College athletics is present process a metamorphosis not like something we’ve seen in generations. With latest court docket selections, student-athletes can now be compensated straight for the worth they assist generate — and people funds are quickly reshaping recruiting, retention and competitiveness throughout Division I.
For Hawaiʻi, with only one Division I program and no skilled sports activities groups, this shift presents a stark alternative: adapt, or fall behind.
During a November briefing to the House and Senate Higher Education Committees, University of Hawaiʻi management underscored this actuality. The college plans to request $5 million from the Legislature to ascertain a reputation, picture, and likeness fund that will permit UH to compensate student-athletes utilizing a formulation tied to outdoors income streams, comparable to tv and media contracts. UH management has additionally indicated this request could be paired with accountability measures and ongoing analysis, not handled as an open-ended entitlement.
I perceive why a few of my colleagues — and members of the general public — could also be skeptical. At a time when households are struggling and our social security internet is stretched skinny, committing $5 million to athletics understandably raises questions. Those considerations are professional and need to be taken severely.
But we should even be sincere concerning the penalties of inaction. NIL is not a bonus or an elective enhancement — it’s now the baseline of Division I athletics. If Hawaiʻi ignores this actuality, UH dangers coming into a predictable downward spiral: high athletes depart for packages that may compensate them; recruiting pipelines weaken; fan and donor engagement declines; and a program that delivers actual financial, social and cultural worth to the state suffers long-term harm.
And UH Athletics does ship. Visiting groups and followers fill native lodges and eating places. Televised occasions, convention championships and high-profile soccer bowl video games deliver tens of millions into our native financial system. Perhaps most significantly, UH Athletics is the closest factor we have now to a hometown skilled group — a supply of statewide satisfaction and a unifying drive throughout communities.
It additionally bears emphasizing that greater than half of UH’s student-athletes are native children, lots of whom grew up cheering on UH and dreaming of sooner or later representing Hawaiʻi. NIL has grow to be central to holding that homegrown expertise right here.
My workplace is presently drafting an NIL framework aimed toward hanging a accountable stability — supporting competitiveness whereas defending student-athletes and reflecting Hawaiʻi’s values as we head into the 2026 legislative session. Importantly, this may not imply that each one 500-plus UH student-athletes obtain NIL compensation; funds could be restricted and tied to outdoors income era.
First, the invoice would set up clear guardrails. UH could be permitted to limit NIL offers that battle with its institutional values, together with partnerships involving playing, alcohol, or different industries inconsistent with the college’s mission. Athletes ought to profit from NIL alternatives—however not on the expense of their wellbeing or the integrity of this system.
Second, compensation could be linked to outdoors income era, that means sports activities that generate higher income would obtain larger NIL distributions. This will not be favoritism; it displays the nationwide mannequin and the monetary realities of immediately’s faculty athletics panorama.
Third, the invoice would reinforce our dedication to fairness and Title IX. Any NIL construction adopted by UH should comply totally with federal legislation and supply equitable assist to each males’s and ladies’s packages. Title IX stays foundational to how UH Athletics operates, and any laws should mirror that precept.
Fourth, the invoice would strengthen protections for student-athletes. It would develop entry to contract assessment, tax steerage, and monetary literacy assets so athletes — many coming into their first formal agreements — perceive their rights, duties and long-term obligations.
Critics are proper to ask robust questions on public spending, and we should stay disciplined in our priorities. But in relation to NIL, the selection will not be between supporting student-athletes and supporting our social security internet. The actual alternative is whether or not we permit UH Athletics to stay aggressive — benefiting our state economically and socially — or permit it to fall behind in a panorama that has already modified.
Doing nothing will not be an choice. The NIL period is right here, whether or not we prefer it or not. Our accountability is to reply in a manner that displays Hawaiʻi’s values — equity, accountability, and alternative — whereas making certain our student-athletes and our college can compete with integrity on a nationwide stage.
