BATON ROUGE – LSU’s very own, Taylor Jacobs, served as a panelist surrounding name, image, and likeness (NIL) at the annual ESPNW Summit in New York City on May 4th, 2023.
Jacobs was joined on the “Navigating the NIL Era of College Sports” panel by Jade-Li English (Head of Women’s Basketball Division at KLUTCH Sports Group), Dan Murphy (ESPN Staff Writer), and hosted by ESPN’s Sarah Spain.
Jacobs was promoted in November 2022 to the Associate AD of NIL & Strategic Initiatives after she worked for eight years as the Compliance Coordinator for LSU Athletics. She has led the NILSU department to the top of the ranks among all collegiate athletics since NIL was allowed on July 1st, 2021.
When asked who she is serving in her role Jacob says, “My role is serving LSU but at the end of the day she is here for the student-athletes. I’m here to pour into and help our student athletes. That’s why I became a college administrator in the first place.” She adds, “Everything we have built in our program is to benefit our student-athletes.”
Jacobs was brought in specifically for her role in supporting the NIL efforts of female student-athletes at LSU. Livvy Dunne, Angel Reese, and Flau’jae Johnson are just a few of the names that have had huge success with NIL at LSU. New addition to campus, Hailey Van Lith, now joins those three as one of four LSU student- athletes in the top ten for women’s NIL in college.
“They have created this whole new mindset of NIL and being a college athlete. A precedent is being set at LSU and in Baton Rouge with women’s hoops and our gymnastics team both doing very well.”
Jacobs’ expertise was on full display while participating in the panel as she gave insight on her journey from the many regulations of compliance to the new opportunities surrounding NIL. Jacobs refers to this experience as an “overnight” change for her and for all student-athletes. The progress LSU has made to best prepare and support its student athletes is an ongoing process that continues improving over every night.
Jacobs continues to lead the unrivaled NILSU department with the help of a growing staff and countless resources provided by the athletic department. LSU has set the gold standard in this brand-new landscape of college athletics and has truly become, “The Real Deal.”
You can watch the full panel discussion here. Taylor is featured from 6:16:00 – 6:53:00.