In the age of Name, Image and Likeness, Ohio State is taking full advantage.

Through the first six months of profiting and monetizing off NIL deals, the Buckeyes' athletic department reports 220 athletes have participated in 608 reported NIL activities, amounting to $2.98 million in compensation: each of which is No. 1 nationally, according to Opendorse, a company hired by Ohio State to help its student-athletes with education and resource opportunities to maximize their NIL earning potential.

Ohio State is continuing to evolve its NIL guidelines, creating the NIL Edge Team to create and foster opportunities for the entire athletic department.

The Edge Team is an internal advisory group where members assist athletes with access and resources to pursue NIL opportunities, working with companies and brands to assist in the NIL process, along with monitoring changing guidelines and legislation.

"We are updating our NIL guidelines to allow for the creation of the Edge Team to assist in connecting and coordinating NIL activities for our student-athletes,” Carey Hoyt, Ohio State senior associate athletics director and primary administrator for Ohio State’s NIL programs, said.

“Our guidelines were initially created to be restrictive, but now that we have a better understanding of NIL, it’s clear that we can provide more assistance in connecting student-athletes with interested brands. By allowing some OSU staff to interact with the brands and to educate and answer questions, we can eliminate hesitancy from brands, and donors, who were concerned about breaking rules.”

Ohio State will also have operations directors who are point-of0contacts for their sports for NIL, assisting in facilitating connections for NIL activities.

“We have watched national trends and we are learning from the emerging NIL collectives,” Hoyt said. “Every state and every institution has its own set of NIL rules or guidelines. Updating our NIL guidelines at this time is what we needed to do to stay competitive in this ultra-competitive landscape.”