“What we should really see is a flip from the majority of male athletes having deals to the majority of female athletes having deals,” Lynch said,
Advocacy organization The Drake Group wrote a letter to the Department of Education/Office for Civil Rights earlier this year asking for oversight of NIL collectives, which could also help reduce the imbalance in payouts. However, brand and social media efforts are already making a difference for the athletes as well. Jordy Bahl, a sophomore pitcher for the reigning 2022 national champion Oklahoma softball team, didn’t know what to expect from NIL deals when she entered college. Now part of H&R Block’s A Fair Shot program, she said the deals taught her lessons about self-employment and quarterly tax payments amid criticisms that they were “changing college athletics.”
