How NIL Could Affect NCAA Men’s Hockey

Seems like all we’ve heard about since the NCAA ruled that athletes could make money is this basketball player has an NIL deal with a shoe brand or that college gymnast has an NIL deal with an athleisure brand. It was a much needed change, albeit one that happened perhaps far later than it should have. It provided college athletes a sense of agency in their own careers—an important step. And now it’s in college hockey.

As with any sport, the value of deals vary, as does the importance of them to the team or school, though we’ve started to see the latter grow in importance, as many schools are beginning to aid athletes in securing those deals. Some high end hockey prospects, according to Mike McMahon, are earning deals that cash in at around $100,000—not a surprise.

But not every school has the ability to help facilitate those kinds of deals, and not every athlete has the cachet to get them on their own. Is this going to eventually lead to an uneven playing field?

An interesting note on that subject: Western Michigan University won the 2025 NCAA hockey championships without a single dime of NIL money. Does this point to a future where NIL has more of an individual effect than a team effect? To even try to answer that, we have to go back to the start.