In a rapidly changing landscape of collegiate sports, few individuals possess the breadth of experience and expertise that Tom Burnett brings to the table.
Burnett has over three decades in college athletics, including a 19-year tenure as the commissioner of the Southland Conference — the longest tenured leader in the NCAA Division I league.
During his career, Burnett also led a successful effort to bring the NCAA Division I Football Championship games to Toyota Stadium (Frisco, Texas) in 2011, where they have continued to be played until today, and he served on the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee that oversaw March Madness and the Final Four.
In 2024, Burnett, a Louisiana Tech alumnus, was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame (LSHOF) and received the Dave Dixon Louisiana Sports Leadership Award from the LSHOF.
“I’ve had a wonderful career in college athletics administration that continues in a little bit of a different role,” Burnett says. “I got to the point where the job was changing, I wanted to do something different.”
Since then, Burnett has founded two companies, Southwest Sports Partners and Lone Star NIL.
“Southwest Sports Partners takes what I’ve learned over 30 plus years in college athletics administration and try to help friends, colleagues, university presidents, athletic directors and, even, some communities we’ve gotten involved with to help them with sports tourism,” Burnett says. “Lone Star NIL was an offshoot of that as well.”
Historically, according to Burnett, the NCAA defined student-athletes as non-employees. What resulted was a kind of unique relationship where the student-athlete became the only population that could not monetize their names, images, and likenesses.
“When I was a college student, I was the sports editor for my campus newspaper. I got paid for that,” Burnett says. “These student athletes were a carve out for the longest time where they could not do that.”
In 2021, after a years-, or even decades-long discussion, the NCAA officially changed its policy, allowing student-athletes to profit from their name, image, and likeness (NIL). Under the new rules, student-athletes would now be able to earn income through endorsement deals, sponsorships, and other commercial opportunities.
“Ultimately, the growing litigation across the country got to a point where you just couldn’t defend that system anymore,” says Burnett.
While the NCAA has an interim set of rules, the league has allowed individual schools and states to craft different rules and regulations that govern NIL in that state or institution.
The introduction of name, image, and likeness (NIL) policies initially opened a wide array of both opportunities and challenges. According to Burnett, athletes and institutions are now exploring a variety of creative, yet complex, approaches. A notable example is former University of Texas running back Bijan Robinson, who became a prominent figure in the NIL space through high-profile endorsements, including the launch of his own mustard brand.
“I think we are in a very different place than we were 4 years ago, or even 2 years ago,” Burnett says.
In 2025, Arch Manning, a quarterback at the University of Texas – Austin, and nephew of Hall of Fame quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning, signed NIL deals that are estimated to be valued at $6.6 million. Manning has deals with EA Sports, Red Bull, Uber, and others.
“It has quickly migrated to a question about what is the relationship with the student-athlete,” Burnett says. “Are we closer to an employer-employee relationship? Is this pay-for-play? These are the kinds of things that are being discussed.”
Other states and colleges quickly found ways to entice the best student-athletes to their campuses. “NIL payments [can be used] in recruiting, certainly, for performance,” says Burnett.
In Texas, during the recent legislative session, lawmakers sought to establish new rules to allow Texas colleges to continue to compete in this ever-adapting landscape.
“In Texas, House Bill 126 has really caught [the state] up and made a uniform decision to match what has happened in other states,” Burnett says. “As an example, the universities can now pay for NIL directly.”
That legislation, which was led by Representative Carl Tepper (R-Lubbock) and Senator Creighton (R-Conroe, passed both the House and Senate and was signed by Governor Abbott on June 5th, becoming Texas law effective immediately.
However, the legislative process, alone, may not be efficient or frequent enough to keep up with the unforeseen challenges presented by this significant change in NCAA policy.
For example, Burnett talked about a significant challenge that has been created, in part, by the new paradigm, where institutions are allowed to compete, with NIL deals, for student-athletes.
“It’s the transfer portal that’s really kind of messing things up,” says Burnett. “People are being told – hey, there could be a NIL opportunity for you at school X as opposed to school Y.”
The ease of switching schools has led to a significant increase in athletes potentially seeking greener pastures, often driven by the potential for lucrative NIL opportunities.
“It’s not about academics anymore,” Burnett says. “It’s about what is the financial opportunity.”
This situation has reignited much of the previous debate about whether to change the rules in the first place. While many student-athletes are driven by dreams of playing professionally, the vast majority will not make it to that level.
“So many of these young people are not going to go pro in sports,” says Burnett. “Instead, they might see their professional opportunity is to play college sports and be compensated for it.”
For Burnett, and his company Lone Star NIL, they hope to help student-athletes and institutions understand and maximize their NIL opportunities, while ensuring the student-athlete also excels as a student.
“There continues to be a lack of education in the NIL space,” Burnett says. “And that’s not just the young people. It’s their parents. It’s coaches. It’s administrators in that space.”
For the student-athletes, in particular, it can all get a bit complicated and complex and they need help navigating these new deals and setting themselves up for long-term success.
“It ranges from how you do contracts, to financial literacy. What do you do about taxes,” says Burnett.
Burnett’s mission with Lone Star NIL is clear: to ensure that student-athletes are not just financially prepared, but also equipped to leverage their opportunities for long-term success.
“It’s here to stay and not going anywhere,” Burnett says. “We want to ensure that student-athletes that are very high performing can continue to thrive even after their athletic careers are over.”