Last week, a contingent from the University of Louisville made the trip to Capitol Hill in Washington, DC to discuss name, image, and likeness (NIL) with members of Congress. One of the athletes who traveled with the group was senior swimmer Paige McCormick.
McCormick, a distance specialist who recently wrapped up her NCAA career, has taken advantage of her ability to profit off her NIL since the adoption of the NCAA’s NIL policy on July 1, 2021. Over the past three years, McCormick has amassed over 25 NIL deals. At the start of the 2023-2024 school year, she was selected as one of 30 female student-athletes to join the Meta 3.0 NIL Empower program, a program aimed to assist female college athletes take advantage of NIL opportunities and provide them with transferable skills for life after sport. McCormick was the only swimming student-athlete invited to the program.
View this post on Instagram
McCormick and the Cardinals spent two days on Capitol Hill participating in various NIL round tables. On the first day, McCormick briefly spoke with outgoing Sen. Rep. leader Mitch McConnell where she shared her experience as a female student-athlete as part of a non-revenue-generating sport. McCormick described how she goes through the process of acquiring NIL as she does not currently work with an agent or collective to negotiate NIL deals on her behalf. Other Cardinals discussed the importance of NIL education, the role of collectives, transfer portal rules, and some of the NIL-related issues that revenue-generating sports are experiencing.
When McCormick and the Cardinals returned to the Hill on day two, they met with three Congressional leaders from the State of Kentucky. She said she stressed the importance of college athletes “having a seat at the table” with members of Congress to discuss the landscape of NIL and college athletics. “We would have never had this chance 5+ years ago to be speaking to Congressional leaders or Senate leaders,” McCormick said.
In reflecting on her time in Washington, McCormick is “impressed” with the open dialogue and NIL knowledge of the Kentucky representatives. “It’s fun to know that they understand our scope a little bit,” McCormick said. “It was really encouraging to see, at least on my end, as like someone who is kind of just getting ready for post-grad, that people do still care about amateur sports and college athletes.”
Since the adoption of the NCAA’s NIL policy, there have been 12 official Congressional hearings and various other round tables centered around the current landscape of college athletics.
McCormick’s collegiate career started during the COVID-interrupted 2020-21 season, first competing for the Cardinals in January of 2021. She swam at the ACC Championships during her first three seasons, placing as high as 13th in both the 400 IM (2021) and 500 free (2022).
The Hudson, Ohio native also qualified for Wave I of the 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials in the 200 back, and prior to college represented the Hudson Explorer Aquatic Team.
She wrapped up her swimming career at the Notre Dame Last Chance Meet at the beginning of March.
Mitch McConnell didn’t know where he was
The fact that this post got zero downvotes is troubling.
I don’t think meeting Mitch McConnell should be praised…
Were they undoing the damage from that ole sourpuss Nick Saban
Saban basically said he supports NIL if it’s actually NIL and not just pay for play from a slush fund.
If a coach other than him had said this people would be praising it as genius.