Last week, Alabama added an official camouflage pattern to its Crimson Tide Outdoors program. Four athletes are serving as ambassadors through an NIL partnership with the school’s collective, Yea Alabama.

Football players Ty Simpson and Bray Hubbard headline the partnership, along with softball catcher Marlie Giles and women’s basketball guard Karly Weathers, and they all will receive a portion of the royalties. They showed off the two new colors – “Tree Tide” and “Tusk” – as part of marketing initiatives around the NIL deal. Additional athletes will join the initiative, as well.

Outdoor personality and Alabama native Hal Shaffer worked with the school and athletes to design the patterns. His “Hide The Tide” website will sell the merchandise, as will Athlete’s Thread. The merchandise includes t-shirts, hoodies, jackets, hats, blankets and pillows, among other products.

As college football works with Congress toward solutions on the NIL front, one unlikely demand has emerged. It comes by way of House of Representatives member Brendan Boyle.

And, well, you kind of just have to see the demand. On its face it puts the ball squarely in the court of those who would attempt to secure a deal on the NIL front.

“The next time the Big Ten or SEC wants to meet with me about NIL, they need to be prepared to first explain to me how they justify trying to rig the CFP,” Boyle wrote on Twitter. “#Greed”

Though concerns of the Big Ten and SEC wielding disproportionate influence in College Football Playoff matters have existed at large, they’ve largely been limited to the fringe corners of the Internet. Few in positions of power have outright accused the two leagues of rigging things in their favor.

Yet that’s exactly what Boyle, a Congressman representing the Philadelphia area, appeared to suggest with his tweet. In any case, it certainly raises some eyebrows.

Eligibility rules could reach Supreme Court

There are dozens of wrinkles in the ongoing collision of college football and Congress. Not the least of them has to do with eligibility.

Former Charleston forward Ante Brzovic has been denied his request for a preliminary injunction against the NCAA to allow him to play a fifth season after spending one year at the JUCO level. That decision is coming from the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina (4th Circuit).

Now, NIL lawyer Darren Heitner has weighed in on the decision, cautioning that this issue will likely find its way to the Supreme Court. That’s because other districts have had significantly different decisions in similar cases, relating to the NCAA’s eligibility rules and the Five-Year Rule.

In particular, Heitner pointed to Jett Elad. A Rutgers defensive back who spent time at the JUCO ranks, Elad looked for a similar injunction against the NCAA to allow him to play this upcoming college football season. That was ruled on by the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey (3rd Circuit).

The key difference in the two cases is that the courts that heard the cases took largely different approaches. The Elad court relied heavily on NCAA v. Alston and the post-Alston landscape of NIL compensation. However, the Brzovic court disagreed. Instead, the South Carolina court ruled that there is no “binding legal authority” to show that the Five-Year Rule is subject to antitrust law.

One circuit court’s decisions are not binding in another circuit. Even within a circuit, it’s only considered that the ruling would have persuasive authority. So, Darren Heitner believes there could be a brewing legal fight over the issue that could go as far as the Supreme Court, carrying significant ramifications for college football and college athletics as a whole.

On3’s Dan Morrison also contributed to this report.

The post U.S. Congressman calls out Big Ten, SEC for ‘rigging’ College Football Playoff appeared first on On3.

As the amateur model of college athletics disintegrates, a handful of unusual ideas have been floated as ways to reign in some of the chaos surrounding the explosion in name, image and likeness compensation and a transfer portal that sees thousands of athletes changing schools every season.

Whether any of the ideas end up being implemented is unknown and every school is awaiting a decision from a federal judge on whether a $2.8 billion antitrust settlement against the NCAA and the five largest conferences will take effect as early as July 1. If it does, that opens the floodgates for schools to share millions in revenue directly with their athletes amid a host of other changes.

Here is a look at some of the topics:

Athlete contracts

A formal agreement between an athlete and a school is not a new concept, but with the uptick of NIL deals the thought of pro-style contracts is becoming increasingly more common.

There are plenty of ways to get creative with contracts. Rich Stankewicz, operations director for Penn State’s NIL collective Happy Valley United, said he favors an incentive-based approach — essentially adding money for athletes who not only perform but stick around.

“I personally really like the idea of incentivizing performance in school, those kinds of things that would only be occurring in the season while they’re playing,” Stankewicz said. “If more money is paid out in those time frames, then that gives the incentive for the player to stay and see those dollars from their contract, rather than potentially collect up front and then decide the grass is greener somewhere else three months later, barely doing any school, you know, without playing at all.”

Transfers and buyouts

This topic is red hot at the moment. Entering the transfer portal comes with the risk of not landing in a better spot — or any spot — but athletes have shown every single season over the past few years that they are comfortable going anyway. Athletic departments are beginning to fight back.

Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek recently encouraged the school’s NIL collective to pursue legal action after quarterback Madden Iamaleava departed for UCLA after just five months in Fayetteville. Iamaleava allegedly collected significant money upfront and cited homesickness as his reason for following his brother to California.

This is a scenario Penn State hopes to avoid. And the importance of contract details is clear.

“Commonly, there’s nothing binding students in certain instances to the institution they’re with for the entirety of the contract,” Stankewicz said. “We’ve definitely looked into having measures in place to discourage transfers during the time of the contract. There are a bunch of different ways to do that, from buyouts to how you load the contract.”

Athletes as employees

Groundbreaking shifts in the landscape have sparked conversations about athletes becoming official employees of their universities.

It’s a controversial subject to say the least. Universities would become responsible for paying wages, benefits, and workers’ compensation and schools and conferences have insisted they will fight any such move in court (some already have).

Complexities go beyond the concept. While private institutions fall under the National Labor Relations Board, public universities must follow labor laws that vary from state to state and it’s worth noting that virtually every state in the South has “right to work” laws that present challenges for unions.

There is also a new administration in power now, said Michael LeRoy, a labor and employment professor at Illinois who has studied the NCAA and athlete rights.

“With the election of Donald Trump, and what that would mean for a new National Labor Relations Board, what that would mean for repopulating the courts with judges who are likely not congenial to that view, I no longer have much hope that we’ll get a ruling in the next 5-10 years that these are employees,” LeRoy said.

Despite the lack of employment status, LeRoy said, athletes should advocate for themselves and use the entertainment industry as a model. He said athletes currently are offered “take-it-or-leave-it” NIL contracts when a broader approach might have benefits.

“I think athletes should start to look at Hollywood and Broadway contracting arrangements that deal with publicity rights,” he said. “I think there’s a way to frame this collectively. The framework of collective bargaining and employment, I would say, the entertainment industry generally offers a blueprint for success.”

Playing for another school

Things are so chaotic right now that the very lines of who an athlete is playing for could get blurred.

Saying he was inspired by the NBA’s G League, University of Albany basketball coach Dwayne Killings is proposing a two-way contract for college players. Albany would welcome transfers from top-tier programs who need more seasoning and help them develop — with plenty of game time vs. sitting on the bench — before sending them back to their original program, where they’d be ready to compete.

“The best development happens on the floor, not necessarily on the scout team, given the new 15-man scholarship limits,” Killings told CBS Sports.

And then there is Division III, which recently approved an unusual pilot program: Athletes would play for one school but do their coursework at another school that does not sponsor varsity athletics.

The NCAA said the program, which would run during the next academic year, “will offer expanded pathways for student-athletes to pursue their academic objectives and complete their participation opportunity.”

“This program intends to address the changing, dynamic higher education environment we find ourselves in right now,” said Jim Troha, president of Juniata and chairman of the DIII President’s Council. “It recognizes existing academic programs and provides flexibility to expand participation opportunities for student-athletes.”

The program will be assessed before any decisions on whether to make it permanent or expand it.

AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

Michigan State Athletics has seen benefits in its sports programs over the last few years, through its Spartan Nation NIL fund. MSU’s athletic teams and athletes have grown as a result of name, image, and likeness (NIL) and the continuing impact it’s having on college athletics.

Darien Harris, MSU’s Assistant AD/Business Development and NIL Strategy, says that the athletic department has done a great job at adapting to the constant changes in college sports.

“We’ve done a great job of that over the past few years with some transformational players that have entered our program that have come from the transfer portal or have decided to attend our school,” Harris said

Michigan State has benefited through their team store as of recently. In March, the MSU NIL team store was ranked in the top four in selling schools.

Athletes from several programs at MSU have also benefited from the team store. Former Michigan State guard Jase Richardson’s jersey was the top earning male athlete in March.

Photo Courtesy: @SpartyNIL on “X”

Smaller sports athletes have also benefited from the NIL team store including MSU softball’s Madison Taylor and Track and Field runner Abigail Wiegers. Six members of the MSU gymnastics team also have their own apparel, including t-shirts and jerseys, at the team store. Merch at the store generally is worth as low as $39.99 to as high as $119.99.

Keith Miller is the Vice President of Influxer, a company that helps collegiate athletes navigate NIL. Influxer was established three years ago, starting with a partnership with Texas-Corpus Christi and is now currently partnered through 510 schools across Division I to III. The company has also partnered with just shy of 50,000 student athletes.

Influxer is currently working with six Big Ten schools and while they aren’t partnered with Michigan State, they’re currently in talks of working with them in the future.

Miller believes that Michigan State is a brand name and gets why schools feel like them are falling behind when competing with other schools. He doesn’t believe that MSU is in a bad situation and hopes that Influxer can help the school strengthen their NIL approach.

“They’ve got a great NIL director, a great admin staff, they’ve got a great name. They’re in a position to do a lot of very cool stuff, hopefully we’re a part of that story, we hope to add to the experience of the student athletes there and do some good work there,” Miller said.

Photo Courtesy: @msu.nil.store on Instagram

MSU hired Jon Dykema as its new executive senior associate athletic director/student-athlete management and assistant general counsel on Feb. 19. Dykema served as the director of football compliance and lead football counsel for the Detroit Lions for 14 years. He also worked under MSU coach Tom Izzo as a student manager.

He also experienced working at other college athletic programs including spending four years at Utah and a semester at Akron. Harris is confident that the addition of Dykema can further strengthen MSU’s NIL approach.

“He’s been great to work with, he’s been bringing a level of expertise from a pro side, that’s been advantageous to us going forward, especially in this day and age with the way things are going. We’re excited to see what he’s going to add to our department,” Harris said.

Along with NIL changing the impact of collegiate athletics, the transfer portal has also had a drastic effect on college athletes and has had its negative impacts.

Over 2,000 college football and basketball players have entered the transfer portal after the conclusion of the 2024-25 season.

Roster spots have become unavailable, as not every football and basketball athlete gets the opportunity to commit to a school that can help them succeed both athletically and academically.

Harris said that this has become a major problem with NIL and that MSU is doing what it takes to make sure their athletes are supported, whether they decide to stay or transfer out.

Photo Courtesy: @msu.nil.store on Instagram

“There are going to be some athletes that don’t land somewhere, and that’s a scary thought process, to where you were at a school and all set, and you decide to make a switch, and you get lost in the abyss of the portal. The only way that we can best support them is to say we’re there for them and we’re always going to be willing to help pretty much no matter what, and to me that’s the job,” Harris said.

Collegiate football and basketball are the two sports that have benefited the most from NIL and the transfer portal. Harris believes that while it is important for these two sports to receive the benefits, MSU has made sure that every sport on campus is represented and benefiting from NIL.

“The way that we approach it here is that everybody has the opportunity to participate in NIL. It doesn’t mean the money is going to be the same for every athlete; the way we look at it is not focusing on which sports generate the most revenue,” Harris said.

Despite MSU adapting to the impacts of NIL and the transfer portal, many critics and fans argue that the athletic department isn’t doing enough to evolve like other Big Ten universities and is falling behind.

This has caused concern among the Spartan faithful, who worry that MSU won’t be able to compete on the playing field in high-revenue sports like football and basketball in the future.

Photo Courtesy: @msu.nil.store on Instagram

Harris believes that despite the criticism, MSU is doing what it takes to compete at the highest level with NIL both on and off the playing field.

“I think we’ve shown with our play that we can compete in this new landscape, and we’ve showcased that. I think folks get caught up in glitz and glamour, and that doesn’t always determine what you have from a resources standpoint,” Harris said.

Miller says he gets why some Michigan State fans feel like the school is being left behind when it comes to NIL, the transfer portal, and the continuing changes in college athletics.

“If I were to give some encouraging words to the Michigan State fan base if they’re not alone, this is happening across the country. The smaller tier Division I schools feel like they’re getting poached by the bigger schools,” Miller said.