Feb 28, 2024; Storrs, Connecticut, USA; UConn Huskies forward Aaliyah Edwards (3) and teammates react during a timeout against the Villanova Wildcats in the second half at Harry A. Gampel Pavilion. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports
NCAABy Katie Lever and Simran Kaur Sethi on

One of the biggest myths in college sports is the widespread misconception that since July 1, 2021, all college athletes have enjoyed full access to the name, image, and likeness (NIL) market. For international college athletes (ICAs) on F1 student visas, who make up almost 13% of the college athlete population, the legal consequences of engaging in influencer activity, securing sponsorships, selling autographs, and virtually all NIL activity on U.S. soil are too severe to risk it–so severe that ICAs risk deportation if they are caught engaging in the vast majority of NIL activities on U.S. land due to U.S. visa laws.

That’s why Aaliyah Edwards, a UCONN basketball star originally from Canada, has had to keep her latest NIL deal with Adidas across the border and under wraps. Although the Huskies’ star forward signed the deal last month, she hasn’t (and likely won’t) speak to sports media about it for fear of jeopardizing her student visa. By returning to her home country for a short duration, she was able to capitalize on her Canadian citizenship and sign a NIL contract with Adidas Canada.

In doing so, the NIL deal is structured to comply with U.S. immigration laws as well as NIL rules. This means Edwards can only benefit from the deal when she is physically back in Canada. However, she can still benefit passively from this and other deals. For example, because UConn is selling jerseys with Edwards’s name on them, she can receive a portion of the profits because she isn’t actively pursuing this type of income while on U.S. land. The same goes for her Adidas deal–because Edwards has already performed the action on Canadian soil, she can now reap the benefits, passively.

For Tay Hawker, a soccer agent and former ICA, these restrictions come with a cost, as NIL and the media spotlight it often brings offers domestic athletes benefits the NCAA has been touting for years while ironically working against these rights. International athletes, however, are still left in the dark. “The ability to brand yourself and build your image as a student athlete enables you to build a foundation of platform much similar to what college is,” he explained. “To build a platform and a foundation for the rest of your life.”

Although domestic athletes can now monetize their NILs, international students in the U.S., including ICAs, are forced to strictly abide by F1 visa laws, which restrict this population from pursuing any off-campus employment (except for CPT and OPT-related employment, which are very narrow in scope). International students on F1 visas must remain full time students and can work only 20 hours a week on campus, if they choose to. Additionally, according to U.S. tax laws, ICAs are prohibited from earning any active sources of income (except for limited on-campus employment, OPT, and CPT), which includes all NIL activity in the U.S.

There are workarounds to these laws. For instance, Edwards was able to secure her deal with Adidas Canada because the law permits passive income streams, or earnings that require no direct action when residing in the U.S. However, jumping through hoops like this has a cost for ICAs looking to increase their visibility in sports media and build their brands.

“We’re talking about media exposure, which is obviously leading to revenue generation and more money,” said Tim Bryson, founder of Walk With TFB, a Black owned consulting firm focused on international athlete development, and internationalization strategies, when asked about the consequences of ICA’s suppressed visibility in the NIL market.

For Hawker, the opportunities ICAs miss out on because of F1 restrictions builds up quickly. According to Hawker, NIL and the media exposure that comes with it, builds incrementally so the lack of visibility ICAs experience in the NIL space has direct impacts on ICAs who want to grow their brands, as NIL and increased media coverage, in sports media, social media, and other forms of digital media, go hand-in-hand.

“I think it’s touch points,” Hawker said of this relationship, “[and the ability to] to quote unquote touch a fan or be in a fan’s eyes or on their social media, etc… So that could be seen in an Instagram post. Let’s say the athletes had an autograph signing event outside the local Sprouts and you went past and saw it and then after that you’ve seen them pop up on your Apple podcasts. There’s another one. So now we’re creating more opportunities for student athletes to develop their… touch points to increase their fan base.”

A lack of NIL rights not only keeps ICAs out of the spotlight in traditional media, but in non-traditional forms as well. One key example? The much-anticipated NCAA video game that will be returning this summer. And while for most of us, a video game is a fun way to pass the time, for ICAs’ their involvement in the gamer space could be a much more significant touchpoint.

College Football 25 Video Game EA Sports
Credit: EA Sports

“A video game is going to drastically increase international student enrollment and international athlete enrollment in the U.S. education system, ” Bryson said, “because you’re gonna have people over in London, you’re gonna have people over in Casablanca, you’re gonna have people over in Buenos Aires playing a video game with their home boy or home girl… and [say] I want to do that. The fight song, I want to listen to that…I want to go to the U.S.”

The disparity of rights and benefits between international and domestic athletes is a dynamic Hawker has noticed in his previous experience when he oversaw a sports agency that helped consult athletes in the NIL space from July 2021.

“I know with my time as an agent, there were countless times where I had to turn down deals,” he said. “People were coming to my [international] student athletes–they had great followings, loyal followings, engagement, they were great people to work with, incredible on a microphone–and we were constantly saying no to a lot of brand deals for them because of restrictions.”

Hawker’s experience demonstrates how ICAs don’t lack the possibility to engage in NIL or don’t not have the reach or followings to do so. Instead, the U.S. immigration law unfairly treats this population by adding severe restrictions on their dos and don’ts in this country. Not only that, but NIL also teaches college athletes media skills, and ICAs miss out on this valuable experience although they too might need to practice their media presence before going pro in American or international leagues.

“With an increased fan base comes increased media presence as well,” Hawker said. “[NIL is] giving athletes both the training and the opportunity to practice what it means to be in the media space, practice answering questions, more often and often not unfiltered questions.”

It is also important to understand that over 97% of college athletes do not pursue professional sports upon graduation. Thus, engaging in NIL gives this large population of college athletes the ability to build their professional network and build media skills that can potentially propel their professional workforce careers.

In other words, from a media, exposure, and professional development standpoint, NIL offers college athletes benefits far beyond extra cash in their pocket, which ICAs are also prohibited from monetizing.

“That’s the obvious way of how they’re not benefiting,” Hawker said of ICAs who are missing out on NIL paychecks. “But I think at the same time… I think now they’re getting pushed more into the shadows because brands have to ignore them.”

Although both Bryson and Hawker agree that sports media has relegated ICAs to the shadows, they both believe that sports media can also greatly help bring these issues to the forefront, not only in the world of sports, but politically as well. One key issue that sports media is largely ignoring is the fact that the same NIL laws designed to push back on the NCAA’s exploitative structure that required college athletes to essentially play elite, competitive sports without other avenues for money and exposure, while lining the pockets of their coaches and institutions, still applies to ICAs. And for ICAs who want to represent their countries and grow their sports, the labor requirements remain the same, even in the NIL era.

“It is free labor,” Hawker said of this dynamic. “The only way [for ICAs] to really grow their brand is just to do it for free, when they’re at college in the States.”

This is a possibility and has been pursued by international athletes like Cincinnati punter Mason Fletcher, who donates his jersey proceeds because he can’t cash in on them. While Fletcher’s philanthropy is commendable, it remains unfair and problematic to exclude ICAs and expect free labor from them, especially because NIL is part of an ongoing movement by activists and politicians to levy inequities in college sports.

To be clear, NIL is not a cure-all for the labor issues that have challenged the NCAA’s decades-old foundation of amateurism that has suppressed the rights of college athletes since the 1950s. But according to Bryson, a lack of NIL access not only keeps ICAs in an outdated, exploitative system, but also dehumanizes them by reserving a unidimensional space for them in sports media.

“We’re only focusing, and really exploiting, international athletes for their talent and not thinking about international athletes from a human standpoint,” Bryson explained. “Which I think speaks to the issues of course of NIL, which is a microcosm of what’s happening with their experience, whether it be from a basic needs standpoint, whether it be from a career development standpoint, whether it be from an identity, transition standpoint–we’re not [covering] that.”

Co-author Simran Sethi’s research on the perceptions of Division I intercollegiate athletic practitioners and coaches about ICAs in the NIL space supports this notion. Her study suggests that some within college athletics, including coaches and athletic directors, view ICAs primarily as a means to enhance athletic achievement, further fueling the belief that ICAs don’t wish to pursue, or even deserve, to benefit from NIL opportunities. Hawker noticed this dynamic from the beginning of NIL coverage, when many outlets misleadingly reported that all college athletes could monetize from NIL since July 1, 2021.

“I think what’s overarching through this whole few years has been really interesting to me is how quickly we were to celebrate NIL–which I’m happy about,” Hawker recalled. “But we were so quick to ignore the tens of thousands of international student athletes where nothing happened to them.”

For Bryson, one key method of pushing back on this narrative is for sports media to more intentionally cover international athletes from a storytelling perspective. Bryson notes that when it comes to domestic athletes, there are a plethora of examples of stories about them off the field of play, on topics like mental health, the transfer portal, and their entrepreneurial efforts in the NIL space, which is beneficial to not only their brands, but to these athletes as people.

“But how do we more loudly and more explicitly tell the stories of international athletes who travel hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away from their home to come to the United States and not just compete for these respected programs, but to earn a degree,” Bryson said. “And then many of whom, whether they want to play professionally or not, want to work and live in the United States.”

For Hawker, a key hurdle when it comes to covering the NIL piece of the ICA experience, is the nature of modern media itself. “I totally understand that the media’s job is obviously to encourage clicks and all that kind of stuff,” Hawker acknowledged. “And so I don’t know if it’s the sexiest storyline and it might not create enough buzz and I also I respect that there’s a business to be had. However the key here is to continue to talk. It’s just a matter of creating that narrative so there’s more articles, there’s more headlines.”

Although changing U.S. visa laws is a complex progress that won’t happen overnight, Hawker notes that sports are often a highly effective vehicle for social change. It’s entirely possible that ICAs in the NIL space could move the needle on changing these laws if sports media amplifies the issue enough. Authors Sethi and Lever further reiterate this notion in their previous work, which suggests policy changes need to further advocate for ICAs and their NIL right at the institutional, NCAA, and federal level.

“I think someone like a Caitlin Clark for example, someone of that status, if she was from Canada, there would be a constant conversation,” Hawker said. “I don’t think anyone would stop talking about it. So, you know, credit to the ones that are talking about it and continue to do so. But I think it’s just going to be one of those things where it needs to be a consonant conversation.”

Perhaps that conversation should start with Aaliyah Edwards and continue on until ICAs like her and others gain access to equal rights and fair practices at the NCAA and federal level.

Simran Kaur Sethi is a PhD candidate in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Oklahoma (OU). She is a former international college athlete (ICA) and played tennis for OU. Through her research, practice and advocacy efforts, she champions equity and inclusion in intercollegiate athletics, particularly for ICAs. Her research has been published in internationally renowned journals, presented at esteemed conferences, and pushed policy reforms.