University of Montana student athletes were offered name, image, and likeness deals to endorse Democratic Sen. Jon Tester. Two students accepted the deal. It's the first political endorsement of its kind after restrictions on name, image, and likeness deals for college athletes were lifted in 2021. The Montana Kaimin’s Maxwell Johnson reported on the NIL endorsements last Thursday. MTPR’s Elinor Smith sat down with Johnson to discuss the deals.
Elinor Smith: Maxwell, thanks for being here today.
Maxwell Johnson: Happy to be here.
Smith: What do we know about the students who accepted the deal?
Johnson: Two students accepted it — Taija Anderson and Riley Carolan. They both accepted an $800 deal to make two Instagram videos for the deal, basically just endorsing Jon Tester.
Smith: Who offered this deal to the students?
Johnson: Yes, so an organization which is largely anonymous called Montana Together offered the deals to a third party called Opendorse — basically an eBay for NIL deals if you will — and Opendorse reached out to UM Athletics and had the deals sent out.
Smith: And what do university officials think of these endorsements?
Johnson: For the most part, they're pretty neutral on it. The only thing the university really restricts in terms of NIL endorsements is tobacco, marijuana, performance enhancing drugs and gambling — particularly sports gambling is the main thing that comes to mind. And so, they more or less think that they're not going to restrict a normal student.
Smith: There was one student who was vocally against these endorsements. Can you explain how accepting these endorsements works?
Johnson: Yeah, so, Opendorse sends it out to Jean Gee, who is the person in charge of compliance with the University of Montana, athletics in particular. And she basically sends it out to all UM athletes, and it's completely optional to accept.
Smith: And so there's no consequence or kind of retaliatory action that can be taken if athletes just aren't interested?
Johnson: No. It's completely optional, entirely on the students.
Smith: Is there a precedent of other students, either at UM or at another university, accepting political endorsements as NIL deals?
Johnson: Not that I know of, no. This is, interestingly enough, NIL has been around since 2021, more or less. And this is the first major election cycle, presidential election cycle that NIL has been in play.
Smith: Well, thank you so much for being here today, Maxwell. I appreciate it.
Johnson: Yeah, happy to be here again.
U.S. Sen. Jon Tester faces Republican Tim Sheehy in a battleground election contest that could decide control of the upper chamber.
