A whole new ball game – The Hawk Eye

Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) is ruining college sports. 

NIL has drastically changed the landscape of college sports in its brief existence. Since its introduction in 2021, the NIL market has reached an insane $1.7 billion projected evaluation in 2024-25, which is up drastically from when it was first introduced. The landscape is still growing with the total NIL market projected to reach close to $2.5 billion in the 25-26 year. 

It’s clear that NIL can be an amazing tool for athletes, and it’s exciting to see athletes capitalizing on their name, image and likeness. NIL provides athletes the ability to earn money on the side and learn valuable business and communication skills while still playing collegiate sports. However, there is a fine line between NIL being used as a beneficial tool for athletes, and NIL being used by big schools with deep donor pockets to create an unfair advantage. 

The quick and dramatic rise of NIL has led to the landscape of college sports changing drastically. Recruiting has become a game of “Who’s got more money?” and the transfer portal has grown out of hand. It has led to coaches stepping down after decades on the job because they can’t navigate recruiting and team building anymore. It leads to situations where teams are left with no players returning — a situation that happened with the University of Baylor’s men’s basketball team this past year. 

Players are more prone to leave if they feel they can secure a better opportunity elsewhere and profit more from a different school. This has destroyed programs’ abilities to be able to build a team and a cohesive environment. If they lose a majority of their players year after year, there is no continuous culture to build upon, no leaders able to shape the young players and no way to build a competitive team year after year — unless they have money for it. 

It was seen in March Madness this year, as the death of the mid-major schools and Cinderella stories were put on display for the nation to see. Top programs from big conferences dominated the tournament, and there were hardly any upsets. It eventually led to four No.1 seeded teams making the Final Four — only the second time in history that has happened — and NIL played a huge role. 

Recruiting has changed as well, with high school athletes now eligible to profit off of NIL in the majority of states, and colleges throwing big numbers and perks at top recruits. The severity of these offers is mind-boggling. One of the prime examples of this is the insane offer Michigan recruit Bryce Underwood received after he signed a $10.5 million deal with the university. That deal is strictly a contract with the university and doesn’t include the money he can potentially make from brand deals, which proves how insane the NIL landscape is becoming. Top universities’ ability to throw astronomical amounts of money toward top recruits is ruining college sports. 

The major problem with the way things are run now is universities have too much spending. The bias in the distribution of money is stark with 53.1% of all NIL deals signed to football or men’s college basketball athletes. Part of this is due to the fact that they are the most popular of the college sports, and there are considerably more players on a football team’s roster than any other sport, but the numbers don’t lie: there is a clear discrepancy between male and female sports with corresponding NIL numbers. Women’s sports continue to rise in popularity, and the numbers may shift, but that still leaves a big gap between the pay of male and female athletes at the collegiate level. 

College sports are turning into a professional setting with the influence of NIL. The introduction of exorbitant amounts of money being thrown at young college athletes has destroyed the college landscape. The concept of loyalty to a school, program and fans has changed, and it is now a selfish environment being created. Athletes aren’t the ones to blame, but rather the nature of how the money is being handled and distributed. Thankfully, there is already something being done. In the 2025-26 year, there is a bill in circulation that would allow schools to share their athletic departments revenue with the athletes. This is both good and bad; a salary cap introduction may help lessen the blow to smaller schools who don’t have the same resources as bigger programs. In contrast, smaller programs that don’t generate as much revenue as bigger schools will still be at a massive disadvantage, even with a cap. 

NIL is still a huge uncertainty and a puzzle that remains unsolved. There are certainly ways to improve the system further, and there is hope that the system will improve with time. The NCAA could fully eliminate schools from the equation and make it so money doesn’t play a factor in recruiting, but there are some downsides to that, mainly for the schools still retaining 100% of the profits off of athletes. NIL is an enigma, standing as both a massive positive for college sports and athletes around the country, but also as a huge negative for the landscape of college sports. 

One thing is certain, if colleges and athletes don’t change and adapt to the new way of things in the era of NIL, then college sports will never be the same.