Purdue’s star center Zach Edey expressed his frustration with United States law that prevents the Canadian-born player from capitalizing on NIL (name, likeness and image) deals on American soil.
“I feel like I’m missing out on a lot of money,” Edey said Friday at the Final Four via ESPN.
Edey, who is a two-time AP Player of the Year, is not legally allowed to profit through NIL opportunities that take place in America due to the fact that he is attending Purdue on a student visa.
However, Edey is able to cash in on NIL deals that take place in his home country of Canada or wherever else he or the Boilermakers travel abroad. As a result, Purdue’s big man has been able to garner passive income from jersey sales.
Nonetheless, Edey shared that he hopes the law will eventually be revised so that international players will be able to make a profit while in the States.
“I hope they change it in the future,” he said. “I obviously lost out on a lot of money this year. At the end of the day it needs to change, for sure. I understand kind of the legal process. It takes awhile.”
Edey further noted that he understands the distinction that the NIL restriction is a result of American law and not the NCAA’s.
The Boilermaker star also shared some positives of being relatively unavailable on the NIL market, stating that it’s not a distraction for him which allows him to focus on basketball.
Purdue coach Matt Painter also discussed his feelings on the governing of NIL Friday: “We have to get some parameters around what we’re actually doing and what’s actually going on and not try to just do something so we can stay out of courts. That’s all things are happening because for a long time, what’s the product? The product is the player. They’re viewed as amateurs, but they weren’t amateurs.
“There’s a lot of money generated through what they’re doing. Name, image and likeness needed to happen. We just got to get some guardrails around it to be able to get there.”
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