The Last Word: Jahmir Young

The Spring 2023 issue of ONE MARYLAND Magazine will soon arrive in the mailboxes of Terrapin Club members. ONE MARYLAND features stories of strength and perseverance, of determination and spirit. These stories define our athletics program, and this new magazine will allow us to share these stories with you. Over the next few weeks, we will be rolling out these stories on umterps.com as a preview of what you will find in ONE MARYLAND. To receive future issues of the magazine when they debut, please join the Terrapin Club. We hope you enjoy.

Jahmir Young earned All-Big Ten Second Team honors and was a NABC and USBWA All-District Selection after leading the men's basketball program last year. The Upper Marlboro, Md., native transferred back to his home state school after three years at Charlotte. He has started all 106 games of his career and enters the upcoming season with 1,974 career points.

One of the most talked about issues in college sports today is Name, Image, and Likeness - or NIL as you may often see it. Often, it’s portrayed somewhat like free agency where players are just given money to play at a school. There are so many misconceptions about these NIL deals, how collectives work, and who benefits.

When I was approached about writing something for this issue of the One Maryland Magazine, I thought I could shed some light on how NIL benefits us as student-athletes as well as how our collective, Turtle NIL, helps in this process.

First on the NIL deals themselves. One of the most important aspects of student-athletes being able to take advantage of NIL deals is their marketability. Before NIL became possible, you could be one of the top athletes in your sport and not have the ability to capitalize from a financial standpoint. NIL allows athletes from all sports to take advantage of something in their life that after college may not provide the same financial standing. 

NIL opportunities, therefore, can be life changing. Even though most deals with student-athletes and businesses are relatively small (perks or free merchandise for social media influence), the benefits are many, including real-world business knowledge and entrepreneurship.

For those who can capitalize on a significant financial deal, that money can be generationally life changing. It is truly a remarkable opportunity for someone to take advantage of their most marketable skill in this moment of their lifetime to generate financial stability later in life. 

Our collective, Turtle NIL, serves as a group to help us navigate and take advantage of partnerships and opportunities. On top of that, the Turtle Athletic Foundation focuses on creating opportunities which are tied to community service projects and organizations. This is one of the best things because of the impact we can make on the community by leveraging our marketability to bring awareness to these community groups. 

Maybe the biggest misunderstanding about collectives is what they represent. From my perspective they give student-athletes two key benefits. The first is guidance in getting deals together – everything from identifying what would be a good partnership to mentorship in the process as well as networking. The second is the direct connection with the student-athlete. NIL deals put money directly in the hands of a student-athlete for that partnership. The student-athlete can then use that money in ways that benefit them or their families. 

And that brings up probably the biggest of NIL misconceptions. Say someone has a $60,000 dollar deal with a business. Do you know what happens because of that? 

The majority of the time, that money is actually being sent home to help family members. Others may save it so that when they graduate, they can buy a house or start their career. I know some students who have used the money to help pay for college for their siblings who won’t be on athletic scholarships or get any other type of financial aid. Imagine that a young professional is able to purchase a home to start a family. If you’ve done that, you know that owning a home helps in so many different ways. Or for families who can only have their children go to college on scholarships – now, because of what one child is able to do, the other siblings can have a brighter future as well. 

Since NIL began, there’s been the argument that a scholarship is the financial reward and that this is just free agency in disguise. The scholarship is an amazing tool that helps student-athletes in the future as they have limited to no debt (not every student-athlete is on a full scholarship).  

But that’s it at the end of the day. It doesn’t help you maximize your potential. Ultimately, what NIL and our collectives help us accomplish is to do as much with a skill we possess that has a finite lifespan. And that ability can have an impact that will be felt for generations.