Group recruits IU athletes to help not-for-profits via NIL deals

Hoosiers For Good Inc., the brainchild in part of Cook Medical Group President Pete Yonkman, is a new organization that is looking to pay Indiana University athletes to represent and promote Indiana not-for-profit organizations. Just a year ago, such an arrangement would not have been possible. But last summer—under pressure advocates for student-athletes as well as states legislatures and Congress—the Indianapolis-based NCAA approved new rules that let student-athletes be paid for endorsements, autographs and more. In most cases, companies will pay athletes for the right to use their name, image or likeness—referred to as NIL—to sell shoes or endorse other products. In many cases, that will involve athletes using their social media accounts to align with brand. But the organizers of Hoosiers for Good thought the new rules could also be used to pay athletes to endorse causes or charities. So the group has well more than $1 million, according to Yonkman, and will use that to connect athletes with not-for-profit groups they believe in. The goal is to benefit the not-for-profit but also to help student-athletes become community leaders. Host Mason King talks with Yonkman and the group's executive director, Tyler Harris, about the mission. To learn more, read IBJ reporter Mickey Shuey's story about Hoosiers for Good. The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.