Some of UConn basketball's top talent still can't sign NIL deals: 'I think it's really unfair it's not allowed'

Adama Sanogo again looked like one of the best big men in the country Friday night, tallying 28 points and 13 rebounds in just 25 minutes, leading the UConn men's basketball team to its first NCAA Tournament win in the Dan Hurley era. As the face of a program that finished the regular season as the No. 10 team in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, Sanogo would be a natural fit to profit from sponsorship deals, but that has not been the case. College athletes across the country have been able to make millions of dollars off of sponsorships over the last year or so thanks to the legalization of name, image and likeness deals in July 2021. But the same cannot be said for international athletes playing in the United States. Sanogo, who grew up in Mali, moved to the United States at 15 years old. He attends UConn on a student visa, making him, like plenty of other student-athletes born outside of the U.S., ineligible for NIL activities. Being eligible for an NIL deal would require a separate visa that would allow Sanogo to earn outside income, or a change in federal law. "I think it's really unfair it's not allowed," sophomore guard Jordan Hawkins said during the team's press conference in Albany. "He's one of the best big men in the nation, if not at least the top three, so I think it's really unfair. He's making the best of it. He's giving back to his home. So I think that's great." Hawkins wasn't the only one to sound off on the topic Saturday. UConn Athletic Director David Benedict tweeted that "we need to get the law changed or provide them the opportunity to get the same type of visa a professional athlete receives." Coach Dan Hurley initially joked when asked about the issue of international student-athletes being unable to profit from NIL deals. "You want to get the director of Homeland Security pissed at me right now?" he responded. "Listen, creatively, I think there is opportunities for all Division I athletes to be able to take part in it,"' Hurley continued. "Certainly a player of Adama's caliber deserves it for everything he's done in his career and everything he's done for UConn basketball. You would hope that would change, but that's obviously something that, again, Homeland Security and government, and that stuff doesn't tend to move super quickly." Sanogo, despite his inability to make money from sponsorship deals, said he considers NIL "a good thing." "We are playing basketball for free in college. So if we cannot get anything as an international, I think that's fine with me," he said. Sanogo added that he was "able to do some camps" in Mali last summer. "UConn helped sponsor a camp, so we can help kids in Mali basically, through doing a camp," he said. Similarly, the UConn women's basketball international players, of which there are four, have been unable to sign any sponsorship deals. Grad student Dorka Juhász said shortly after NIL was implemented in 2021 that she had several companies interested in working with her, but she was unable to take part. After UConn's first round NCAA Tournament win Saturday over Vermont, Juhász said "that's not something that is super important for us." "Obviously, just seeing that our teammates are so successful at it, obviously when the NIL started, we were kind of hoping that we're going to be included," Juhász said. "And we know that UConn is always working for us and they're trying to fight for change. They say it's going to come – who knows when, but I know that they're fighting for us. They're trying to find ways for us to capitalize on that." "But as for that, we came here to play basketball and get our education, and that would just be an extra," the forward continued. "But hopefully for obviously not me, but for the future international student athletes that come to the United States that hopefully they can find a way for them to capitalize in some ways, you know." Coach Geno Auriemma admitted the rules around international visas goes well beyond the NCAA and what UConn can control. He noted that there's a significant disparity in earnings especially with his team with such high profile players as Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd who are able to profit off deals with Gatorade, Bose and Chipotle. "Will that ever even be addressed? I doubt it," Auriemma said, adding that there are still ways around it. "So they can take advantage of it. They just can't do it while they're in the United States. So if they're in Canada or if they're in some other country, while they're playing for us, they can take advantage of all those things."

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