A new era of NCAA athletics — and a long awaited one — arrived last week, as new guidelines went into effect on July 1 allowing all-student athletes to profit off their name, image and likeness (NIL). Of course, that hasn't come without fears of potentially divided locker rooms as some players are bound to make greater profits than others, but at least one player for one college football's most well-known programs isn't concerned about NIL deals impacting team chemistry.
In a recent interview with 247Sports' College Football Daily podcast, Texas Longhorns linebacker DeMarvion Overshown downplayed any concerns about such a rift occurring over NIL money. For Overshown and his teammates, the opposite may be true if anything, as the Longhorns linebacker indicated that NIL deals have been more of a rallying point for Texas players than something that could potentially divide the team as the program enters its first year under head coach Steve Sarkisian.
"I haven't (seen a divide)," Overshown said. "This locker room is so close that I feel like we wouldn't have that problem. Because everybody in here, if one eats, we want all want everybody else to eat. The other day, the o-linemen had posted something, and you see almost everybody on the team retweeting like 'We need our big guys. Feed our big guys.' We all want each other to eat.
"We all knew when this rule came that you're going to have others make more money than you. Like (running back) Bijan (Robinson ), (quarterback) Casey (Thompson), they're going to make money, and people know that. It's the same way at the next level. Quarterbacks are going to get paid more than what the D-linemen and linebackers get paid."
As alluded to by Overshown, Robinson and Thompson are among the Longhorns players that have already made moves regarding NIL since the new policies went into effect. Both offensive stars have set up Cameo accounts within the past nine days, with Robinson charging well more than $100 dollars per appearance on his account.
That being said, a handful of NCAA athletes intend to put NIL money they earn toward charitable causes. That includes Thompson, who recently announced that all of his Cameo proceeds will be used to combat child hunger.
"Hey, everybody, this is Casey Thompson. I'm happy to announce that I'm partnering with Cameo," Thompson said in his intro Cameo video. "I'm here for anything you need — to chat, give shoutout videos and also just to give any advice. And most importantly, all of the proceeds will go to NoKidHungry.org. That's an organization that helps bridge the gap between the one in every six Americans that go hungry every year. As many as 13 million children in American can go hungry this year, and I'm happy to donate all of the proceeds to the organization."