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LOGAN — For Utah State quarterback Logan Bonner, it was a dinner several years in the making.
Since his day at Arkansas State, the quarterback had always wanted to reward his offensive line by taking them out to a nice restaurant — a token of gratitude for their efforts protecting the line of scrimmage. But an all-expenses-paid dinner for several large human beings was a tall task on a student-athlete budget, so Bonner never had the chance.
In November, that all changed. Bonner signed a name, image, and likeness, or NIL deal, with Deseret First Credit Union. And one of his first expenditures after inking the deal? Take his offensive line out to Kabuki Steakhouse and Sushi Bar on Main Street in Logan.
"I mean, that's like a big bill," Bonner said. "I don't know if you've seen those guys when they're all together.
"After I signed with Deseret, I just wanted to say thank you, and they were willing to do it and I took them out to eat. It was a really good time. One of them ordered a medium-well steak. I was kind of upset about it. I'd rather him order a good chicken if he was going to eat a hockey puck."
Questionable culinary preferences aside, it was a unifying night out for a group of college football players who were just weeks away from winning the Mountain West championship. It was a night that likely would not have happen any season prior.
In July 2021, the NCAA officially deregulated rules that prohibited NIL opportunities for its student-athletes; this permitted the players of a billion-dollar industry a chance to earn money based on their personal brands.
Nearly a year after the groundbreaking announcement, NIL is the talking point of college athletics. Guidelines the NCAA originally laid out, such as "play-for-play" and "fair-market value" have been largely unenforced, turning NIL into a massive recruiting tool and stirring up controversy in programs and conferences nationally.
At Utah State, the impact of NIL isn't as sizable — at least from a dollar value.
Although student-athletes have to disclose their NIL deals with the university, they're not public records (Utah State cites them as "educational records," which are protected from public access due to a federal law known as FERPA). This makes the exact monetary amount of individual deals unclear.
What is clear is that six- and seven-figure deals for Aggies student-athletes aren't quite in the realm of possibility.
"I don't really know much about the huge contracts and stuff these guys are signing because, I mean, obviously, we're not a huge school. So you'll never really see that with us," Bonner said. "And a lot of guys transfer just because of money and stuff like that, and I don't think that we really have to deal with that at our school."
In other words, don't expect to see Bonner role up to Utah State's home opener against Connecticut on Aug. 27 in a brand new Lamborghini gifted to him from an Aggies booster. But that isn't to say NIL hasn't directly impacted a handful of Aggies athletes.
According to Athletic Director John Hartwell, 40-50 student-athletes on campus currently have NIL deals. A few of those deals involve Olympic sports athletes.
Some members on the track and field team, for example, have received free products in return for sponsoring brands on their social media pages. The majority of the deals, however, have gone toward men's basketball and football players.
The most notable beneficiary of NIL last season was basketball forward Justin Bean. The fan favorite during his collegiate career landed a sponsorship deal with Taco Time — he promoted a "Bean Burrito" combo meal. He also teamed up with USU Credit Union where he attended events throughout the year and ended up on a company billboard on I-15 just south of Brigham City.
Beyond Bean's and Bonner's deals with recognizable, state-wide brands, other deals have been more niche.
Several local Cache Valley restaurants have organized meet and greets and autograph signings. Bean and Aggies guard Rylan Jones, among others, have participated in these type of events. Five football players, including Bonner, received compensation by promoting the LA Bowl on social media in December; and several football players have launched their own clothing brands.
Some deals are directly tied to a student-athletes' ability away from the gridiron. Long Snapper Jacob Garcia received a deal with a local cooking company where he teaches cooking classes; defensive Tackle Hale Matuapauaka, a three-time world fire knife champion, partnered with Wilson Motor in Logan to perform for the public on June 10.
The way Bonner sees it, they're "broke college students just like everybody else," and if they're helping the university make money through their on-field performance, they might as well have a chance to make a profit themselves.
"We're up (on-campus) from 7 a.m. to 9 o'clock at night, every day working out," Bonner said. "We have meetings, we have hours of meetings and study, and then we have school. Yeah, we're on full scholarship, and we get our books and stuff paper, which is amazing.
"But we don't have any money to, like, live off of. It's just kind of like it's enough to go, and we can do a few things here and there. … So it's rough sometimes, but this helps us have the opportunity to get some extra cash and make our lives a little bit better."
A year into NIL possibilities, things have been smooth for Utah State, but the university hopes more of their student-athletes can tap into their NIL, in large part for the benefits Bonner outlined.
Utah State recently entered an agreement with Opendorse, a platform where student-athletes can create a NIL profile, and both companies and student-athletes seeking to make NIL deals can connect.
"We're excited about being able to provide that platform to allow our student-athletes to hopefully capitalize on some more NIL deals," Hartwell said.
When discussing NIL, there are two benefits Hartwell often sees: a chance for student-athletes to receive compensation and to give student-athletes real-world business opportunities while in college, which will help them in their future careers.
To increase the business savviness of potential NIL recipients, the university is offering a four-credit course on NIL through the Hunstman School of Business in the fall; several student-athletes are already enrolled in it.
Bonner has recognized the potential long-term, business benefits of NIL and wants his teammates to capitalize. He's trying to put together a job fair event for his teammates, where he invites local businesses to come and meet with the football team to potentially provide NIL opportunities and build connections.
"We're not getting paid as much as these big schools, which is fine, I didn't expect that," Bonner said. "But I think the biggest aspect is the networking part. How many people can we meet and how many people can influence and get to know us in the community and after football — see what happens."
It's a healthy, more practical approach to utilizing NIL that Aggies student-athletes are becoming mindful of and coaches and administrators are pointing toward. But there's another component of NIL Utah State would be kidding themselves if they considered it a non factor: recruiting.
There's no doubt an increase in NIL deals for athletes on campus would benefit recruiting, even if it's not the main selling point to get a kid to Logan.
"NIL questions fairly consistently come up in recruiting and that will only grow as time goes on," assistant basketball coach Matt Henry said. "For not all prospective student-athletes, but many, it is part of the equation in deciding a school."
The amount of basketball and football recruits who are solely deciding on where to attend college on who can offer the most money are still in this vast minority. And typically, they are high-profile recruits Utah State would have never been able to successfully recruit in the first place.
But if a three-star linebacker is torn between Utah State, Fresno State and Wyoming, a decent track record of athletes finding NIL opportunities in Logan could be a difference maker.
"The question does come up: 'Hey are there NIL opportunities,'" Hartwell admitted. "And we can point to, you know, some of our football players or men's basketball players who have taken advantage of these opportunities."
Nationally, NIL still needs to be sorted out and the genie "put back into the bottle," as Hartwell explained.
"I think it was a little naive upfront using the term 'can't be paid above fair-market value.' Well that's such a nebulous term," Hartwell said. "There needs to be probably some dollar amount limits put to it; but I'll say this, probably the reason why that hasn't occurred yet is you have the NCAA as a body who is, you know, for lack of a better term, litigation adverse right now that they don't want to put limitations on things in fear of being sued.
"So that's part of it, but I do think something has got to be done to limit some of these just extraordinary amounts that clearly there's very little being done to 'earn' those things."
At Utah State, the internal belief is things are being done the right way; they'll adapt and grow with the times. But one rule seems set in stone: If you're dining on your teammates' NIL-earned dime, don't order a steak medium-well.
