I think the NCAA could have done this in a much better way several years ago with the union movement for athletes came up. It was clear then, despite the legal loses by athletes, the status quo wouldn't last. Many ideas could have been put in place, IE let athletes sign deals with companies but require money put into an account while they were on scholarship. By taking smaller steps along the way it would have avoided this free for all that will bring about issues until things even out.
I worry about gambling make more inroads to college athletics that can really cause problems. As a HS coach I was concerned about gamblers in our city getting a hold of players to throw games. Take a poor kid and offer them thousands to throw a game wasn't an outrageous thought to have; now multiple that by thousands of dollars and college athletes can be enticed too.
I think it will work out in the end but it could be a wild ride for a while.
previously if a player got money to throw a game, if you found a money trail the act could be proven and the player and briber would face consequences.
now, someone with $50,000 riding on a game can pay a kid for an endorsement or an appearance or just to forward a tweet, and even if said kid throws 3 picks and has 3 fumbles, the last with his team at 1st and goal from the 3 while 4 points down, there is literally no way to go after the kid or the guy with $50,000 on the line who hired the kid, as there is now a legal pretext for the exchange of funds.
and just manipulating the point spread would be cheaper/an easier sell to a kid than throwing a game.
in politics, it's effectively impossible to police corruption, no matter how blatant.
that is now the case in college sports also.
as for not being able to use the NIL to pay a kid to attend this or that school, how beyond naive is that idiotic thinking.
star HS QB or point guard is offered $30,000 and use of a new Escalade for 5 yrs to endorse Bob's Buick Cadillac in C-Bus Ohio, but offer contingent on his going to OSU.
totally legal deal as i see it, and if not, no doubt tweaking the deal to circumnavigate anyplace said deal did cross a line would be child's play.
as for what schools will benefit most, well OSU is in a city the size of Indy and a state twice the size of Indiana, where not only are they the default home school for the entire state, but they are effectively the equivalent of IU, PU, ND, the Colts, and the Pacers, in the C-Bus area.
UCLA and USC are in a 19 million greater metro population area, that has a national media spotlight.
seems Nike could easily circumvent any obstacles in the way of funneling money to a kid to attend OU or any Nike school, just by funneling said money through a third party first if necessary, and it would be totally legal no matter how blatantly obvious it was.
by the NCAA schools structuring their defense against the public and political pushback to millions to the coaches and administrators and none to the players with the NIL, so that none of any money a kid gets comes out of the adults' pockets as it would were the schools to just pay the kids something, the NCAA schools have not only willingly given up any way to police anything, but have opted for a system that has unlimited potential to produce massive inequality between schools and the players themselves, and absolutely zero ability to police corruption and bribery, no matter how blatantly obvious..
