McDermott Says NIL Could Impact Harvard’s Recruitment of Low-Income Athletes

Harvard Athletic Director Erin McDermott acknowledged in an interview Friday that Harvard’s inability to compete on name, image, and likeness deals “could have an effect” on the recruitment of low-income students in certain sports.

After a 2021 Supreme Court ruling allowed college athletes to profit off their name, image, and likeness, donors at other schools began forming NIL collectives to offer lucrative deals to top high school prospects. Similar collectives, however, have not been formed at Harvard and other Ivy League schools, leaving them at a disadvantage to schools with NIL collectives.

Harvard’s inability to attract high school athletes through NIL deals may further impact the College’s efforts to admit a diverse class of students after another Supreme Court decision, a 2023 ruling against Harvard, that effectively eliminated the use of affirmative action in college admissions.

While the University might be unable to offer recruits the money that other schools can, McDermott said Harvard Athletics is working to create a more “tangible” pitch for choosing Harvard.

“It’s a lifelong decision — it’s a 40-year decision versus a four-year decision,” McDermott said. “To a family that is coming from different circumstances, or the lower socioeconomic circumstances, that may be very fuzzy and hazy to them.”

McDermott said Harvard Athletics can highlight prominent alumni like Massachusetts Governor Maura T. Healey ’92, a Harvard women’s basketball alum, as well as the University’s well-rounded offerings for athletes.

“You won’t just be viewed by the school as an athlete, and that’s what you're there to do,” McDermott said. “You are here to be truly a student-athlete.”

In the past few months, the downside of Harvard’s disadvantage on NIL played out as two star basketball players, Chisom Okpara and Malik Mack, and one tennis player, Copper Williams transferred to other schools where they could receive athletic scholarships and NIL deals.

Mack transferred to Georgetown University while Okpara went to Stanford University, and Williams to Duke University — all schools with strong athletic and academic programs.

Despite the recent string of high-profile athletes transferring to other schools, McDermott said she hoped to ensure all payments to athletes are tied directly to profits from their name, image, and likeness rather than coming through collectives.

“What we are not okay with — and it’s not even legal, but I know the reality is it’s happening in other places — is these truly more ‘Pay for Play’ payments that are coming directly from donors that are just banding together and deciding what sums of money they might provide to athletes on a team,” she said.

During the interview, McDermott also downplayed concerns about long-term athletic talent retention, noting that NIL deals were previously not part of the conversation during their recruitment.

“We’re at a different point where now it is part of the recruiting process,” McDermott said.

McDermott also said that coaches are now spending more time recruiting at “showcase tournaments” rather than at individual schools, which allows coaches to see a wider range of potential recruits in “a little more economical” method.

Harvard Athletics hopes to maintain diversity among its student-athletes by “casting as wide a net as possible” during coaches’ recruitment processes, according to McDermott.

According to McDermott, Harvard Athletics is also bracing for an entirely different effect of NIL as the University must pay into a $2.8 billion settlement by the National Collegiate Athletic Association to provide back pay for athletes who were deprived of NIL during their time in college.

While McDermott said the school has a “rough estimate” of what they’ll be expected to pay — though not a specific number — and the sum is not “ridiculous” but also not “nominal.”

“It’s, I think, going to be at a level that we’ll notice,” McDermott said. “But it’s not going to change the experience that we’re providing.”

McDermott also called on the University to develop a plan for how to manage the payments — which will span over the next 10 years.

“I think Harvard as an institution actually needs to kind of figure it out,” she added.

—Staff writer Jo B. Lemann can be reached at jo.lemann@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @Jo_Lemann.

—Staff writer Tyler J.H. Ory can be reached at tyler.ory@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @tyler_ory.