I love the game and was going to the games anyway last season,” Kresina said. “So it was just a great deal for me to get.”

Temple wants to make sure its international student athletes have confidence and faith that they are able to be part of the ever-changing landscape of NIL. It is also a goal of the university to get better at educating and informing student athletes about the opportunities that could present themselves by pushing the informational sessions and open houses.

“Maybe it’s probably worth doing again. I think we just have to continue to push these opportunities for them to hear what they can do,” said Miller, “and I guess break that stereotype that they can’t do anything, because they can.”

Front page photo courtesy of Temple Athletics.