Last week, Stanford athletic director Bernard Muir issued the following statement about NIL and Lifetime Cardinal LLC, which is Stanford’s NIL collective:
Dear Cardinal faithful,
You have likely seen that college athletics and the NCAA continue to undergo major evolutions, including the allowance and development of Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) opportunities for student-athletes. As of July 1st, 2021, NCAA rules allow student-athletes to receive compensation for use of their NIL without compromising their NCAA eligibility.
This is obviously a major change in the landscape of collegiate athletics and informs our ability to compete at a high level here at Stanford. As such, we remain committed to supporting our student-athletes through this new landscape. Considering the significance of these changes, Stanford has taken great time and care to evaluate the best course of action in this new space, and I'm happy to provide you with key updates on our NIL approach.
I wish to make you aware of Lifetime Cardinal, an NIL collective in support of Stanford Athletics. Lifetime Cardinal is an independently owned and operated organization founded by longtime alumni and supporters of Stanford University and Stanford athletics.
They provide opportunities to many of our student athletes by way of NIL activities and are in the process of building out their additional offerings, including career development and networking programming. We expect that their decisions will rest on the values and priorities that guide Stanford Athletics, and I encourage you to learn about their organization and consider engaging. Further information can be found at LifetimeCardinal.com.
Additionally, we are excited to report that we have also reinforced our department NIL support infrastructure by hiring Altius Sports Partners, and industry-leading strategic consultancy who offers NIL advice and resources to college athletics departments throughout the country. This partnership will include the establishment of an in-house NIL General Manager position and reinforces Stanford's ability to support the entirety of our sports offerings in the NIL space ensuring that our student athletes have access to specialized expertise to help maximize their opportunities in the dynamic landscape of college athletics.
As you all appreciate, the guiding principle of Stanford athletics is attracting and achieving the best combination of athletics and academic excellence, a proud legacy to which we are committed and one that differentiates us from our peers. As we work to navigate this new environment, it is important Stanford athletics remain committed to achieving the highest levels of broad-based, educationally focused excellence. We feel extremely fortunate to have generous and committed supporters to help us in that pursuit. I look forward to keeping you current as our department continues to evolve in these new spaces, and I thank you for your steadfast support, trust, and commitment to enriching the experience for Stanford student-athletes.
Go Card,
Bernard Muir
Let me just say right off the bat that this is long overdue. I’m not sure what took Bernard Muir so long to finally speak on NIL and Lifetime Cardinal LLC. This is the first public statement I’m aware of him making. This should have been done a long time ago. I understand the concerns Stanford has about NIL and making it work with their overall academic mission, but still. This reads like NIL was introduced last week.
That said, the old adage better late than never applies here. It’s good that Muir has addressed this and shown that Stanford is taking NIL seriously. While up to this point, Muir has been basically silent on the issue, Lifetime Cardinal has been making tremendous strides to close the gap with other collectives and make sure they remain committed to Stanford’s core principles. It does seem like as the years go on, the collective will get stronger and that’s something that Stanford needs in order to be competitive in this new space.
With Muir now finally on the record as being supportive of NIL and Lifetime Cardinal LLC, Stanford no longer has to do this awkward dance of where they sit with NIL. They now look like they are fully invested in it and committed to providing the best of both worlds in terms of NIL and education. Once again, Muir should have done this a long time ago, but now that he has, I’ll give him a golf clap for finally doing the right thing.
CardinalSportsReport.com on Facebook & X (Twitter): @StanfordRivals
Ben Parker on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, & X (Twitter): @slamdunk406
Email: slamdunk406@yahoo.com
