Global sportswear giant, Adidas, has announced it will create a name, image and likeness (NIL) network accessible to its 109 NCAA Division I partner schools across 23 sports.

The network is set to provide more than 50,000 college athletes the chance to become a paid affiliate brand ambassador with Adidas through commission-based links on social media as well as elevated opportunities at a brand partnership and entrepreneurial level depending on athlete success.

The program will be rolled out gradually over the next 12 months, with all athletes from the 109 partner schools to have access prior to April 2023.

The first stage to the 12-month rollout will see Adidas implement the program across the Power 5 conferences, including the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), Big Ten Conference, Big 12 Conference, Pac-12 Conference, and Southeastern Conference (SEC), as well as all Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

Adidas NCAA programme lead, Jim Murphy, told Sports Illustrated the program will help Adidas achieve its goal of impacting as many people as possible through a thoughtful approach to NIL.

“We hope to uplift student-athletes by providing educational opportunities to learn more about the NIL and business landscape, which may include bringing them into brand moments and campaigns, partnerships with existing brand athlete partners and ambassadors,” Murphy said.

“But really we want to open the doors to a more equitable future outside of just unlocking monetary rewards.

“We want to help them grow as student-athletes and set them up for a future beyond college sports.

“We started to think about how we could do something on a larger scale outside of just individual endorsement deals.

“When we really looked across NIL and we grounded it in our mission statement that through sport, we have the power to change lives, I think that’s where we really started to grasp the idea.

“As we look at college athletics and see some of the discrepancies within the landscape, we want to make sure we’re elevating our HBCUs and trying to find every moment we can to really elevate in this space and provide them opportunities that, quite frankly, in the past they might not have been afforded to,” he said, touching on the focus on supporting HBCUs.

With the ongoing developments to NIL payments and athlete commercial revenue in the US college system since the NCAA approved the rule changes last year, the respective schools are still subject to relevant state laws and individual school guidelines.