This photo Courtesy of Topps shows a Topps trading card featuring basketball star Caitlin Clark. The NCAA entered into its first NIL licensing deal allowing the use of the March Madness logo to Topps trading cards featuring basketball stars Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Zach Eddy and Tristen Newton.This photo Courtesy of Topps shows a Topps trading card featuring basketball stars Caitlin Clark and Zach Eddy.
“There have been cases we’ve had to decline certain NIL opportunities because we weren’t comfortable doing it,” said NCAA managing director of championships, external relations, Chris Termini. “Student athletes are equally represented across men’s and women’s basketball, which was important to us and they were very understanding of that,” Termini said.
“They had a rolodex of student athletes already licensed where they already had rights,” Termini said. “That made it relatively easy.”“This is a shorter program, the 20 student athletes are licensed through Topps,” NCAA Director of Licensing David Clendenin said. “That made it a quicker process for approvals. We are having long-term conversations about basketball but also other opportunities with Topps.